View Full Version : Featherstick technique
brucemacdonald
19-02-2005, 11:02
I have a load of pine sticks which I am trying to make feathersticks from but with limited success.
Could anyone give some hints on the correct technique to make feathersticks? I guess that the knife has to be at a very shallow angle to the wood. I am using a Mora knife, and I have tried using my Gerber axe as well.
Thanks
Bruce
use your knife.. as sharp as you can get it with your weight directly above the bit of wood hold the knife at 90degrees to the wood and the blade flat against it.. cut downward shaving off the ridges of the wood.. each time you make a shaving it should creat two more ridges continue with these.
not very clear is it.... uum.. alternativly you can wait for someone better at explaining than me! :lol:
Making feathersticks is more like planing the wood than cutting it. If you think of a wood plane one thing you'll notice is that the block is designed to hold the blade robustly and steady - this is one of the main things you have to do when making fuzzsticks.
You want to hold the wood upright and the knife so that the blade is at quite a shallow angle to the wood. Now the trick I find then is to keep the whole arm and wrist straight and work using the shoulder - bending the arm at the wrist and elbow means that you can't hold the blade steady.
Blade needs to be sharp and preferably scandi grind. I can make feathersticks with an axe but it needs to be sharp.
Hi Bruce
I tend to put the end of the stick on the ground and to one side of my body, (avoiding any main arteries). Then I use a straight arm technique to push down, with a firm grip on the knife and using my bodyweight things seem to happen slowly with more control.
Also you may care to try a different kind of knife?.
I also own a Mora as well as a WS/RM Micarta, Fallkniven F1 and a Northstar, and in my opinion I have much more control over the cutting depth using the two convex grinds on wood than the Scandi's, (I hope that hasn't opened a can of worms!), but I do find that the scandi's somtimes cut a little deeper than I intended. However this could be also be down to my own bad technique with a scandi as am only speaking from my limited personal experience.
Hope this helps but I am sure there will be better qualified members on the forum to advise you than me.
Nick
PS: If you get a convex grind knife I'm sure Jake may tell you about a very special piece of leather he uses to sharpen his!!!!
TheViking
19-02-2005, 12:06
PS: If you get a convex grind knife I'm sure Jake may tell you about a very special piece of leather he uses to sharpen his!!!!
Shh! Don't mention the name. It is the evil itself....... :shock:
:rolmao:
A quick tip for you ;-)..... try and use the curved bit of the blade (towards the tip) and not the straight edge to make the cut.... you feathers will curl alot more.
:-)
Ed
Bruce easier shown that written - bring some next meet up and I'll show you.
What are feathersticks and what do you use them for???
Dave Farrant
19-02-2005, 13:11
A feather stick is a piece of wood which you "shave" to acheive a feathered effect which is then easier to light (fire making).
Kim,
In places where you can't find dry tinder lying around, sometimes you need to make your own and one of the best ways to do this is find some dry wood and shave it nice and thin so that it burns easily.
http://www4.gvsu.edu/triert/cache/articles/t1/mora_plus_matchsafe_v4.jpg
Hi :)
I personally don't like feathersticks to start fires. I prefer splitting the wood into very thin kindling, lighting the thinnest ones first. But that's just me :)
Something nobody mentions about feathersticks is that you need some fairly straight grained wood, otherwise it's extremely hard to do. The trick is to cut between the fibers, and never across them (totherwise you've just created a chip...).
In my experience, it's easier and faster to split your wood than to make feathersticks. It's also easier to start a fire with tiny splits than with feathersticks, unless you create a lot... I mean a LOT of feathers.
Cheers,
David
Of course, I remember what they are now...must have wiped that one from my memory because I got really angry on my woodlore course because I kept slicing the feathers off!!!! I was ready to light a fire with my temper.
Of course, I remember what they are now...must have wiped that one from my memory because I got really angry on my woodlore course because I kept slicing the feathers off!!!! I was ready to light a fire with my temper.
Kim in the colder places where wood is at a premium that is the favoured technique! Making long feather sticks with the pretense of being able to move them has little practical use - using one 'stick' to make a big bundle of feathers makes more sense.
Theres also another technique called afuzz stick which takes no skill with a knife - you can even use a stone - to produce and these work well too - ask me to show you sometime.
Theres also another technique called afuzz stick which takes no skill with a knife - you can even use a stone - to produce and these work well too - ask me to show you sometime.
Thanks Gary :biggthump
These feathersticks light really well. :-)
http://www4.gvsu.edu/triert/images9/matchsticks1b.jpg
Paganwolf
19-02-2005, 15:49
:rolmao: :super: Hoodoo you are the picture daddy !!!! :You_Rock_
Dave Farrant
19-02-2005, 15:59
Are these "Feathersticks" avaliable in the shops???
