Well nice try.

Now wait until you are hungry and thirsty, then try to start a fire with the firesteel again.


No way

[quote=MDinana]For the first time in my life, I finally (FINALLY!) got a fire going with a firesteel and natural tinder.[quote]

"Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Very cool, all I use now is my firesteel for camp fires, I can get a fire burning in a few strikes. I've been teaching my oldest boy to do this.

A few things to put in your pack, rope, natural fibers or a Manila rope, then make yourself some char-cloth, between the two you will never have to scrounge around for tinder, you can then get a stack of sticks and fuel. Take the rope and pull it apart into a nest, then place the char-cloth in the center and send your sparks to the cloth, will hold the spark even when soaked. This winter I did this with my Boy Scout troop, to show them it works when wet I took the rope and char-cloth and balled it up in some snow, then shook it out and with one strike the char-cloth took the spark and within a few blows of air I had flame

My pack is never without

There is a bonus with looking for dry tinder.
It will educate you about where the dry spots in the forest are.

Hey, that's neat!
I remember the first time I made fire with two sticks. It was on Christopher Nyerges's survival day outing in the mountains near LA about 11 years ago. I wonder if he still does those. He was teaching how two people can accomplish fire by hand drill and I decided to try it on my own since I was the only one who came without a partner. Walla! It works. I was so stoked. The other guys marveled because they couldn't do it. "WOW! How'd you do that?!" I could see they had their rhythm wrong, as during the second they kept losing each time they switched back and forth allowed a loss of momentum. They couldn't really work together in a fast steady flow, but one of the guys succeeded when he tried it on his own.
Chris made it easier because he had the ideal fine-tuned wood pieces.
I had tried unsuccessfully to make fire with a bow drill a few times over the previous years, having read "Tom Brown Jr.'s Wilderness Survival Guide" in the 7th grade, but I could never get a handhold piece that worked for me.
After Chris taught us how to make cordage with Yucca leaves I made a thick cord and tried again, using a plastic soda top as a handhold, which was working until the shaft drilled through the soda top. I switched to an abalone shell handhold, and WALLA! I made fire; with a cedar baseboard, a false-willow shaft, Yucca leaf string, and an Abalone shell! Dried Mugwort leaves are a great tinder.

Practice, practice, practice.

Pay carefull attention to how you strike a spark and to your tinder. makes all the difference

I second charcloth and natural twine. This is what I use with flint and steel. I keep an Altoids sours tin with my flint, steel, char cloth with jute twine wound up around the inside. The twine makes really compact tinder until you fluff it up to use it. It also seems to catch fire at a lower temperature then cotton balls.

I actually did practice some more yesterday, again. This time I used the BSA Hot Spark. A little more difficult (due to the smaller size). I also realized if I started striking too quickly, I'd easily smother a flame on my second or third strike in quick succession.

I've made char cloth; I think it's in my BOB. Looks like some more would be a good idea. I'll try and scrounge up some twine, as most of my stuff is synthetic. Good ideas!

If your using a ferro rod then Tinder-Quick tabs or Cotton wool and vasiline are much better choices.

Char cloth is alright when you have time to play, but it's a fatally bad idea in a serious situation.

Also, pull the rod back against the striker. Most beginners make the mistake of running the striker down the rod. If you do that, and do it too hard you will strike your tinder and scatter it.

Well done!

Leigh beat me to the punch on drawing the ferro up instead of striker down...but one other thing that beginners almost always do is "hover" the ferro over the tinder nest (you *do* have a tinder nest, don't you?) instead of placing the end of the ferro rod right into the nest and touching a flammable substrate, like a split piece of wood.

Instead of striking the ferro with the steel all the way to the bottom in a quick strike, try exerting more pressure against the ferro, and slowly grind the steel down the rod...you will get HUGE glowing embers falling into your nest.

Not to brag, but I usually am disappointed in myself if I cannot get a natural tinder to flare up in my first strike. My daughter at 7 years old was teaching scouts (12 y.o.) how to do it. They couldn't believe that this little kid could start a fire from one or two strokes.

As has been said so accurately before, 95% of success is preparation of the tinder. I can get about any brown stuff to burn, just give me enough chance to scrape/pound/shave the stuff and I'll have almost a fine powder which will flare up every time.

But again, congrats! That first time is magical. Soon, you will get addicted to seeing how far you can take it (raining, blowing, snowing, etc.) and still get it going with just natural tinder.

That said, it's infinitely wiser to carry good, dry man-made tinder with you than depend on nature to provide. A lighter, etc., just makes things that much easier when you may be injured, hypothermic, etc. But I've found (by observation) that some who haven't practiced with natural tinder have a difficult time making a fire in less than ideal situations (rain, wind, etc.)