New firesteels

[MickeyW]

Hello all,

I am new to bushcraft and am just buying the kit. I bought a firesteel from my local army surplus store today and was pretty excited to get home and make like King Louis! But what I desired (the power of mans red flower!) eluded me!

I did get a few sparks but with quite a bit of effort. Not what I was expecting from watching countless videos of the pros doing it!
I noticed that there was a dark coating over the rod which was coming off. Is this a protective coating that I need to remove first? If so, what is the best (I.e. Easiest) way to get it off.

Cheers!

 

[Goatboy]

Yup, to stop them oxidising in damp conditions they have a protective coating. I've always just found that the more you use them the better they get. You could work your way 'round it with the scraper but being a mean east coast Scot I'd feel that a waste. I'd just practice with it and get art of getting the sparks to land where you want them will take off some of the coating.

Try to always make sure it's dry before putting it away. Salt water especially seems to make them slightly kaput over time.

Good luck and let us all know how you get on.

ATB,
GB.

 

[Jimmy.S.]

I agree with Goatboy, it will get easier with time and practice.
Although I have found some firesteels have less effective strikers than others, which made it quite tricky for me. I resorted to using the spine of my knife which throws a great amount of sparks.

Good luck with it, no doubt you'll find it alot easier with a little more use. AtB, Jimmy.

 

[Corso]

there were some iffy ones doing the ebay rounds as long as you got it from someone reputable I'd go with the above advice

 

[rancid badger]

Most of the scrapers that are supplied with firesteels are either too small to handle safely and efficiently or else are serrated ( a ploy designed to ensure you wear out the rod as quickly as possible, not to generate efficient sparks! )

The rods are indeed coated in a protective substance but as already mentioned, once this is removed, you should be able to produce large volumes of hot sparks, no problem at all.

I no longer use the spine of a knife for striking sparks or indeed for scraping up tinder,I haven't done for more than 6 years. It's potentially dangerous and scraping up bark tinder, will damage the cutting edge of your knife.

I stopped this practice, after seeing two folk attending courses, cut themselves very badly, one actually severing tendons in their fingers. After this, I started looking for a better solution and after a few goes came up with this:
[video=youtube;_BQ0-fAruzo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BQ0-fAruzo&list=UURddL3mkjOvJ3tAtV HpW-XQ[/video]

2nd video, with a few more pointers, to follow:

 

[homesicksteve]

'using a good striker ?
My Mora Clipper's spine is useless on these things !

 

[rancid badger]

This might help a bit too:
[video=youtube;xnMrQuV3UJ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnMrQuV3UJ0&index=58&l ist=UURddL3mkjOvJ3tAtVHpW-XQ[/video]

any questions, just ask or pm me if you like

best wishes

Steve

PS- Homesicksteve: If you "need" or "want" to use the spine of a knife for this task, the spine has to be ground perpendicular (at 90*) to the blade itself

 

[wheelnut]

Hi Steve, great videos, what did you make your scraper out of?

 

[rancid badger]

Hi Steve, great videos, what did you make your scraper out of?

Ah! that's the "rub" unfortunately. I make them from these:
https://www.knifemaker.com/industries/paper/perf-blades/

I've worked in the paper conversion industry for 30'odd years and found dozens of uses for these very high quality blades. When we upgraded our converting lines many moons ago, there were quite a few spare blades going begging, so I stocked up and as they say; "Voylar Rodney!"

Not too easy to come by unless you're in the "business" as it were.

That said, any tool steel would do the same job, it's really more about the tool being a decent size, making it easy to manipulate and having all square edges for efficiency and safety in use.

 

[MickeyW]

Thanks guys!
Not had chance to check the video's out yet but thanks for the effort! Ill check them out tonight. I notice that my steel is one with a serrated edge. Doesn't seem like they are much use from the comments. However, i did get sparks with it, it just seemed to take a lot of effort so perhaps ill stick with it for now and try to learn the hard way. That way, when it comes to the easy way i shouldn't have a problem (he says ).
I applied the same logic to Scuba diving, learn in the darkest, coldest and murkiest place available within a short distance and when it comes to doing it in the nice warm tropical waters around the world...its a breeze!

Thanks again!

 

[wheelnut]

That said, any tool steel would do the same job, it's really more about the tool being a decent size making it easy to manipulate and having all square edges for efficiency and safety in use.

thanks, I think I've got an old HSS machine hacksaw blade somewhere, I might be able to fashion something out of that.

 

[rancid badger]

thanks, I think I've got an old HSS machine hacksaw blade somewhere, I might be able to fashion something out of that.

I'd advise grinding the teeth off if possible and definitely try to glue a handle on the end or else just wrap it with duck tape or similar.

A serrated scraper tends to eat away at the ferro rod unevenly, producing showers of smaller sparks and shortening the life of the rod itself.

I suspect that's why a lot of steels, come with either bits of hacksaw blade or those stamped tin scrapers, not for efficient spark production but to shorten the time between buying new steels!

cheers

Steve

 

[Ruud]

'using a good striker ?
My Mora Clipper's spine is useless on these things !

Mora's are made in big batches. They all hang onto eachother before the press divides them into individual blades. The Mora's spines are not perfectly square, making it indeed quite hard to get a decent spark. By filing the spine nice and square you'll be able to shower sparks with the millions.
all the info can be found here: http://bensbackwoods.blogspot.be/2008/11/mora-knife-is-without-doubt-best.html

 

[MickeyW]

Well after trying for ages with limited results....the rod fell out! I thought it might have just been me but I bought a 'light my fire' one from Amazon and it works perfectly. Out of the box, three strikes and we had fire!!
I am usually all for supporting the local businesses and the like but the guy who was supposed to know what he was talking about in the army surplus store was obviously either clueless or just selling me the most expensive one! It shall be the Internet from now on, where I can read reviews and make an educated choice!

Thanks for all your help guys!