Great thread. It points out survival skills I do not have that's for sure. I think I'll start with a knife. But first, apparently there are other match cases out available until the K&M people get back on their feet:

http://www2.knifecenter.com/item/ET1200 ... f-gunmetal

So question about knives. I looked up the Enzo Birk and it has a stainless blade. I am able to keep my stainless kitchen knives sharp with a small diamond hone I keep there in the block but over the years I've developed a fondness for well kept carbon steel blades. Are these unsuitable in the woods? Where did you get these two knives and what are they called?

Mister701 wrote:Great thread. It points out survival skills I do not have that's for sure. I think I'll start with a knife. But first, apparently there are other match cases out available until the K&M people get back on their feet:

http://www2.knifecenter.com/item/ET1200 ... f-gunmetal

So question about knives. I looked up the Enzo Birk and it has a stainless blade. I am able to keep my stainless kitchen knives sharp with a small diamond hone I keep there in the block but over the years I've developed a fondness for well kept carbon steel blades. Are these unsuitable in the woods? Where did you get these two knives and what are they called?

Nothing in the world wrong with carbon steel in the woods so long as you take care of it. Where it fails is in a knife that gets thrown in a damp tackle box and doesn't get used for two years.

The Enzo folding knives are stainless blades, though I've found them to be exceptionally high quality. I also prefer carbon steel MOST of the time, though I've got some excellent stainless blades, including the scandi-ground Enzo Borka 90 in N690 stainless. It sharpens and behaves like good carbon steel except it doesn't rust. It is without a doubt the most capable folder I've ever used for carving wood.

The two knives above are blades made by Lauri of Finland. They are both high carbon blades...very simple steel that sharpens easily and stays sharp with frequent stropping, but it needs care and attention to keep a razor edge. I bought the blades from Thompsonknives.com and put the handles on myself. I don't know if Lauri makes complete knives or not.

Knives of this style are generically called puukko knives. That's not technically correct, but it's close enough for a web search if you're looking for similar styled knives.

Too bad K&M is under the weather. While there are numerous other match cases, I think the K&M are the best I've seen.

Great article and definitely a keeper for the knowledge base. I don't think I'll ever think of fire the same way and can't wait to do some practicing! Thanks!

This really is a great thread. I need a bigger plane to pack my preferred fire builder/stoker along though...

Inspired by this thread and the survival vest video, I spent the last few days revamping and cleaning out my vest. I also spent some time with with a small block of wood, my knife, a cotton ball & lint ball, and bought a new ferrocerium rod. Thanks for the motivation!

Kind of cool. What do you think about these?

http://youtu.be/s11OefjDF_I

Grassstrippilot wrote:Kind of cool. What do you think about these?

http://youtu.be/s11OefjDF_I

A+ for finding yet another thing to sell people, but I'll pass. Really think they'll work after 6 months of keeping your boots on? I don't.

I wouldn't wanna stand to close to the fire with those laces in ma boots, besides in a real survival situation, a wimpy flame like that will be useless in the PNW with all the moisture You need real fire power, for a man sized fire, great for bear defense too. Go big or go home.

That shoelace guy was paring, chiffonading, and julienning like a shokunin.

...what?

XM42! Where was that when I was back burning during my wild land firefighting days? Much better than a drip torch!

We committed to the KB:

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/knowle ... ild-a-fire

Time to add a lemon to your kit:

https://youtu.be/Bv2vT665bGI

Ravi,

What's the axe in your original post in this thread? I tried to find the maker's mark but couldn't. I know it's not a Gransfors or Wetterlings (at least their current mark), beyond that I have no idea. What weight is it?

Thanks.

Frank

So, I've accumulated a pretty good pile of fatwood. I was splitting it down into kindling today and decided to see how easy it is to light with just a ferrocerium rod.

I've always found the rods to be hit and miss. With a vaseline soaked cotton ball, dryer lint or dry old man's beard they work great but when it is cold, windy and wet I've always had a tough time getting them to start a fire using only material found in the forrest. As a result, I typically carry a Bic lighter with a bit of innertube taped to it. I am a firm believer that if you can remember your ferrocerium rod you can remember a lighter. Like a few other posters, I have lighters and knives scattered amongst my various vehicles and packs but today's challenge was to assume I had no matches or lighter, just my hatchet or knife and a rod.

Long story short, I found that shavings from a wet piece of fatwood won't light no matter how fine they are shaved, but fuzz will. Holding the blade of my hatchet almost perpendicular to the wood I scratched back and forth and generated a fine fuzz. It took about a minute to generate a quarter sized pile. It has just the right wood to air ratio, and the impregnated sap doesn't hurt either. It fired up on the third stroke of the steel against the rod and burned long enough and hot enough to easily light my feather stick.

I don't plan to give up my lighter for a spark rod, but nice to know it will work if need be.

fshaw wrote:Ravi,

What's the axe in your original post in this thread? I tried to find the maker's mark but couldn't. I know it's not a Gransfors or Wetterlings (at least their current mark), beyond that I have no idea. What weight is it?

Thanks.

Frank

Sorry for the late reply...I've been in the desert for a week. Amazing wildflowers this year!
The axe is actually a Wetterlings outdoor axe #118 with a 1.1kg head and a 49cm handle (and excellent steel). It's a good axe and I really like it for some things, but it's also the most dangerous axe I've ever used. It doesn't lend itself to a two-handed swing, but it's too heavy to be used one-handed with any follow-though control. The short handle means you have to position yourself very precisely and carefully to have any sort of safe follow through while chopping which limits the utility of the tool.

An American Boys Axe is, in my opinion, a vastly superior tool. Vintage axe heads can be found in junk shops for little money, though finding a handle that's worth the effort to hang a head on can be a real chore.

Councile Tool still makes a decent axe, and their 2.25 pound Boy's Axe is a good one. They have a premium line called Velvicut which is probably worth the money if you have to buy through the mail, as that line comes with better handles and some other niceties. Getting a decent handle on an axe is the hardest part these days.

RE albravo,
ya...it's amazing just how ineffective ferro rods are with most tinder. They've got their place, but compared to a match or lighter they pretty much suck. I like using one when I have the luxury of time and want to play around, but I'd NEVER consider one as my primary fire starter.

The Blast Match gets some good press, though why I don't know. They don't work any better than any other ferro rod and the two I've had broke in short order when the plastic case came apart. They take all the ineffectiveness of a ferro rod and add plastic moving parts to the equation. Oh, and they're ridiculously expensive considering what a ferro rod costs.

Has anybody ever tried a Husqvarna axe? I bought their forest axe this past fall because Granfors Bruks was re-tooling or re-training and nobody had any inventory. I like the Husqvarna so much I bought the hatchet and splitting maul too. I don't think they are as sharp out of the box as the Gransfors but they take and hold a wicked edge.

I've been harvesting so much fatwood we are starting to burn whole logs instead of reducing them to firestarting sticks. A couple fatwood logs burning and popping and hissing is quite a spectacle.

**Sorry if this is a double post. Whenever I try to do a partial quote I end up posting a dog's breakfast.

Hammer,
I'm taking hunter ed and in the booklet I saw this and thought it would 'warm your heart'.

ExperimentalAviator wrote:Hammer,
I'm taking hunter ed and in the booklet I saw this and thought it would 'warm your heart'.

Good list, but where's the tampons, condoms and lemons?

Don't know, it does say 'drinking container' so that could be a condom.

I saw "you should practice starting a fire in bad weather before you go out" and thought of you and figured you'd like seeing that.