:?: :rolmao:
Mike Harlos
19-02-2005, 16:07
... cut downward shaving off the ridges of the wood.. each time you make a shaving it should create two more ridges continue with these.
I'm glad this thread has come up... I was going to post a question about this specific point.
In Kochanski's book "Bushcraft", there's a diagram describing featherstick making in which he writes that "shavings must be in one plane" (I'm sure no pun intended with the plane/shavings association)
I took this to mean that the shavings should be taken from one side of the stick rather than from the entire circumference. I think I took this too literally, and kept shaving from the exact spot, which became very difficult after a few feathers as I was tring to shave a curl off a broad surface.
Last night (I practice when I make fires for our woodburning stove) I realized exactly what tomtom describes here, that with every shaving you create two small corners or ridges at the boundaries of the shaved site. The next feather is shaved from one of those, and so forth. You can still remain on one side of the stick, just turning a few degrees either way after each shaving.
This isn't described in any of the multiple books that I have on outdoors/bushcraft. Perhaps it is intuitive for others.
Is this how others do it?
Mike
TheViking
19-02-2005, 16:09
Hoodoo: you have to reveal your secret... How on earth do you take that good pics? :?:
TheViking
19-02-2005, 16:16
Last night (I practice when I make fires for our woodburning stove) I realized exactly what tomtom describes here, that with every shaving you create two small corners or ridges at the boundaries of the shaved site. The next feather is shaved from one of those, and so forth. You can still remain on one side of the stick, just turning a few degrees either way after each shaving.
This isn't described in any of the multiple books that I have on outdoors/bushcraft. Perhaps it is intuitive for others.
Is this how others do it?
Yes. When I make them i shave in 3 'paths'. Turning the stick a little bit after each shaving, but not all the way around! Only on one side of the stick.
Last night (I practice when I make fires for our woodburning stove) I realized exactly what tomtom describes here, that with every shaving you create two small corners or ridges at the boundaries of the shaved site. The next feather is shaved from one of those, and so forth. You can still remain on one side of the stick, just turning a few degrees either way after each shaving.
Spot on! I've found that out too! :biggthump Great description.
brucemacdonald
19-02-2005, 16:50
A quick tip for you ;-)..... try and use the curved bit of the blade (towards the tip) and not the straight edge to make the cut.... you feathers will curl alot more.
:-)
Ed
Ed, thanks for the tip - it seems to be working better now. Thanks also to everyone else. Gary - next time I see you I'll ask for a demo!
Best wishes
Bruce
Yes Mike, the idea of one plane is so all the curls are on one side - but as you describe by alternating this slightly you get a lot more curls but they are still on the one side only.
This enables you to stack the feathersticks up with all the curls facing toward you and as such more likely to take the flame and carry it up and out.
Even if shaving off your curls into many mini fathersticks you should still stack them in the most flame friendly manor - i.e all facing the same direction.
I've found often when lighting very damp wood that scraping of the dead, waterlogged bark and then scraping the wood with the spine of the knife dries it enough that it gets burning quickly. Pounding wood with a round rock or back of a hatchet against another rock as an anvil smashes the round sticks exposing the dry inner wood.
Making small fuzz sticks is a good way to make dry kindling, even small tinder if you need to work for it. For larger wood in damp conditions I either scrape or smash it. Mac
pity we cann't get those US style strike anywhere matches over here - just the trick to go in my great granfathers Lucifer case (bit like a small ciggy case).
Unless anyone know where some proper Lucifers can be had?
By strike anywheres, do you mean non-safety matches? swan vesta do the job for me, they are still available in the UK, or they were when I came over last year!
i have had some work done on my arm and cant do the convetional way so i kneel and on the free knee place the knife with the back of the blade across my knee so the cutting part is 90 degrees across my knee but faceing out i then draw the wood back gently with my left hand towards me so knife never moves makeing it safe and steady i can achieve quite good feathers this way but great big chips the normal way not wrong just diffrent maybe a help?
if i havent explained myself i will try to post pics later on?
Neanderthal
19-02-2005, 20:33
Greetings,
I hope this post arrives in the right place as it is my first one here.
A cool and impressive thing I saw demonstrated at Woodsmoke was lighting feathersticks with a spark. The friendly competition with feathersticks between the team one evening was both amusing and instructive to watch. Ben topped the show by lighting a candle with sparks.
From just managing to get a flame to reach 30cm high with my pathetic attempts on the course, I've since managed to create feathers smaller than about 2mm which I can light with a spark. Wish I could have done that on test day. 8-)
ScanDgrind
19-02-2005, 20:48
One of the things I used to find causing difficulty when trying to make feathersticks with nice long thin curls was knots in the wood, especially pine.
