Thread: Fire Starter, (Magnesium rods )

Originally Posted by Rushy

First up you are going to need some tinder. If you are practicing at home then it is most easy to either use some lint from out of a clothes dryer or some cotton wool smeared with Vaseline (both of which will catch a spark very quickly). To start a fire, place the fire stick in close proximity to the tinder and using the striker (which are included with many fire sticks) or a knife, solidly stroke the fire stick in a downward (away from you) direction such that a shower of sparks lands in and on the tinder. With a really easy catching tinder like the two above you will likely get it to catch straight away but the thing is that if it doesn't you simply keep repeating the action.

Correct me if I am wrong.....which is a lot by the way........Do you not scrape some of the magnesium with a knife off into your tinder? It lights immediately from memory. I thought that was the point of the thing.

Originally Posted by R93

Correct me if I am wrong.....which is a lot by the way........Do you not scrape some of the magnesium with a knife off into your tinder? It lights immediately from memory. I thought that was the point of the thing.

Yeh sorry R93, that was the title of this thread. Doinit, I was referring to the more flint type fire starters (although they are not strictly flint these days).

Originally Posted by Rushy

Yeh sorry R93, that was the title of this thread. Doinit, I was referring to the more flint type fire starters (although they are not strictly flint these days).

Yip I was going on about the stick only version. R93 I was tossing up which one to get and settled on the stick.Like you say,the other you shave of the stuff into a small heap as such then using the other side,strike up a spark onto the fine shavings.I'm sure the stick on its own would last longer.great wee toy.

Sweet. I have not used one for yrs. I would only ever light a fire in an emergency anyway. Never have one for comfort.

Just as a point of interest, I think the current record for raising a flame using a flint and steel, with natural materials only(not paper or rubber) as tinder, is about 10 seconds.

I demonstrated using a flint and steel to mates at work once, using paper as tinder, and bloody near burnt the office out ! !