Hi Dave!

Sorry , i've been insanely busy at work and havent been able to post for a while.

As far as how close to get with the striker/bar:

as close as possible, an inch or 2 at most... Anything farther and the sparks will peter out. You want the max sparks to shower the tinder on each stroke. With the Strike Force you can sit cross-legged and place the flint rod the edge of your boot/shoe for stability, or use a "one knee" kneeled stance ( like you are proposing marriage to a gal ) and use the tip of your boot/shoe as a sort of stability platform to place the flint rod on, angle it downward, as close to the tinder as possible and "scrape" sparks onto the tinder.

Don't just rely on one stroke to ignite the tinder. Scrape the flint bar rapidly 3 times as close to the tinder as possible, and although it may not be needed, be prepared to blow on the tinder to make a flame.

Tinderly speaking... I did the same thing with my first batch of VCB's ( vasiline cotton balls ) even though I had thoroughly searched all the threads about these little beauties.. None of them would light easily as they were pretty saturated. Granted, with a lighter they lit up like fireworks and burned for a few minutes.

So, I made a new batch of VCB's. This time lightly dipping each ball in the vaseline then placing it into a gallon bag. When the specified number were in the bag ( 50 in this case) , I squeezed all the air out of it and microwaved it for 2 minutes on High.. I took the bag out of the microwave and after opening the bag used a rolling pin to squeeze out the excess vaseline. After this I transferred all the balls to a fresh bag and forcefully rolled it again. When I pulled the matted balls out of the bag they felt almost shockingly dry. However, when "fluffed" first with fingers, and then a pair of tweezers ( try to make it look like an afro/dreadlocks ) they all caught fire easily with "close sparks".

A hacksaw blade used on the non serated side is a great "blade" to produce sparks on any flint rod, in fact the best IMHO. ( and far better than using your knife blade to do it. )The blade in the strike force cap is good right out of the box, as long as you use the 90 degree edge and dig in a bit.. Touching it up on a grinder, or sharpening stone makes it even better.

Although I've used magnesium fire staters in the past, I'm definately no expert on them. They worked, but burnt out far to quickly for my taste. I switched to trioxane shavings, or other " burn in the rain" material...

Practice is the key..

Matt