So what i used to do was split the wood with an axe or knife into quarters. You are then left with a ninety degree angle on the dry inner side of the wood and a curve covered with the bark on the other. Shave the wood on the dry inner side, where the knots don't affect your cut half as much. And of course from each original piece of wood you slpit you get four feather sticks.
Also keep the sticks completely vertical when you are about to cut a shaving down their length and as others have said keep your wrist and elbow locked straight so that they don't bend all over the place and put your cut off.
Good Luck,
Tony
Hoodoo: you have to reveal your secret... How on earth do you take that good pics? :?:
Thanks for the compliment but the truth is, I'm a rank amateur and the fact is lately I've been getting hammered for my poor pics I've submitted for publication. :shock: So you're making me feel real good. :lol:
Feathersticks must be something thta british people like to do because I have never seen anyone do it here in sweden. Why spend so much time to make feathersticks when there are so many other ways that are alot easier to start a fire?
I saw a norweigan guy make feathersticks once, but he used an axe and made feathersticks on a log :o):
Rhapsody
20-02-2005, 13:37
Feathersticks must be something thta british people like to do because I have never seen anyone do it here in sweden. Why spend so much time to make feathersticks when there are so many other ways that are alot easier to start a fire?
Well I rarely make them myself (I can usually find a lot of fine kindling that is reasonably dry) I have had to fuzz some up when trying to make fire with very wet materials. By shaving the fuel into fuzzsticks you are exposing the drier interior of the wood and that makes it easier to turn duff fuel into warmth! Also, I find that when I've used them in the past the fire tends to be quicker and easier to build up. I put this down to the fact that after the fine fuzzings ignite the full thickness of the un-fuzzed part of the fuel is never far behind! All these things can be important in the cold and wet... which is probably why, like you say, it's mainly the brits that use them!
brucemacdonald
20-02-2005, 15:55
Feathersticks must be something thta british people like to do because I have never seen anyone do it here in sweden. Why spend so much time to make feathersticks when there are so many other ways that are alot easier to start a fire?
Viking, that is funny because in Ray Mears' book Bushcraft he states that one of the things to do when visiting the cabins in Scandinavia is to leave some kindling for the next occupant; this is illustrated with a picture showing a book of matches ready to strike and a bunch of feathersticks to get the fire going. The implicit suggestion is that this is the normal way of leaving the cabin. But if you've never seen it done in Sweden, how is it done normally?
Best wishes
Bruce
I'm glad this thread has come up... I was going to post a question about this specific point.
In Kochanski's book "Bushcraft", there's a diagram describing featherstick making in which he writes that "shavings must be in one plane" (I'm sure no pun intended with the plane/shavings association)
I took this to mean that the shavings should be taken from one side of the stick rather than from the entire circumference. I think I took this too literally, and kept shaving from the exact spot, which became very difficult after a few feathers as I was tring to shave a curl off a broad surface.
Last night (I practice when I make fires for our woodburning stove) I realized exactly what tomtom describes here, that with every shaving you create two small corners or ridges at the boundaries of the shaved site. The next feather is shaved from one of those, and so forth. You can still remain on one side of the stick, just turning a few degrees either way after each shaving.
This isn't described in any of the multiple books that I have on outdoors/bushcraft. Perhaps it is intuitive for others.
Is this how others do it?
Mike
i normaly work arond 180 degrees of the stick.. until enough wood has been removed in the form of feather to leave the stick narrow enough to catch alight from the feather on the end of it..
I find it easiest to split a stick in to quarters with the axe or baton. I then work from the angle on the inside of the split by holding my knife tight in to my chest on the right - with the blade facing out and pointing straight ahead. Hold the stick tight across my chest in my left hand and then by puling my shoulders back and pushing my chest forward my hands are pulled apart and i get very fine control of the blade without being in any danger of the blade slipping.
george
Viking, that is funny because in Ray Mears' book Bushcraft he states that one of the things to do when visiting the cabins in Scandinavia is to leave some kindling for the next occupant; this is illustrated with a picture showing a book of matches ready to strike and a bunch of feathersticks to get the fire going. The implicit suggestion is that this is the normal way of leaving the cabin. But if you've never seen it done in Sweden, how is it done normally?
Best wishes
Bruce
Cut up small sticks of the wood, since it will be in a cabin all the wood in there are probably dry. There is also a lot of diffrent ways to start a fire here in sweden itīs all about looking in the right places, some call that knowledge.
We always say, leave he cabin as you want to find it...
