Using a Ferrocerium Rod Fire Starter

Believe it or not, striking a fire without a lighter or matches is not nearly as hard as you think. A challenge, sure, but with modern fire starters like ferrocerium rods, much easier than it was with real flint and steel in the days of old, and easier yet than friction fire methods. 

Here’s what to know.

Prepare Your Fire

First, you need to split your kindling and fuel and arrange it into a fire before you ever strike a spark. This is because you need somewhere to place your tinder before you light it, as tinder burns up rapidly, and if you lose it all, you’re back to square one. 

It doesn’t really matter what method you follow here, teepee and log cabin structures both work very well. What matters is that you’re ready before you strike.

Gather and Arrange Tinder

Next, you will need to gather your tinder and arrange it into a ball at least as large as your first, preferably the size of two fists, or two fistfuls. 

Some good sources of tinder are lightly shaved wood, lint from cotton clothing, dry lint, cattail fluff, thistledown, milkwood down, and standard dried grasses. Pretty much any airy, dry organic material can be used. 

Ball it up and place it in the center of your build.

Strike the Fire Starter

Now that you’ve arranged your fire and gathered and placed your tinder, you’re ready to strike your fire. 

One caveat; you don’t want to strike the sparks and knock the tinder out of the way or bowl over the fire. 

So, what you will want to do is place the hand holding the fire starter right in front of the ball of tinder, then take your striker and draw that backwards rapidly against the ferro rod. 

This will shave off sparks that should fly right into the ball of tinder. 

If you don’t have a dedicated striker, you can use the spine of a knife as long as it is squared off and sharp enough to do so. 

You don’t need a knife, either. Anything with a sharp enough edge can scrape sparks off a ferrocerium rod. 

Why Ferro Is Better Than True Flint 

Using a ferrocerium rod is very easy compared to the truly traditional method of flint and steel. 

This is partly true because any hard object can strike sparks from ferrocerium, whereas you need steel for a flint. 

The other is that a ferrocerium rod produces very hot, very long-lived sparks. They can be several thousands degrees and last a second or more. 

The sparks produced by ferrocerium can incur a fire from tinders that have relatively high ignition temperatures, unlike flint, which can only be used with low-ignition tinder sources like char cloth. 

Therefore, making a fire using a ferrocerium fire starter is much easier for most people to do, even in the absence of quality tinder sources.

Where to Explore Different Types of Fire Starters

Does your survival pack or bug out bag (or just your regular camping supplies) lacking in quality fire starters like ferro rods?

If you’re looking for alternative fire starters like spark wheels, ferro rods, waterproof matches, electric lighters, or even wax-impregnated fire starters, visit CH KADELS.

They carry a wide assortment of fire starters and other essentials for camp craft, as a complement to your disaster survival gear, emergency food supplies, and more. 

Visit their website and stock up on fire starters, then find a reason or two to add some other survival gear to your collection of preparedness essentials. 

For more information about disaster survival gear and emergency blanket Please Visit : CH Kadels

Author: ch kadels