How To Use A StrikeFire Fire Starter

Description

StrikeFire asked me to make a short video on how to use their Fire Starter rods. Here I look at various different ways of using this fire-lighting gadget to light a range of materials, from natural tinders, to man-made tinders and fire-lighting blocks through to more unusual materials. Plus, if you are quick and careful not to release too much gas, you can use this to light a gas stove too. Watch the video for more details. This video will be useful for any bushcraft, survival or camping enthusiast.

UPDATE:

People have been in touch to ask where to buy these or even if I sell them. They are available here from Strikefire via Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OOZYCR4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00OOZYCR4&linkCode=as2&tag=paukirsblo-21

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Tags: strikefire,fire,fire lighting,fire starting,sparks,ferro rod,ferrocerium,firesteel,bushcraft,survival,outdoors,camping,wilderness,paulkirtley,frontier bushcraft,wilderness bushcraft,outdoor survival,camping skills,tinder,birch bark,birch

Video Transcription

hi there I'm Paul curtly founder of frontier bushcraft and in this video I'm going to take a look at the strike fire fire starters I'm going to look at a range of different materials that we can light with these as well as show you a couple of techniques to make sure you're getting really good sparks from these great fire starting devices I had a couple of different sizes of strike fire to try a medium and a large but the techniques I'm going to show you here apply equally to both before using one of these devices the first thing you need to do is scrape off the protective coating on the outside and you'll start to see the metal shining through and once you've got a good area uncovered and you start to press a bit harder you will get sparks as you can see here in terms of technique the one that most people will do naturally is this one where you're using a good length of the steel and you're creating a shower of sparks it's fairly diffuse though so there's an alternative technique here where I'm using both thumbs on the lower third and I'm pushing off big sparks I'm applying a lot more pressure and getting big sparks but you'll see they're concentrated at the base so it's much more accurate as well I'm concentrated if you have a knife with a flat bevel that comes up to the back of the knife and have a good right angle there which will scrape metal then you can use that part of the knife and if I push hard I get nice big concentrated Sparks and notice the back of the knife not the edge of the knife that I'm using here here I'm preparing one of the best natural fire lighters birchbark and I'm preparing it so it will readily accept a spark this is a sheet of bark from a dead log that I've picked up not a live tree a dead log and I'm using the scraper of the strike fire device I'm scraping it up you don't even need a knife to do this scraping up the outer surface with the burr so that I get a big pile of shavings and dust that will then readily accept my spark and that's an important point generally with your fire lighting to increase the surface area of the material you're trying to light particularly with a smaller spark and here you'll see now that that's prepared I should be able to push a spark accurately into that I'm not going mad I'm just checking and yep there we go and that then will light quite easy from a spark pushed off the end of the strike fire manmade equivalent of birch bark is tinder card it's this wax infused cardboard and again I'm ripping it up and ripping it up to increase the surface area more places to catch a spark and that should then easily catch a spark if I push it off the end here and there we go and then we can add some more material in once we've got the initial flame what about solid blocks of fire lighters well I'm going to use my knife here and I'm going to shave off a corner and start creating some shavings you can do this with paraffin fire lighters and hexamine blocks just shave off a corner increase the surface area and get a nice pile of material then that you can drop a spark into it won't otherwise accept a spark but here just drop a nice sparking and there we go and away we go and again just like before add some more material in and once you get the block lit that will go for about 15 minutes if you're careful you can even light a gas stove now here you've got to be quick as soon as it's on drop a spark and it's going there we go and I'll leave you with an unusual one here I'm teasing out some wire wool opening it up and dropping a spark and I set off an oxidization process just like when you use a battery to set off this process but we're going to need to add it into something else to get actual flame here and I'm just using a paper towel there we go flame