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Thought you guys might enjoy this. A while back I started a fire in the back yard for the kids and used a fire steel from firesteel.com. It worked far better than I thought it would. The grass wasn't super dry but it still caught quickly. Don't tell the wife I was outside in my socks :).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUYfP1E4WVg
I've tried many times to start a fire with only firesteel and stuff I could find around the yard. I've never been able to do it until recently. It took a heck of a lot longer than this as well.
Try rolling a pile of grass (or other small vegetation) back and forth in your hands to break it up into smaller fibers. I've found this helps pick up the spark.
+1 you want "fuzzy" grass and wood fibers.Quote:
Originally Posted by schapman43
milkweed down is as good or better than any commercial tinder
Oh yeah,we got a fire.
I use dryer lint for tinder. Firesteel will ignite that in about 4 nanoseconds. I also have a few magnesium firestarters that the Army kept sticking in my flight vest. Not the greatest, but put the metal shavings in the lint and you get a quick hot fire going.
I read an article awhile back that due to the newer fabrics we wear that dryer lint sometimes just melts because there's no natural fibers in lint anymore. I guess that would depend on the clothing we wear though. Just my .02 [Coffee]
I have a few firesteel's in various bags but have largely switched to a blast-match, which allows one handed use:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYRKzdSXH34
Blastmatch, they are sooooo awesome! They produce a HUGE amount of sparks! The rod is also Beefier in my opinion, and you can scratch some of the material off and into a pile if you do it slowly before you strike it to get sparks.Quote:
Originally Posted by hatidua