Ultimate Survival Sparkie

I have no problems scraping that amount from the mag bar and hitting it with a spark. Maybe you were just to pumped up when you tried it or something.

Wow Nick! You're really living it up.

Who were the agressors *sitting on the edge of his seat, waiting to hear more of the story*

Don't really want to hijack the thread, but I have gotten more than one inquiry about my post. All branches of the military have Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training. The government is pretty sensitive about people giving out a lot of details about the training. There are different levels of training, depending upon the risk of the 'combatant', should he or she be captured. My training was about 40 years ago, when I was attending the USAF Academy. The Academy was unique, because it had its own SERE program. Actually a part of this training was classified by the USAF as "Secret." Since many graduates become pilots, it was extensive. Keep in mind that this was during the Viet Nam war era, and very realistic. Pilots are privy to a lot of military intelligence, and are prime targets for capture by any enemy. The Air Force took this training of the cadets very seriously.

The survival and evasion training took part in the national forest, in the Pikes Peak area. The 'aggressors' were trained as SERE instructors, and acted as any enemy would in a war. They traveled on foot, and others used jeeps and trucks on forest service roads trying to locate us. I remember the area was very remote, and I did not see a single civilian during the week I described in my earlier post.

Before this training we had completed Resistance and Escape training to include a simulated POW camp. That training was unpleasant to say the least, and all of us were truly afraid of capture. Many of us had sustained minor injuries during the prior training modules, and capture meant more of the same. The simulated enemy knew the territory, there were lots of them, and they wanted/needed to capture as many of us as possible. Given the time frame, we were well versed in Geneva Convention standards, and we were appropriatedly trained to the real fact that the enemy might not honor any of them. Thus, our realistic desire to avoid capture.

The training we went through left a lasting impression on most of us. Last year I attended our 35th class reunion, and we drank many beers over our SERE rememberances and stories.

During the late 60's and early 70's the USAFA SERE program had the reputation of being as difficult as any program in the military.

In later years, due to a "harassment" lawsuit which the government lost, the USAFA SERE program was watered-down to CST (classroom training) and eventually discontinued at the Academy. Graduates who required SERE training went to the training at Fairchild AFB in Washington state. If you do a Web search for USAFA SERE, you can find more information.

Stimulate the economy, buy commercial fire starters, blastmatch or sparkies, take your pick.

More flint and steel fire videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dos06c03p34

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDBBtUIVM5s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdW8WBY_uhY

It’s manditory that you practice. It could be hazardous to your health, so be careful. Watch this guy practice and not give up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dos06c03p34

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Thank you for posting this.

I really like the technique holding the tinder on top of the blade with an upwards stroke. I've never seen this before.

Where did you learn this. I like it!

I watched Dan's the video of how to light jute tufts or a paper towel using a fire starter. Since my own experience led me to believe the sparker was only useful for igniting my alcohol stove, I was so impressed I had to immediately try it myself. It took a while to get it right, but once I got the knack it was so much fun I filled the kitchen sink with little burning twine tufts and paper towel bits!

I joined BPL forum just to thank you for the tip!

I learned the "SureFire" way of using the ferro rod from a grizzly looking "Mountain Man" out in the hills of PA many years ago while at a Mountain Man Gathering. He and I were sitting in his teepee talking fire stuff and the subject of ferro rods came up. It is the best method to use with a ferro rod when you want to give demos on fire starting. Ross, I'm glad you liked the video and thanks for the compliment. My videos make it look easy. I practiced alot, did my homework, and all is well = ) I'm confident that I can start a fire under adverse conditions. I carry my little ferro rods and 1 tablespoon of magnesium with me 24/7. The magnesium is contained in a hermetically sealed packet the size of a credit card x 1/8 inch thick. It's in my wallet along with a stainless steel blade. If I go somewhere that has homeland security I take measures to make myself legal; Practice your fire making skills, it could save your life or someone else. Hypothermia kills.

Try sparking some dryer lint, that really goes too.

Im going to let you guys in on one of my little secrets.

If your ever in a jam and you need a little bit of tinder you can reach down your shirt and grab a fingernail sized amount from your inny. My bellybutton generates about one nights worth every day or two when I wear my smartwool or cotton tshirt. For those of you with outties maybe you could reach down a little further. It works great with a ferro rod.

Dan,

Thanks for persevering, and sharing your skills, I found your technique original and highly effective.

I've been using the FireSteel Army models and am thinking of getting much smaller and lighter ones, like that on my Magnesium block.

Regards,

Did you get those firesteels yet? If so, how easy are they to create a spark…low, medium or high pressure?

Thanks…b.gin

Dan,

Thanks for the video. You're always a wealth of good fire-starting info. I was unaware of Jute before this – can I find this anywhere? Hardware store, craft store, etc?

– Sam

Low to medium pressure with the blade of the knife drug backwards across the steel.

Thanks for the info Dustin. I bought a couple from firesteel.com and those required alot of pressure to spark which I didn't like. I think I read somewhere that firesteels made with a higher magnesium percentage were harder to spark.

b.gin

I can second that. I recently purchased 4 fire steel ferro rods from goingear.com

The first 10 or so strikes in one area on a new Ferro rod looked great. Molten balls of fire shoot out and sizzle on the ground. It looks cool, and is sounds primal! Very Awesome.

Until you get to the 11th or so strike. Then the rod doesn't produce much. Just shards of metal shavings and little-to-no spark.

I have struck the ferro rods with everything from steel to carbide steel (Knife sharpener). No change in the rod's inability to produce sparks.

Ditches form on the rods surface around strike 15+.

I have written GoinGear. We'll see what they say.

Please let me know if I'm doing something wrong.

Hi Sam, nice avatar!!!!!! Life is good =)

Jute can be found in hardware stores and craft stores. Jute twine, look for it in the isle with rope and cordage.

Matthew, sounds like you're trying to whittle the ferro rod like you would a piece of wood. That is what is causing the ruts more than likely. Hold your blade at a 30 degree angle off virticle.

dont slice into the steel with the knives edge. strike the steel with the cutting edge pointed at you, and at roughly a 30 degree angle as dan said. but that kind of depends on the angle your edge was ground at

it takes a little practice to get just right. i ruined the steel on a rat cutlery firesteel trying to figure it out. first with the ditches as you have shown then with ruts from a hacksaw blade.

if you use a hacksaw blade do not use the saw edge. you use the sqaured edge but you must remove the paint first and file it down so its perfectly flat and sqaured. this works best.

dont fret the ruts, you can bring the steel back to life by _slowly_ carving down it with a file, emery cloth or knives edge and leveling it out.

I havent come across any of the harder misch steels, maybe these are them and im just used to the pressure required to spark them