My experience starting a fire w/ a Ferro rod

[610Alpha]

I got a coghlans ferro rod from a farm supply store a couple months ago and i had tried a couple times to start a fire with it....third time is the charm.

1. Tried using dried leaves and strike rod with sparks flying into the crumpled leaves. No fire. Used striker that came w/ ferro rod.

2. Tried using dry grass, sparks flew into grass but never caught fire. Used striker that came w/ ferro rod.

3. Used dried grass again, put clump of grass on ground, placed ferro rod tip directly in pile till tip was touching ground, then used knife to make sparks and initiated fast contact with the rod to get a big bunch of sparks and it caught FIRE!! Success! I had started with the striker that came with the ferro rod but switched to my knife.

I will test this method again to validate. The ferro rod striker that came with the rod is junk. Will look for a replacement. I am also going to look into making my own handles and buying the ferro rods online but most likely the 6" ferro rods not these 3" - 4" ones don't want my hands getting burned when the tinder does catch fire :)

I will try to remember and get some picks of this ferro rod and striker.

[EX121]

I always like to use the knife on my multi-tool for this, I find I get a much bigger shower of sparks. I have other knives for sharp duties.

[610Alpha]

i have used the file on my multi-tool to scrape off Mg and to strike the ferro rod to ignite the Mg. I will test this method again using my multi-tool file. Now if I could only find some pre-made handles for the ferro rods.

Thanks for reminding me about the multi-tool :)

[All Talk]

I got a Mg with ferro rod firestarter as a b-day gift a year or so ago (wif was into watching man vs Wild at the time). Promptly forgot about it. Found it again last week and tried the Mg (magnesium) firestarting method using knife from multi tool. That magnesium burns HOT and strong! great way to start a fire.

[610Alpha]

Mg Flame temperatures of magnesium and magnesium alloys can reach 3,100

[WiseOwl]

I know if you dont practice your mag skills any chance you get you will get real rusty. Couple of years ago, I got one for Christmas from my stocking. I used it regularly that winter....then after a "spring break" didnt get back to firestarting til summer on a backpacking trip and it was drizzling a lil. Could not get a fire started for the world....luckily I had a magazine in my pack and used the pages for fire starter....that night I got back to practicing.

[EX121]

My favorite tinder to use is just plain old dryer lint, with or without vaseline mixed in. works great.

[WiseOwl]

My favorite tinder to use is just plain old dryer lint, with or without vaseline mixed in. works great.

Greatest use of "trash" for survival that I can think of.....my wife used to think I was crazy couple of years back when I kept a grocery sack in the laundry room to save lint. She now understands

[610Alpha]

yeah my in laws didn't believe me when i said that a cotton ball a Vaseline make a great tinder...they thought i was a full of it...they don't anymore. Now they actually listen :)

[TyrannyUnleashed]

My favorite tinder to use is just plain old dryer lint, with or without vaseline mixed in. works great.

Greatest use of "trash" for survival that I can think of.....my wife used to think I was crazy couple of years back when I kept a grocery sack in the laundry room to save lint. She now understands

Wow, How much of that stuff have I thrown away? Thanks for the information. I'm sure it is listed here somewhere, but I had not seen that yet. Now I can quit using cotton balls, and use lint I get for free... :-)

On a side note, I must stink with "char cloth" as I have not been able to create an ember with that. I'm going to keep working with my striker, rod and cloth. Except now I may try an old knife to see if it works better for me.

[WiseOwl]

TU, that drier lint goes up like gasoline so watch out!!!

[EX121]

Insure taht any char cloth you make is 100% cotton or it wont work. The best dryer lint is also from cotton I like the stuff you get after doing a load of towels.

[610Alpha]

I believe Cotton is the only cloth that produces lint. I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading that somewhere. You could test this out by drying a load of all non-cotton items then drying a load of all cotton and see which one produces lint.

[protus]

cotton balls with candle wax. not as messy as PJ balls. burn longer as well.
The cheap mag/ferro bars i got from harbor frieght suck imho. But they work.

[610Alpha]

hadn't heard nor thought of using candle wax instead of PJ. Might be something to do a vid on since you mentioned it.... :)