If your hands are cold an old news paper, some sticks and some dry firewood (wich probably dry up in no time in a warm cabin) is enough for someone to easy light a fire. Why spend time making pretty looking feather sticks?
Cut up small sticks of the wood, since it will be in a cabin all the wood in there are probably dry. There is also a lot of diffrent ways to start a fire here in sweden itīs all about looking in the right places, some call that knowledge.
We always say, leave he cabin as you want to find it...
If your hands are cold an old news paper, some sticks and some dry firewood (wich probably dry up in no time in a warm cabin) is enough for someone to easy light a fire. Why spend time making pretty looking feather sticks?
In places where fire literally means life and death people dont mess around lighting a fire, they want a fire first time, every time and in double quick time thats their aim not to carve some pretty stick.
Feathersticks are a good skill and a good way of lighting a fire but just like you wouldnt try a solar still in the arctic many bushcraft skills ONLY have their place if used in the correct context.
One of the things I found in Norway is that lighting a fire using standard british skills doesnt work very well - wood that is frozen to the core doesnt burn easy and as such a successful technique here doesnt work there.
As viking says practice and knowledge are what count.
Another interesting point I learnt in Norway was to sleep with my Parka over my head so I breathed down the sleeve - breathing into your sleeping bag is a no no but so is sleeping with your face exposed. I mentioned the suggestion once made by a well known bushcrafter on TV about 'just putting up with a cold nose' and the reply I got was frank and typically Norwegian - 'if he still has his nose he never sleeps in the cold' because frost bite will take your nose if its exposed to the elements while you sleep!
May be a couple of examples of theory clashing with reality!
Abbe Osram
20-02-2005, 19:41
Here is a picture from the swedish army survival book:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/Abbe/featherstick.jpg
cheers
Abbe
Thats it Abbe - thats what I would call the arctic feather stick - utilising maximum wood.
Why spend time making pretty looking feather sticks?
Amen :D
David
ColdCanuck
21-02-2005, 05:07
In my experience "feather sticks" are only used to get a fire going. Even then if you have good conditions and good wood you won't need them. Where I've seen "feather sticks" really shine is when you've got crappy wood and poor conditions for a fire. The idea behind a "feather sticks" is that to make fire you need 3 things fuel, heat, and oxygen. What a "feather stick" does for you is increases the rate that oxygen can combine with the fuel by a factor of many percent. Every feather doubles the surface area, so on a "feather stick" you will have many times the surface area. The stick part of the "feather sticks" holds the feathers apart so that oxygen can get to them. So when you've got bad wood and bad conditions your fire initially won't generate enough heat to combust the less than ideal material. A "feather sticks" allows the heat to build up quicker so you can burn the rest of your less than ideal fuel. The really important part of making "feather sticks" is to get feathers. In my experience, It doesn't matter if they are pretty and nicely curled. The important part is to increase the surface area of the wood .... that will get your fire going.
Justin Time
21-02-2005, 07:10
One of the things I found in Norway is that lighting a fire using standard british skills doesnt work very well - wood that is frozen to the core doesnt burn easy and as such a successful technique here doesnt work there.
Gary
How do they do it? Not that I'm likely to be faced with these conditions soon but...
Justin one of the ways I found to work best was to burrow under spruce trees and use all the little dead branches still attached to the tree, not as easy as it sounds due to the snow but it worked. A similar principle to Mors Kochanski stick bundles.
Once the fire is going you can add bigger stuff and use the fire to dry wood for your next fire ect ect.
Another thing that we started to do automatically was to prepare out next fire well in advance, carry birch bark (thick strips) next to our bodies to keep them warm so when we needed to light it we had the fixings on us.
Selection of wood is an art out there mind you, as covered in snow you are sometimes hard pressed to tell a dead tree from a live one! Look for spruces where the wood has turned grey - that burns really well.
But again practise makes perfect, and all the theory in the world wont help you, the 3 day rule seemed to come into play again also - i.e after three days we'd adjusted MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY to the situation and became comfortable and after the first 3 days I think I could happily have lived out there indefinately.
Justin Time
22-02-2005, 07:59
cheers Gary
IMO One of the times I've found when feather sticks can be really useful in UK conditions is when you're working in really damp/wet conditions with the rain coming down hard and fast. If you dont use feather sticks then as you carve off a pile of small shavings or splinters you need to pick each one up as it's produced and put it away out of the wet. They have a tendancy to fall on the ground anyway and pick up damp that doesn't help when you try to get the fire started. If you use feather sticks then the splinters never touch the ground, as you produce each stick you tuck them out the rain inside your jacket. By the time you've produced 4 or 5 ready to start the fire the first ones are still dry and the whole thing goes more easily.
Just my opinion, but I use them if it's wet and otherwise don't bother.
George