View Full Version : Check your firesteel before you set off
I just finished a neck-sheath with firesteel option for my WS woodlore. After stiching up the sheath I needed my firesteel to see how well the end result did fit. My bushcraft kit is carried in a backpack and stored in my basement. We do have a bit of a humidity problem there, but nothing too serious. I keep lots of bushcraft-related stuff in the basement, including collected fungi and wood.
My primitive fire kit is carried in a tanned muskrat-skin pouch, and includes a bit of home-prepared amadou and pieces of flint with a steel. I put my firesteel for some reason in the same pouch when I stored the backpack.
On opening the backpack I was greeted by a cloud of greenish dust. The picture tells the rest:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~eraaij/pics_firesteel/firesteel_corrode.jpg
The humourous bit of the story is that I had to try the primitive kit to see if the apparent humidity had had any effect on the amadou. Apparently it did not:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~eraaij/pics_firesteel/firesteel_smoke.jpg
So I would say 1-0 for the flint-steel-amadou kit.
Did Anybody else have a similar experience with the modern firesteel?
-Emile
It happens. If you coat your firesteel with clear fingernail polish, shellac, etc, it will help, although on a long trip after repeated use, it will be vulnerable under wet or humid conditions.
Is the firesteel still useable?
Cheers
JFW
:eek: That's horrendous - never thought that would ever happen.
They seem so indestructable.
I thought it was common knowledge that firesteels are suseptible to damp/humity.
How was the knife blade? Was the knife carbon?
Be interesting to see if it was just the steel effected - was it stored in damp leather or some such!!
Once all the rot is scrapped off the remaining steel will be usable (provided there is any left to use) but the moral of the story is always keep your kit clean and well maintained as hoodoo points out coating your steel will protect it but personally I'd say thats a bit more hassel than its worst just keep it clean and dry and it'll be fine, after all it didnt happen over night did it.
if you leave your firesteel in a shallow tray of water it quickly becomes mush.
I carried my firesteel in the jungle for a month though and it didnt look as bad as that!
was your fire steel lacquer coated????
What about putting it away dry in a plastic, zip lock type bag?
One possibility is that the substance I used for tanning the Muskrat skin corroded the steel. I used a mix of Salt and 'Aluin' for it. Add the humidity of my basement (especially now in spring).
But the humidity did not prevent the amadou from taking a spark :)
Well, I learned a lesson and will store my new firesteel in the knife sheath - now that it is finished. :D
-Emile
Roving Rich
04-05-2005, 10:21
yup - same happened to mine, got a real soaking, leather sheath got sopping wet. When i got home i took the kinfe out and let the sheath dry out. When i next pulled the fire steel out, I discovered half of it had dissolved ! I thought they were supposed to be vertually indestructable, and waterproof - well it will still work after a soaking, but doesn't seem to like the damp.
Best to find these things out now than when your reliant on them.
Cheers
Rich
Well, I just received a kind email from Light-My-Fire. They want to investigate the corrosion problem and have asked me to send the firesteel to their lab.
This corrosion is most probably my own fault, but the fact that they are willing to look into it is a good sign!
-Emile
Well, I just received a kind email from Light-My-Fire. They want to investigate the corrosion problem and have asked me to send the firesteel to their lab.
This corrosion is most probably my own fault, but the fact that they are willing to look into it is a good sign!
-Emile
That is a good service!
Eraaij please let us all know what they find out after their tests ect.
greg2935
04-05-2005, 14:15
If any moisture is in the bag (and it usually is) you will get the same result, although it is worse because the water in the air (in the bag) will condense.
j.roberts7
14-05-2005, 12:42
i use a firesteel by light my fire
i store it in a tabacco tin with cottonwool
and have never had any problems with
i have had a very long time of use out of it so far
I wouldn't be surprised if salt from the leather aggravated the problem - even though it doesn't rust like steel salt kills aluminium (for example) big time. My kit hasn't been left damp to test the theory but when I wipe my knife over with camelia oil to protect it, I sometimes rub it over the firesteel too just in case it might help.
Cheers
Motorbike Man
26-05-2005, 23:10
I remember having the exact same pattern of corrosion on one of the tiny ferro rods you get with the hacksaw blade attached and that was just left in a dry drawer for a couple of months. Be very interesting to hear the results
Ogri the trog
26-05-2005, 23:13
I got a brand new Army sized one the other friday,
It was in a coat pocket for the weekend - during which there was a reasonable amount of rain. Come sunday morning, there was a good covering of green corrosion, though not nearly as bad as yours Eraaij.
Does anyone know of a grease, vaseline, wax etc that might remedy the situation?
Ogri the trog
beach bum
26-05-2005, 23:32
I've heard that painting in clear nail varnish helps to prevent corrosion, you'd need to recoat it every now and again though.
regards
beach bum
Motorbike Man
26-05-2005, 23:32
I got a brand new Army sized one the other friday,
It was in a coat pocket for the weekend - during which there was a reasonable amount of rain. Come sunday morning, there was a good covering of green corrosion, though not nearly as bad as yours Eraaij.
