Ferro, hard or soft?

[Magicdave]

Which brands do you consider soft and which hard? Have you tried the UST and Coghlans? I use those the most.

I've only used the same single ferro rod, that was the reason I started the post, to find out more.

I do have knowledge of metals, alloy's the purpose behind Alloy ratios for different purpose. So I understand the reasoning between the softer and harder options.

My curiosity initially came from something I had seen, that you have now answered. I seen various rods online (images/videos) that had a really short stroke at the tip with deeper wear than others. When I stumbled across the video I linked to I reckoned this must be the reason.

But have brought something else up...

Because of this I have moved to making approximitely 1" long scrapes, always on the same area, no matter which ferro is used. Funny how I used to scrape the entire length of a 5"L x 1/2"dia ferro and now 1" of a 1/4" ferro is enough. With knowledge comes skill, with skill comes joy.

I scrape the full length and have experienced the juddering in the past. But now I use a, wait for it... junior hacksaw blade section. Teeth side too.

Looks like I'll be moving away from that then. I reckon I'll give the shorter strokes a go, I've never tried it.

[David_JAFO]

hello,
I was reading this with interest. I'm old school survival escape & evasion, we were taught using a ferro rod with an additional tubular cable terminal end added (see image) as a kind of thumb grip. A lanyard of paracord was attached with a small cut off section of a standard hack saw blade, the end section cut at an angle, as this could be used as a ferro rod striker blunt edge or serrated end, a small saw, screwdriver, & sharpened end a small skinning blade. I've used all methods to great effect.
Regards
David

[DuxDawg]

Greetings Magicdave,

Do you have an opinion on how much magnesium it would take to make the most globs? How much iron to make it hard enough to have all sparks and no globs? Be interesting to find out.

Still on your first ferro? Oh my, I've worn out dozens. A couple strikers for F&S also. But then I've been playing with fire since the 1970s having grown up on a homestead heating only with wood burning stoves. Was known back then for one match fires using a paper match and natural tinders. Lighting several fires each day for many years gave me no shortage of practice! Amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. Also a lot of tent camping and backpacking over the years. Tons and tons of dayhiking. Been using magnifying lenses since the late '70s, ferros since the early 1990s and F&S since the 2000s.

Experimenting with marginal materials puts the hurt on equipment quick. I can get flame with a ferro in five scrapes or less most of the time with well prepped good tinders. Sometimes it takes 200 plus scrapes on marginal ones like wet green wood. Same with F&S. Ten strikes or less on chars most of the time yields an ember, 50-100 strikes on NUTs. (Natural Uncharred Tinders that will catch the sparks from flint the rock and steel producing an ember.) Wore off 1/8" of steel on strikers a few years in a row, all from striking sparks off rocks, finding and perfecting several NUTs. Now I'm up to 16 NUTs here in the Upper MidWest and still looking for more. Milkweed fluff and ovum are my go to from August until May of each year when gathering and using on that hike.

Back to ferros. I know! Don't the teeth make great sparks? But then, the ruts develope to the point that the teeth are contacting at most 1/8 of the surface area they did on the first scrape. Uh oh! Now they don't work so well. Don't ask me how I know this... nothing to see here... please move along... lol.

Seems you are well on your way on what is a typical path in the evolution of our skills. We go from "good enough" to wondering why it works to perfecting them with a variety of materials in all conditions.

As your knowledge and skills grow, hiking in the outdoors becomes just like walking down the aisles of a store. Want water? Look for water loving plants, here they are in aisle 7. Want fire? Find dry materials on sunny hillsides here in aisle 8. Want cordage? These milkweed stalks were naturally retted over the winter here in aisle 9. Want shelter? The thick stand of spruces in aisle 10 will do in a pinch. Want food? Find ramps (wild leeks with a garlic/onion flavor), wild ginger, cut-leaf toothwort (horseradish) (these plants often grow along river bottoms) and trout in aisle 11. Hot and thirsty? Find immature milkweed silk (juicy and sweet) and wood sorrel (lemony) in aisle 12. Instant trailside lemonade!! Way cool feeling hiking along and seeing all the useful resources ready to hand.

Cheers!

[Magicdave]

I'm old school survival escape & evasion, we were taught using a ferro rod with an additional tubular cable terminal end added (see image) as a kind of thumb grip. A lanyard of paracord was attached with a small cut off section of a standard hack saw blade, the end section cut at an angle, as this could be used as a ferro rod striker blunt edge or serrated end

Excellent, I'm going to see if I can find those.

