No char flint steel

[Suffolkrafter]

I had a go at this today:

I got some fresh nettle stalks, stripped the fibres, dried them (warmed them in the oven at 50c because as always my time windows for these things are limited). I then mashed them up, scraped them on stone and generally mangled them until what I had left was a fluffy bundle of fine fibre.

My first attempt came to nothing at all, but I noted that some of the nettles stalks I had used were deep red or brown. So I tried again with only green stalks. This time, on several occasions, a spark held in the nettle fibre, smoked biefly - and then went out.

I'm sure the limiting factor here is my inability to generate decent sparks with flint and steel. I tend to just pulverise my flint.

So I'm going to keep trying. I'll leave the bundle to dry some more while I have a cup of tea. But in any case, I think if you follow the instructions in this guy's video then you will definitely nearly have a fire.

 

[Tony]

Cool vid and good for you giving it a go, I think this would be a fun thing for a group of us to do at the BushMoot. The drying has got to be a consideration here, int eh UK we'll generally need to be more considered in how we dry the fibres, especially when we're out of summer, but even if it takes a few days to prep the fibres once you've got a rolling dry-sytem (as in got some ready with other stuff drying) going it would be very doable.
We might struggle here in our damp if we wanted a fire in two hours...

IT's worth practicing with the flint and steel, it's a lovely combination and after some practice the flint will lat much better and you'll get plenty of clean sparks, although they're not that hot they'll do the job...

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Thanks Tony. I did give it another go, this time with the fibres more tightly packed down onto the flint. Again, some sparks caught, producing a whisp of smoke for perhaps a second, then it went out. So it seems that it can take a spark, but I've yet to get the spark to spread. Looking through the comments on the videos it seems people find it harder than it comes across in the video, but then he is in a different climate, and perhaps the nettles are a little different where he is. But I'm going to keep trying on and off when I get the time. I think it is feasible.