[Ron Fontaine]

I shot this video this morning after an ice and sleet storm swept the Survival Topics area. This kind of weather is some of the most dangerous survival weather of all. Easy to become wet and cold, in this situation a fire could very well save your life.

On occasion people have sent back FireSteels they have purchased from SurvivalTopics.com, saying that they cannot get sparks from them. And every time, right out of the box, I've scraped the FireSteel and produced a shower of hot sparks that hiss and bounce all over.

In the video you can see me using one of these FireSteel.com firesteels that has been soaking in ice water. Cold, wet, and a bit slippery (as were my hands), the FireSteel performed "brilliantly" - as can be seen from the shower of hot sparks it produced.

A FireSteel.com scraper was used.

You can have the best survival gear in the world, but if your technique is bad that gear can be useless. Rather than blame it on the gear, practice your technique or learn how to use it from someone that knows how.

For tinder I used a cotton ball soaked in petroleum jelly on top of a piece of birch bark. This produced plenty of flame, enough to light even damp wood.

Survival Topics has a new article on How to Use a FireSteel, which I highly recommend to those of you who are using, or want to use, FireSteels.

[DanT]

Nice video Ron.

Simple physics. the combination of a freshly scraped surface of Mischmetall under the pressure of a swift carbon steel edge will throw a shower of hot parks - every time.

It's like playing a violin, practice makes perfect.

[Fisk]

great video Ron.

on a side note I see you are slushing around in some pretty cold water lol how did you prevent 1)getting wet 2) getting cold

[Ron Fontaine]

Fisk, I am wearing what we call winter "Pack" boots. They have rubber lowers, leather uppers, are quite waterproof and have a removable wool felt about 1/2-inch thick inside.

When active, these boots will keep feet warm to about -30 degrees F (-34C).

As for getting cold, wet freezing conditions can be the coldest of all - but 32F (0 C) is considered a heat wave this time of year.

[vthompson]

Nice video Ron, it was time well spent. I used mine to start a fire at my house this evening to get rid of some leaves and tree branches. A little dryer lint in the leaves done the trick. Your advise the other day helped me 100%.

[skippy]

Thanks for the video, Ron, it was very helpful. I've found that if I rest the end of the steel on something solid, I get a better aim towards my tinder bundle. I think now I need to work on the tinder bundle itself, get more fluff to it, more air inside it. I've been trying to do it with nothing but natural materials, which is silly, I should use a little bit of lint or vaseline soaked cotton to make some forward progress and then work towards all natural materials.

[Ron Fontaine]

Skippy, I recommend starting out using vaseline and cotton balls - or bag balm and cotton balls! Once you've mastered making a fire using these materials in varied weather conditions and even poorer quailty damp wood, move on to using natural materials only.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend always carrying some kind of fire starting aid such as the vaseline / cotton ball combination. Even a firemaking expert can have difficulty starting a fire in conditions of extreme wetness, poor fuel, high winds, exhaustion, hypothermia, injury, etc.

Sometimes you may want or need to make a fire quickly and without too much extra effort. Even if you are using the lowly match to start fires.

[skippy]

I know. It's the over-achiever in me. Gets me in trouble every time!

[Stephen]

My kids are being trained almost like that John Connors in those terminator movies...to be prepared for a time where survival skills will be needed. We have a wood burning stove that we always make it a point to try to start without using matches. My two oldest (age 9 and 7) have gotten pretty good at starting a fire (closely supervised) with the firesteel.

A while back I bought a fire piston that was like $80. It was a good experiment...but man it is sooooo inferior in my opinion to these firesteels. Actually...if I could turn back the hands of time...I wouldn't have purchased the piston. It is really hard to use consistently...there is an O ring that has to be nicely lubed...if you can get a small coal...you have to gingerly place it in the tinder...you're in trouble if things are too wet...NOT EASY. Heck...my 7 and 9 year old can start fires with the firesteels!!!

The piston is out of my leatherman pouch...and the firesteel has a permanent home.

[Ron Fontaine]

Excellent point about learning how to start fires by using wood stoves.

A number of visitors to my home have been taught to make fires - I send them to the wood stove with a match.

Once they can start a fire with a match, I move them on to the FireSteel. They usually like the FireSteel better, once they learn how to use it.

Starting wood stove fires for years has given many of us expert fire making skills. It's like anything, do it enough times and it becomes an innate part of you.