Well, I'm dead (lost flint & steel)

[gus13]

another reason I carry both my main hunting knife and a spare flint "boot" knife with me, should the need arise I should always have a spare F&S

 

[Trench]

I don't find it extreme in the least bit. What I found odd was that I was the only reinactor in my section of camp during my last event that used flint and steel to start their fires. I'm just getting started in this sort of thing, and it sorta busted my bubble to see some guys spraying their wood with a can of sterno and throwing a match on it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

BH, that is your choice and I compliment you for wanting to be as period correct as possible. That is what reenacting is all about. But, for a long time, I have reminded others (yes, I can be a kill joy ) that slow, agonizing deaths are also 'period correct', as were short lifespans. If one lived, even small wounds and frostbite could be cripping and, of course, painful beyond imagination. During the Rev. period average lifespan was only 35 years. Take out the very high infant mortality rate and one could expect to live to about age 43. If I were a serious woods trekker I would certainly have a, pc looking, leather pouch with modern emergency items in it like Bic lighters, magnesium fire steels, compass and other items. Dying in the woods is certainly 'authentic' but I prefer getting back home in one piece.

 

[Rod Lassey]

I tend to carry multiples---I've got my main firestarting set (flint, firesteel, tinderbox with charred wood, cloth, etc., dry material (cottonwood inner bark, sagebrush bark, juniper bark), and burning glass all in a leather bag. Kinda big, but I'm not going to scrimp on something that could save my life. It's caried in my pack. I've also got a tin that I carry in my shooting bag, in it is a gunflint, small steel, char, and bits of dry material. The tin is sealed with wax, and is completely waterproof. It's my emergency kit. And, I'll often carry an extra flint and steel in a pocket. I've also used my gunlock, too. It seems like when I'm out hiking around, I'm always stuffing firestarting material in my pckets, too---just can't pass it by.

Those Cash oval tinderboxes with burning glasses are correct back to very late 1700s/early 1800s, as long as they're in steel, not brass. The steel should be japanned, too. Jim Kimpell carries correct burning glasses, and often has the tinderboxes with burning glass (handpainted and japanned) for sale.
http://www.highhorsetrading.com/


Rod

 

[Rod Lassey]

By the way, there's a story in Rudoph Kurz's journal about Kurz loaning his firesteel to a hunter at Ft. Union who had lost his own. He refused to go out from the fort without one, as he well knew how important they were. This is in 1851, too---well after the introduction of matches.

Rod

 

[paulvallandigham]

Some people don't think about the powder in their modern suppository shooters because they don't know how to remove the bullet from the casing.

A. put the nose of the bullet into the muzzle as far as it will go, then rock the casing back and forth to deform the mouth of the casing enough to let the bullet come loose. Carefully, remove the bullet from the muzzle, so it doesn't fall out, and remove the bullet manually, so that the powder stays in the casing.

Once the bullet is out, you can pour the powder out on some dry surface( dry inner bark works) Put some dry tinder hear the powder, protected from wind, and then fire the primed casing off in the rifle to ignite the powder you poured out by placing the muzzle right next to- but NOT IN - the powder. There will be a column of compressed air traveling out that muzzle in front of the flame, which will blow all the powder away before the flame can ignite it.

Practice at home to learn the technique, several times, before ever needing to rely on this- or any other fire starting technique-- in the wild.

As to the fire piston, It was patented in France in 1807, and only disappeared from usage because of the introduction of much easier to use Stick matches. It was found again, by a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Army doing training maneuvers in the Philippines, in the 1960s, who landed his helicopter in a jungle clearing in a village that was not marked on his map. He thought he had found Indigenous peoples who had no contact with the outside world, because they appeared to have no modern clothing, or equipment. He traded with the "Chief" for a "Fire Piston" made from Buffalo horn. It now resides in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

Since that "discovery", other "fire pistons" have been found in the hands of primitive peoples in other parts of the Pacific, made of bamboo. However, no one is able to tell how old that technology may be, since European explorers, merchants, and Whaling ships were active beginning in the 16th century in this area, and ideas traveled East and West much sooner than that, via Eastern merchants, by boat, and by the " Silk Road". Its generally conceded that black powder was probably first invented by the Chinese, and its been around in Europe for the past 500 years. With limited literacy,& barriers of language, its probably impossible to expect anyone to find a written source of information that will accurately date the origin of the "Fire Piston."

