Well….THAT didn’t work! 😮 My prep for today: I dug into the back of the truck to retrieve my BOB. Needed to pull out the Katadyne water filter and check the gaskets that need lubrication [per a different thread here]. Of course it’s BEEN A WHILE since I’d gone thru it so I pulled out stuff.
We could have a contest to see who had the weirdest surprise when checking Emergency Bags that had been sitting a while. I found that small magnesium bar with the strip of flint for fire-starting…had been flaking off onto a bandana I’d wrapped it in. So took it out and cleaned it up. Then decided to FINALLY try to start a fire with it. ……………… uh, understand that I’ve started thousands of campfires, stove, trash burning fires. In rain. In snow. Lots of experience. WITH matches or cig lighter. Never got anymore creative than that. No steel wool with 9V batteries. No flint/steel. No drill or gouge method. Fire piston looks interesting.
Years ago, I DID attempt using different types of magnifying glass..focused finely to make fire. Or using ice. Eyeglasses…. Couldn’t get that to work at all. 🙁
Tonite, trying to light fire in pellet stove with magnesium + flint/steel ……did not work either. Got the right angle to shower off lots of sparks. But I could have stood there with a 4th of July sparkler and got the same results. I even had fire-starting gel on the nest of shredded newspapers. I wasn’t even going all primitive on this attempt. All sparks ….7,439 of them…died instantly. I wasn’t even working outside in the cold and breezy conditions. [scratch head, puzzled]
I mean I’ve sent a lot of sparks flying thru the years….by unintentionally striking a shovel or high carbon machete a glancing blow against our granite boulders. The flight of the spark was completely uncontrolled tho…and none ignited fires I did NOT want started, fortunately.
Glad I have LOTS of wooden matches and cig lighters! [Can’t get either of them wet or they don’t work either.] Any hints here? I was not expecting to have trouble with this. Good to find out NOW!
OldMtWoman ….do I really NEED char cloth for this to work well?
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
OldMt Woman.