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Another Failed Ferro-rod Fiasco

Thanks Matt, Its such an essential bit of bushcraft and so frustrating that I often can't do it.
I can do it easily if I take along pre-prepared fire biscuits of cotton wool and vaseline but was trying only to use what was available in the very soggy woods after days of ice and snow.
 
Nice video mate:thumbsup: a was watching that with nerves after you mentioned about the tree shutting like a trap door:rofl: And a had a little laugh with you and the dog :rofl:

A don’t like dogs that bark and yapping ones and ones that jump up:rofl: you mean any dog then :rofl: all good mate :thumbsup:
 
G1ZmO said:
Thanks Matt, Its such an essential bit of bushcraft and so frustrating that I often can't do it.
I can do it easily if I take along pre-prepared fire biscuits of cotton wool and vaseline but was trying only to use what was available in the very soggy woods after days of ice and snow.
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Your not the only one Paul mate.

I will be watching the lesson with interest ! :thumbsup:
 
Hi, Paul.

Nothing wrong with your Ferro rod....its throwing good sparks.
Your biggest problem is with the tinder itself.
At the moment you are asking a lot of your Ferro rod......the medium that you want to take a spark needs to be as fiberous as you can get it...... and of course dry.
The grass you have in the video is very course so the sparks will just bounce off....nothing to catch them.
Try taking a handful of the grass and rub it vigerously between your hands to break it down and produce much finer fibers (take your time).......you will find it will then take a spark much easier and be more successful :thumbsup:
 
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Cottonwood and Vaseline is about as good as a tinder you can get, maybe you drenched the cotton wool with too much Vaseline? Your fire strike looks to be sparking ok but you need big hot balls rolling off the fire steel, here's my video lighting with a fero rod ;)

 
I would recommend practicing and practicing with cotton wool only when you can light it with one strike you got it. Keep your fero rod tip on the floor and on top of the corner of the cotton wool ball and scrape HARD if your using a spine of a knife to strike you will most likely need to file the spine flat you don't want a rolled or polished spine it will not strike well
 
Tried all sorts including the back of a knife........not found anything better than a piece of Hacksaw blade.
:thumbsup:
I think G1zMo is determined to use natural materials found and gathered in the field.
 
I had a wee bit of dry birch bark in my tinder pack but not enough to scrape. I should have scouted around for more to replenish my pack anyway but I was sure the dry grass would take a spark. I get what you mean about shredding it a bit more to tease out the fibres Lee.

I've found that anchoring the striker hand (right) to my boot and pulling the rod back is pretty effective and doesn't disturb the tinder but, as you say, I don't think the problem is the technique but the preparation of the tinder.

I aim to get out once every week until the Feb trip up north and I'll keep on trying :)
 
G1ZmO said:
I had a wee bit of dry birch bark in my tinder pack but not enough to scrape. I should have scouted around for more to replenish my pack anyway but I was sure the dry grass would take a spark. I get what you mean about shredding it a bit more to tease out the fibres Lee.

I've found that anchoring the striker hand (right) to my boot and pulling the rod back is pretty effective and doesn't disturb the tinder but, as you say, I don't think the problem is the technique but the preparation of the tinder.

I aim to get out once every week until the Feb trip up north and I'll keep on trying :)
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Get yourself a small container of vaseline Paul and smear some into your tinder, it should go with a single spark. I also think that pullig the rod back against the striker isn't the best way. a couple of questions what size rod are you using and have you got a handle on it?
 
This is it Joe. Standard size rod with a bit of antler that I got from Lee.
Its a good size for my left hand but the striker is too small. May use the hacksaw blade idea (thanks Bill) :)
2017-12-16 19.43.24.jpg 2017-12-16 19.43.11.jpg
 
G1ZmO said:
This is it Joe. Standard size rod with a bit of antler that I got from Lee.
Its a good size for my left hand but the striker is too small. May use the hacksaw blade idea (thanks Bill) :)
View attachment 11860 View attachment 11861
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I totally against everything I'm told use the sharp blade of my knife close to the handle with the rod a couple of inches from the tinder at about 45 degrees. Another very good tinder is tumble dryer lint
 
G1ZmO said:
I had a wee bit of dry birch bark in my tinder pack but not enough to scrape. I should have scouted around for more to replenish my pack anyway but I was sure the dry grass would take a spark. I get what you mean about shredding it a bit more to tease out the fibres Lee.

I've found that anchoring the striker hand (right) to my boot and pulling the rod back is pretty effective and doesn't disturb the tinder but, as you say, I don't think the problem is the technique but the preparation of the tinder.

I aim to get out once every week until the Feb trip up north and I'll keep on trying :)
Click to expand...

To learn lighting fire with birch bark you need the very thin sheets of bark (thinner than a rizla) taken from a young tree no thicker than your neck once you learn to light that you can move on to thicker pieces from any birch or spruce that you have to scrap and split to take the magnesium ball from a fero rod
 
My 2 cents: you need a finer tinder, that grass is too coarse. I would have split some of those chunks of wood in quarters, scraped some with the spine of the knife to obtain wood dust and used the ferro rod to light the wood dust. The grass would have served as a second stage ignition, but you could also have carved some feathersticks.
 
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