Still on your first ferro? Oh my, I've worn out dozens.

I've had the same ferro rod for a long, long time. I've been a hillwalker for many years. Most of the time a long distance hill walker. The longest I done in terms of distance and time was Glasgow West End to Balmaha, climbed Conic Hill while shooting a video, bivvy'd out on the beach (before it became illegal) and walked back in the morning. 2 days earlier I cycled the same route, climbed the hill (running) getting time lapse footage of the journey (running up and down the hill) and cycled home again.

Anyway, for years my ferro rod was kept in my emergency kit. Doing long distance stuff there is little time spent still for much. Mostly cooking, or rather re-hydrating and boiling water, was done over gas. But fires at times for proper cooking. This year I decided to change things up a bit. I spend more time chilling, and the ferro rod has become my primary fire lighting device with the lighter now living in my emergency kit.

I'm very at home in the outdoors, but a new set of knowledge and skills are developing, most of which are in their very early stages. I look at what's around me in a different way now.

[DuxDawg]

Howdy David_JAFO,

How did y'all secure the ferro to the terminal end? I've found that all glues give up after a while, though some last longer than others.

Aren't hacksaw blades great?!! As the striker with F&S, scraper with a ferro, scraping a multitude of natural materials (fungi, wood, etc) into useable tinder, scraping animal hides, scraping to separate fibers for cordage, spine sharpened as a knife, etc. Always have some pieces of hacksaw on me.

Speaking of scraping tinders, I've found that wood scrapings ignite with flame or ferro much more readily than curls/feathers. Most times lucky to get curls/feathers to ignite with a ferro in less than 20 scrapes. Scrapings from the same piece of wood often ignite in five or less.

[DuxDawg]

Funny thing about distance hiking is I think I missed more than I gained. Well, younger then and had an itch in my legs!

I've always experimented with the materials around me. When I started slowing a little and digging into my surroundings more my skills increased in depth and variety quite a bit. F&S and wild edible plants magnified this greatly.

[David_JAFO]

hello,
Firstly Magicdave *Chronic Hill LMAO.. Conic Hill I've been up there a few times myself. The first time I did it was with the Fairbridge Drake Fellowship who also did Operation Raleigh, Outdoor Pursuits from Sighthill community in Glasgow. I was a Civie instructor spent time with the fellowship also taught the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme with them. I spent one summer walked from Glasgow to the Isle of Skye & I've cycled too. DuxDawg How did y'all secure the ferro to the terminal end? I've found that all glues give up after a while, though some last longer than others. the ferro rod fitted no problem without epoxy/glue etc.. can be crimped with ease for removal of the rod too. I've used EvoStik called serious glue it's waterproof & transparent it hold like nothing else, just a *very small amount is required. The original issue ferro rods for escape & evasion purposes were crimped.
Regards
David

[Magicdave]

hello,
Firstly Magicdave *Chronic Hill LMAO.. Conic Hill I've been up there a few times myself. The first time I did it was with the Fairbridge Drake Fellowship who also did Operation Raleigh, Outdoor Pursuits from Sighthill community in Glasgow. I was a Civie instructor spent time with the fellowship also taught the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme with them.

Hey don't mock Chronic hill, watching the sunset over Loch Lomond from its lowly summit is one of the the most beautiful sights I've ever seen in my life. Actually, after following the Kelvin Walkway from Botanic Gardens to Milngavie then the West Highland Way path to Balmaha in one day (missing out the up and over Chronic Hill route) a climb up the wee hill doesn't seem so wee, that I'll tell you.

I spent one summer walked from Glasgow to the Isle of Skye & I've cycled too.

Ok, now you make me jealous. That sound like a fine time.

Something I always wanted to do is a 2 part thing. Walk the West Highland Way as fast as I can and see what time I can do. Then go back and spend 1 month, nice and relaxed, walking it. Just taking it easy, stopping for a few days ere and there and living in hotels for a day or 2 every now and again.

[Magicdave]

I forgot to add, I used to take pleasure in pointing out to people I met on the summit that you can see the Wallace monument in one direction and Inverkip power station in the other direction from the summit.

But now Inverkip is gone.

[ian c]

I have used hot melt glue in the past to glue a ferro into a piece of antler and it seemed to work, somewhere at my parents house I have one of the old issue flint an steels and it has a strip of metal back on it with the tubular bit with the lanyard hole.