Does anyone know of a grease, vaseline, wax etc that might remedy the situation?
Ogri the trog
There is a product called Rennaisance Wax that would do the trick, wouldn't do any harm to leather sheaths either. Lakeland Plastics stock it, or at least used to, there is a possibility they may be discontinuing it :(
Well, I just received a package from Light-My-Fire. Inside was a kind thank you note and two new firesteels for the trouble of contacting them and sending my broken one in for examination.
I guess I will hear from them again once the results from the lab are in. I'll keep you all posted. Great service and kind people!
-Emile
I had the same problem with corrosion at the end of one of my fire steels which had been left in a bag that got wet, it still works ok so I'll keep it and see how it goes.
Brian
When you consider the mix of metals in these rods, its not surprising they disolve in water. The more reactive the metal, the greater the reaction with water. I'm sure you all remember dropping sodiun into a water bath in O Level chemistry. I've had the same problem - I left a firesteel and some other bits and pieces in the lock box in the boot of my landrover, a couple of months later there was very little left of it - it still works though.
For long term storage, I now use heat shrink tubing. You can by this plastic sleeving in any hardware store. Find the size slightly larger than the diameter of the firesteel, slip the tubing over the steel, heat with a hairdryer and it shrinks to completed block out moisture from the steel. The one I keep in my canoeing life jacket has been in there for two years, has had repeated, prologed soakings (I think I swim more than canoe !!) and is as good as knew. When you use it, cut off the heat shrink, use as normal and replace the heat shrink when you get home. Stuff costs very little - I'm still on the first pack I bought from B&Q.
Mistwalker
23-07-2009, 22:32
This is what happened to one of mine after ten hours in my pocket working in a metal shop in the summer. I took it in brand new out of the pack to show to a friend, then put it in my pocket for the rest of the night...ended up withing I had just sat it on my work table.
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn283/mistwalker13/Knives/gear/PICT0197.jpg
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn283/mistwalker13/Knives/gear/PICT0200.jpg
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn283/mistwalker13/Knives/gear/PICT0201.jpg
alpha_centaur
23-07-2009, 22:54
Strange. I never new that they were succeptible to water. Mine's lived in my pocket since the day that I got it and gets soaked on a regular basis
It doesn't show any signs of corrosion at all. I wonder if salt could be the defining factor?
Mistwalker
23-07-2009, 23:32
Strange. I never new that they were succeptible to water. Mine's lived in my pocket since the day that I got it and gets soaked on a regular basis
It doesn't show any signs of corrosion at all. I wonder if salt could be the defining factor?
I'm thinking salt is the key factor. During that month at the shop (July) I drank roughly two gallons of water and at least a gallon of Gatorade in a ten hour day and yet made usually just one trip to the restroom on lunch break.
I need to send one to my father in Florida and have him do a couple of tests for me if he feels up to it...testing both the salt air and the salt water.
alpha_centaur
24-07-2009, 23:23
I'm thinking salt is the key factor. During that month at the shop (July) I drank roughly two gallons of water and at least a gallon of Gatorade in a ten hour day and yet made usually just one trip to the restroom on lunch break.
I need to send one to my father in Florida and have him do a couple of tests for me if he feels up to it...testing both the salt air and the salt water.
I don't think salt air makes a lot of difference tbh I live on the coast and most of my outdoors stuff is done on the foreshore, or rocks.
Ogri the trog
25-07-2009, 07:28
There'll be a huge number of factors that dictate whether as ferrocium rod will corrode.
When new, there is a layer of something on the surface of it, though I'm not sure if its added intentionally or simply part of the manufacturing process.
Sea salt won't be the only "salt" that will have an effect, particles from almost anything that gather on an exposed surface of a used firesteel will have a detrimental effect, either localising moisture or initiating a process of "differential metal" corrosion similar to the sacrificial zinc blocks used in some water systems or boat building.
To protect against corrosion, you can cover it in wax, oil, grease or nail varnish - simply put, it introduces a barrier between the surface and the environment surrounding it - one of the components of the alloy is magnesium, which is reknowned for its ability to corrode, just look at cars with alloy wheels where the laquer has failed - they turn furry within hours.
ATB
Ogri the trog
Oh and dont use one to wet form a leather loop for a fire steel for Sheathes:sulkoff:
luck it was mine not a customers and a quick rub down with wet n dry cleaned it of mostly
ATB
Duncan
alpha_centaur
25-07-2009, 22:55
one of the components of the alloy is magnesium, which is reknowned for its ability to corrode, just look at cars with alloy wheels where the laquer has failed - they turn furry within hours.
ATB
Ogri the trog
:sad6: :offtopic:
Are you saying that they use magnesium in alloy wheels on cars, surely that can't be a particularly good idea.
I had saltwater tear into one like that. Mac
welshwhit
26-07-2009, 09:48
Must admit to standing and wondering after I went sea kayaking a fair few years back and hadn't remembered to take my firesteel out of my BA.
I remembered after a few weeks later to find what can only be described as a tiny pitted silver with a red handle!
Lesson learnt, but not the first thing I've lost to the salty sea!
Drew