Using the metal match

[rich59]

I was recently holidaying in Southern Italy and had not been thinking much about bushcraft for a while. I had a day to myself and filled it with a walk up into the local sweet chestnut covered low mountains. Apart from lunch I took some water, a Swiss army knife and a ferro rod and it's attached piece of saw blade. Having walked for a few hours and turning for home I thought I'd just confirm I could light a fire if I needed to. Well... I couldn't!

I thought I could crumble some dry leaves to a fine powder and spark into that and blow a coal into a flame, but I could not get a coal to start. I tried sparking into the dried spiny shells that held the chestnuts - no good. I tried shredding some dry feeling lichen and sparking into that - no go.

Thinking back I wonder if this was an occasion for feather sticks?

I also kicked myself for not collecting some mullein I passed on the way (I'm fine with hand drill), and some fluffy seed heads on plants on the way (that would have taken a spark easily).

So, ideas please on fire lighting with a metal match and not much else in a dryish woodland.

 

[Graham_S]

I've had success with fine wood shavings, so feather sticks might have helped.
That said, I have a small ally capsule on my keyring next to my firesteel that holds Vaseline/cotton wool.

 

[rik_uk3]

Bic lighter+strip of rubber=fire.

 

[British Red]

Its quite possible to light a very fine featherstick with a ferro rod. You do need bone dry wood of course but its doable. Heck I did it once with a fuzzy I made with a Cegga axe (it was for a bet )

 

[Hugo]

How about cutting a piece of your clothing and using that for getting the spark going.
A piece of shirt tail perhaps. This is in an emergency situation I meant to say.

 

[spiritwalker]

i have never failed with birch bark just buff it up in your hand a decent bunch and it will go up even if a little damp

 

[spandit]

I have never failed with birch bark

I have

Best tip I've learnt on here is how to light a tissue with a firesteel - wrap it round the striker & off you go!

 

[Stringmaker]

I am rubbish at feather sticks but I can recommend resinous pine.

If you get a piece that smells of resin, even that will light from a ferro rod if "feathered", however crudely.

 

[ged]

... ideas please on fire lighting with a metal match and not much else in a dryish woodland.

Preparation makes it a doddle, and there have already been some good tips. A small container which keeps your tinder dry is a great investment.

When you're out on a walk cast your eyes around for things like what you said you kicked yourself about. Grab odd bits of whatever you can and put them in an inside pocket so that your body heat will dry them out a bit. All sorts of things will work, but make sure it's finely divided stuff which (a) dries out easily and (b) takes sparks a lot better. Make sure that you are actually drying the things out, not making them damp with your sweat. I sweat a lot so I have to be careful that there's plenty of ventilation, otherwise inside my clothing it's like a Turkish bath.

So much for the tinder. Now for the spark maker.

There are ferro rods and ferro rods. I have a few cheap ones (mostly Chinese knock-offs) that are pretty poor but they will do the job. I have a few better ones that will light more or less anything that's dry, and I have a couple that I think in a pinch would light a wet brick. Try a few and compare them, you might be surprised.

There are strikers and strikers. I've used some pretty poor strikers and thought that the rod was no good, until I tried one of my trusty broken HSS hacksaw blades when suddenly the rod burst into life.

I have a few pieces of broken HSS (High Speed Steel) hacksaw blade. They're the ones that are usually painted blue. When that kind of blade breaks, the broken edge is an extremely well defined sharp corner. They're very hard and they'll last approximately forever as a striker for a ferro rod, which is soft as pudding. Usually the broken edge is curved, and the bit with the concave curve is much easier to use for a striker than the bit with the convex edge. That's obvious really, the striker kind of snugs into the curve and the curve prevents the striker from slipping off the rod. The toothed edge will work quite well unless the blade was almost worn out when it broke. The back of the blade is the least sharp and least effective in my experience unless you give it a once over on a grinding wheel.

Anyway, with a good striker and a good ferro rod you don't really need much on the way of tinder, a few dry leaves will do. Small, thin, old dead leaves are best.

Finally work on the technique. It's easy to waste sparks and tinder by throwing the sparks all over the place and sending the tinder off back where it came. My preference is to rest the end of the rod more or less in the middle of the tinder pile, perhaps just a bit off centre. Then I drive the striker down towards the tinder, pressing the striker really quite hard onto the rod so that the shower of sparks is fairly impressive. Even if there's a bit of residual dampness, enough sparks will dry out a little patch and it will light up quickly then.

But a greasy cotton wool ball will catch with one strike, guaranteed.

 

[EdS]

pocket fluff

 

[Stringmaker]

Preparation makes it a doddle, and there have already been some good tips. A small container which keeps your tinder dry is a great investment.

Finally work on the technique. It's easy to waste sparks and tinder by throwing the sparks all over the place and sending the tinder off back where it came. My preference is to rest the end of the rod more or less in the middle of the tinder pile, perhaps just a bit off centre. Then I drive the striker down towards the tinder, pressing the striker really quite hard onto the rod so that the shower of sparks is fairly impressive. Even if there's a bit of residual dampness, enough sparks will dry out a little patch and it will light up quickly then.

But a greasy cotton wool ball will catch with one strike, guaranteed.

I use my firesteel the other way round, which I believe is how Uncle Ray does it.

I have the rod almost touching the tinder, then pull it up and hard against the striker as I go. This means that even the finest/lightest tinder stays where you put it and isn't knocked all over the place.

 

[Nice65]

I tend to do the opposite ged, keeping the striker still and drawing the rod sharply away. I find I scatter my tinder by striking into it.

Fave easy light tinder is pine knot shavings or birch bark, especially the papery stuff from one of the ornamental varieties. I have a carrier bag full, so keep a small amount bagged up in my firekit.

 

[rich59]

I can see that I need to practice on my ferro spark technique.