Hello, everyone. Here's the report of my third(successful) fire and first tinder bundle ignition attempt.
The setup: two grass bundles, firesteel, mora knife, and charcloth.
Sorting the fuel.
There are three main problems that have become apparent in this latest attempt, but I think they can be solved quite easily. First is the curious problem with my charcloth's reaction to the sparks of my firesteel... I certainly got sparks on to the cloth, but the embers just didn't hold. For some strange reason the embers died out after a second. I would ask if the fault lies somewhere with the levels of carbonisation of the charcloth, but you'll see that the charcloth did in fact work in the end, so it can't be that...
The second problem is a superficial one, sort of, but I can't figure out what's the cause. Despite my proper use of the firesteel (and I should know by now, right?) I seem to be creating small indentations in the rod. I can still create decent sparks with it, but why are they even there if the angle is correct? Might it have something to do with my mora spine? Apologies for the bad photo.
So, remembering there's no shame in using our old friends, the matches, I brought flame to cloth and the embers endured. Success. I then transferred said charcloth to the first tinder bundle and, after not too many attempts, it burst into flame. It was a lot easier than I thought. The problem with this first thinner bundle was that it didn't quite catch the kindling and just burnt to ash on the platform. Luckily, I'd prepared a second bundle. Blowing embers into flame isn't too hard it seems as I got the second bundle to light within at least two tries:
The third problem with this attempt was the fire management, but that's to be expected... I'm glad to report that this fire lasted a bit over an hour, however it took quite a bit of feeding it oxygen (read: blowing like a mad man), more than I thought necessary. The structure of the fire was a bit of a mess despite my gradual increasing of fuel sizes and cautious placing, but oh well... Fire was created this night, and with a new method, too.
The fire at its best.
So, why did the embers on the charcloth, using the firesteel, disappear after a second or two? What's the deal with the unwanted grooves in the firesteel if I'm angling my knife the right way? And any tips on fire building structure?
Thanks everyone. So, this was a good attempt. Not as painful as the birch bark try, that's for sure. I'm glad that I learnt a new method of firecraft tonight, but I think I might scale it down a little. So far I've lit relatively large fires for my skill level. I think what I want to do next is create a smaller, more utilitarian, fire. As of now all I've done is sit and stare at the flames. That's nice and all, but perhaps I should get more use out of my fires, hm? Maybe I'll suspend a pot over a smaller fire and cook up a bowl of soup?
Cheers.