Subject: Re: Fire Starting and shooting the breeze!

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Boudreau)
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 18:33:46 -0400

>So how do you start fires? The coke I'm using is breeze, made in
>previous fires, and I find it is harder to ignite than green coal.
>
>--
>Steve Smith
>[email-masked]
>

-------------------------------------------------->

        The soft coal we have must be easier to light because it burns very
easily when started with a small wood/paper fire, and using the blast
ocasionaly. Must be all that sulphur in it. :)

       I make my breeze in the wood stove. No smell in the shop! Works for me!

       At the site where I work we have bakers next door that start very
early in the morning (18th cen. ovens) and there's always hot coals waiting
for me!!
   
  A bit off the subject:
        Historically speaking, to light a fire, I believe people used tinder
boxes...flint,oily rag and a flint striker, or the nearest candle. Of course
the smiths fire was probally always going with a chunk of (cherry
best?)wood, buried in ashes!

Any comments...or corrections welcomed!!

-->Thomas B.
-->N.S. Can.
-->[email-masked]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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From: Mike Linn <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 96 15:41 EST

At 01:10 AM 4/3/96 -0800, you wrote:

>Start with a good high carbon steel file.  DON'T USE ONE FROM SEARS, they
>have chrome content.  I use about an eight or ten inch smooth mill file.

        My dad has been making strikers for the rendezvous'ers that are
similar to these, but instead of files he uses garage door springs.
Sometimes you can get them broken, but free from some of the overhead door
companies. One spring makes a bunch of strikers.

mike
          
                                    _///_
                                   /(o o)\
===============================o000o=(_)=o000o====
               Michael Linn 
            Artisian Blacksmith
              AFC Web Master
 http://www.the-matrix.com/afc/index.html
==================================================
Smile, it makes people wonder what you've been up to.

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From: Russell McCrackin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 06:49:19 -0800

At 02:24 PM 4/5/96 -0700, you wrote:
>Rusty,
>
>Thanks for the GREAT How-To.  My brother-in-law is one of those Mountain 
>Man kind of guys, and this will make a wonderful gift for him.
>
>The 25c check is in the e-mail. :->
>
>Later,
>Pete
>
>
Hi Pete,

Great!  Glad your brother-in-law has a fun activity.  Will check the e-mail
atleast twice a day for your e-check!  Will deposit it in my e-bank account.
Wonder if the IRS will make me declare it on an e-1040???  

Actually, the making of charred threads instead of charged cloth is the
thing that makes fire starts easy, although a good steel, properly heat
treated can't hurt.

As I said in the other e-mail, my best recorded time is 1.8 seconds from
flint hitting steel to flame, but I have a personal goal of getting an 
official time at a contest of strike to flame of under one second.  I think 
it is possible, because it seems like I do it when I practice without a 
timer checking me.

Get it hot and hit it hard.

Rusty

at Rusty Forge

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 [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Thomas Boudreau)
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 11:27:52 -0400

>it is possible, because it seems like I do it when I practice without a 
============================>

        I think this is great; under 1 sec...don't let the *match-making*
companies get wind of this...:o)

P.S. The type of flint must be a factor in this..

Thanks for the info..

-->Thomas B.
-->N.S. Can.
-->[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 16:03:49 -0500 (EST)

>Get it hot and hit it hard.
Ok, You nod your head when it's ready and I'll hit it.

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From: Russell McCrackin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 05:06:49 -0700

>Ok, You nod your head when it's ready and I'll hit it.
You should know when it's hot by lookin' at it, so I'll just lift it
fr-r-r-rom the fir-r-re and show it to yee,  up close like.

Rusty 

at Rusty Forge

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 [email-masked]

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From: Russell McCrackin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 05:06:41 -0700

>>it is possible, because it seems like I do it when I practice without a 
Hi Thomas

No, the type of flint doesn't matter as long as it will cut the steel enough
to make sparks.  I actually use a piece of jasper because I have a lot of it
and can get it easily from many sites here in Oregon.  Flint I have to pay
for, and I'm of Scottish heritage.

The first requirement is a good hot spark that will travel atleast a foot,
maybe 18 inches, betfore bursting.  Use a good carbon steel, heat treat it
properly, and you will get them.  I see lots of "steels" made at rendezvous
by other smiths out of ordinary hot rolled steel.  You get maybe a few cold
orange sparks if you hit it enough.

Real secret is to char those heavy threads unraveled from cotton canvas.
The open spaces let the heat through to the tinder, and having atleast 1/4
inch thickness of char threads keeps the heat supply over one spot on the
tinder long enough to do some good.  I described using sisel twin, unraveled,
for tinder.  At some rendezvous they don't allow that, so I just use some
dry grass or fine weed stems.  If you can get some really rotten wood out of
a stump, dry it and use it.  And to be sure you can get a fire started, even
with wet wood or coal, get some pitchy wood.  Usually found by digging into
large stumps that have been dead for a while, and started to rot.  Rotten
wood and pitch pockets all from the same location.

I wass in a "survival class" run by the local sherrif's office.  They 
allowed us a knife and 20 matches.  Turned us out in wooded area with lots 
of blow down trees right after a rain  to build a shelter, collect enough 
wood for  24 hours (that's a lot!), and get a fire started.  I used a knife 
made from  a ferrier's file, large, sharp, and heavy enough to be able to 
hack into dead stumps.

I finished and was sitting in my shelter with a nice fire in less
than 2 hours.  After 4 hours they collected all the trainees, and checked 
their match supply.  Some had none left, and no fire.  When I returned 
20 matches, they had a hard time believing it, so had to demonstrate flint 
and steel method.  For a steel I used my belt buckle that had been forged 
out of a  file, and a piece of hard quartz I picked up on the site.  Rotten 
wood and a pitch pocket, and no char of any kind.  I could have used my 
knife for a steel, but it was sort of pitchy by the time I was ready to 
start a fire.

Don't try to start a fire by rubbing 2 sticks together unless 
they are matches.

Rusty

at Rusty Forge

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 [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 13:54:36 -0400 (EDT)

>Get it hot and hit it hard.

TOUCHE!