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| Fire Steel |
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| Written by Tony Bristow | |
 The sparks that come off the steel, burn longer and hotter than anything I have used before. Sometimes they can sizzle away at 3000 degrees centigrade for a second or more,
 Fire Steel Length: 6.5 cm Weight: 60g Colour: Black. If you want to see some sparks fly then get one of these!! These fire steels are made in Sweden and are becoming more and more popular, especially within military circles, are they as good as people think? Here at bushcraft uk we have been using them for about two years, and for our fire lighting (and showing off) we rarely use anything else. There is not a lot to go wrong with them as the basic components are a 6.5 cm rod of 20 amalgamated metals and a plastic handle! The only problem I have experienced is the rod coming out of the handle. This can be rectified with a bit of waterproof glue, or you could use the opportunity to carve yourself a nice little home made handle, although I must admit that I have not taken advantage of this opportunity myself! A word of warning here, you do need a handle on it, you could use it without but it is hard to grip when wet or cold and that is when you need it to be working at 100%. I know because I have tried it! The handle will give you more control in all conditions. When you first get your Fire Steel it will come with its own striker, although I think this should be called a scraper, I have watched people striking their Fire Steel and been amazed at how quick it can develop ridges all the way down! DO NOT DO THIS. Use the striker in a scraping motion, confusing I know. The striker works fine, but I much prefer using the back of my knife as the scraper, the knife needs to be carbon steel as you will struggle to get a good spark with stainless. Another word of warning, make sure it’s the back of your knife. I have experienced first hand the results of someone trying to light a fire with my kit, without my knowledge and without them knowing what they were doing. It took me hours to sort out the damage! The sparks that come off the steel, burn longer and hotter than anything I have used before. Sometimes they can sizzle away at 3000 degrees centigrade for a second or more, it’s very impressive and very reliable for lighting tinder, wax paper etc. You get your preparation right and the Fire Steel will get it alight, no problem, even when wet, and with 12000 strikes before you need a new one, it’s going to last you a long long time! My Fire Steel goes with me everywhere, I have a place for it built into my knife sheath which holds it nice and securely, when I need it I know it is going to be there. Conclusion When it comes to using sparks to light your fires you will not go wrong with a FireSteel. You should be able to pick one up for less than £10 if you shop about online, good value at twice the price! Get a couple for yourself and one each for all your mates, they will thank you for a long long time! Pros: Cost, long life, ease of use and guaranteed fire lighting Cons: The handles can come off, although this is not a big deal. Rating: (for year round, all weather use) 9/10 Comments
(4)
As for the scraper/striker. I filed the teeth off and it works much better. Also a gentle "rub" with a file will remove the black coating that comes on new steels and gets it working much quicker.
I have removed the handle and drilled a hole through the steel, be sure to pour water in the hole otherwise the drill with be toast
 Then you can add some cord etc... Another modification i did was to drill holes in both ends of a firesteel and attach it to a F1 zytel sheath (steel wire threaded through the holes at the end). It looks kind of freaky but its always there. 
One of the problems I've noticed with the Swedish fire steel is that it's a little brittle and can break if too much force is applied. However, by holding the striker or knife still over the tinder and pulling the firesteel back toware ones' body there's much less chance of breakage.
i can really not understand the common excitement about this newfangled toys: no matter in which angle i'm holding the thing (or how much force for striking)- there are a lot of sparks, yes, but they are very short-lived and most tinders (which i use successful for bowdrill and many other methods of firelighting) will not ignite. and the unused, still coated backside of mine started to oxidize after a few weeks not using(stored dry and wrapped in a bandana), just from contact with (low)air humidity!!! do'nt wanna know what would happen in rainforests...
as an addition maybe, as an exclusive solution NEVER! "disappointed by the monkeys, god created man. then he renounced to further experiments." mark twain You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
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| Fire Steel (23.03.2007) |
| The sparks that come off the steel, burn longer and hotter than anything I have used before. Sometimes they can sizzle away at 3000 degrees centigrade for a second or more,
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