joaquin39,
I am no expert or even a journeyman at this.
I hope some of the above suggestions work for you;
sounds like they have not yet helped.
Have you experimented in subdued light, so that you
can see the sparks easily?
Generally, I do not think of a fire-steel as starting
newspaper on fire. If there is such a steel for sale,
please let me know; I will upgrade.
For first spark tinder, I think of char-cloth, cotton
with petroleum jelly, magnesium filings.
For "natural tinder", for the first spark, think in
terms of 1)very dry 2)downy (not real down), like cattail
3)fine like a birds nest 4)charred may help.
Flint and Steel method generally produces less sparks
than a fire-steel. After a demo, it only took me 20
seconds to get char-cloth glowing. Then, gently blow,
on the char-cloth; transfer the char-cloth to a downy nest,
gently blowing the whole time, and whoosh. Flames will leap
from the nest, so you better have you small kindling ready.
Try the Blast Match...
I was showing a friend how it worked, and thinking that it could not set a newspaper on fire, used it to protect the plastic plate I was going to use to press it on.
That was a mistake...
Newspaper caught on fire, FAST, and part of it lifted into the air and fell on the carpet... We had to stamp it out.
I also showed someone else(outside this time
) how it worked by placing it on some copy paper that was very damp(so much so that it was limp), and was HOPEING for it to at least scorch the paper... Well guess what, it caught on fire!
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