Paul

 

[Stumpkiller]

Was it hiding in plain sight? If nothing else it lead to a good discussion. It may have also lit a fire under my butt to learn various ways to start fire. :thumbsup:

As Me Pap said: "if it was a snake it woulda bit me." It was beside the wood stove in the living room. I "practice the art" and start that with F&S occasionally.

I read To Build a Fire in high school. Serious bad vibes, man. But a great writer. It's no wonder he and Hemingway snuffed themselves. Some issues there, both of them.

When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason." -Ernest Hemingway

 

[Black Hand]

If I were a serious woods trekker I would certainly have a, pc looking, leather pouch with modern emergency items in it like Bic lighters, magnesium fire steels, compass and other items.

I've got 4 ways to light a fire and a compass, all PC items. I feel no less secure in the woods than you might. I trust my skills & knowledge of the woods, and if the Sh*t did hit the fan, a couple of modern items aren't going to make a bit of difference. Your most important survival tool is between your ears, not in your pocket.

 

[scobrien]

I am the same as you in that I trust my skills. Have become totally reliant and trustworthy of the PC methods for making fire regardless of the season or the weather. For me personaly, that frame of mind was achieved through experience.

 

[Waterman]

It's not a Bic lighter, It is a French flint and steel :rotf:

Bill

 

[Black Hand]

I am the same as you in that I trust my skills. Have become totally reliant and trustworthy of the PC methods for making fire regardless of the season or the weather. For me personaly, that frame of mind was achieved through experience.

Never hurts to have competent trail partners either.... :thumbsup:

 

[DNICK]

Black Hand your statement about a fire drill not being HC/PC is not entirly correct in Lewis and Clarks journals they gave a very detailed discription of how one tribe started fires with a fire drill it was the first time they had seen a fire started that way, don't remember witch journal it was I think it was book 5 or 6 of the 9 book set hope this helps. Duane

 

[jethro224]

I don't find it extreme in the least bit. What I found odd was that I was the only reinactor in my section of camp during my last event that used flint and steel to start their fires. I'm just getting started in this sort of thing, and it sorta busted my bubble to see some guys spraying their wood with a can of sterno and throwing a match on it.

It amazes me how many of them don't even use wood. Just break out the Kingsford briquettes. :idunno:

 

[bangfxr]

Even though I do mostly CW I carry in my haversack and Knapsack fire starter kits as well as lucifers and candle nubs in india rubber pouches as well as a flint lock assembly and I also have a looking glass and compass although its a 1830's repro it works good. But none of that stuff will do any good if you dont keep your wits about you and use your head.

 

[hoochiepapa]

What's a lucifer?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Nasty old sulphur matches. My Grandmother (b. 1880) called Ohio Blue Tip matches "Lucifers".

I had some old "lifeboat matches" and I think they approximated the old sulphur matches.

 

[Black Hand]

it was the first time they had seen a fire started that way

It was for the most part a lost art once fire steels were introduced. Not common at all....

 

[jbtusa]

You are absolutely right about "pristine" water. I got the beaver bug from a clear mountain stream up in the mountains in Idaho... never again! It was misery. ALWAYS treat/boil your water, no exceptions!

 

[Stumpkiller]

True 'nuff. I used to dip and boil - in fact one spot on the hill behind where I lived had an ancient dug well lined with slate that I'd drink out of. Frogs and all, but it was refreshing.

Then I had an aquaintence who was a bicycle racer get amoebic dysentary from filling a water bottle in a creek and my bowhunting mentor got "Bever Fever" (Giardiasis) from drinking out of an Adirondack lake. At least both thought those were the causes. Both of them looked like concentration camp survivors, lost years of their outdoor pursuits getting back to health, and their stories and warnings were enough to convince me. If I was in survival mode - yes, but otherwise I carry a canteen.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Since the late '70's when they opened this area up to "open range" I do not drink from the sweet water creeks in the moun tains. I did once, and paid the price. I didn't get as sick as Stumpy's friends, but I wanted to die. Couldn't keep anything down or in.