Fun Fire test

jmjkd

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Basic tools: Knife & Fire steel.

A test I got from another forum was this:
1.Submerge a small log in a 5 gallon bucket of water overnight....
2.(next day) Split/baton the log into desired pieces
3.Take a fire steel and make a knee high fire.

The test should reveal:
Your knowledge of wood.
Splitting & batoning skills
Use of tinder, kindling and squaw wood.
Constructor of fire lay.
Good eye opening test. If you can get a fire with this you can get a fire with a lighter....easy, really fun test.
 
Battoning is when you use a stick to hammer your knife blade (spine) as a wedge to split the log.
 
Battoning is when you use a stick to hammer your knife blade (spine) as a wedge to split the log.

Oh. I would probably just use smaller branches that did not require splitting. Saves on work, and wear and tear of knife, and small burns easier.
 
Batoning larger wet wood enable you to get to the dry wood in the center of larger logs where the small stuff will be soaked through. of course if you have a small hatchet or an ax
 
Batoning larger wet wood enable you to get to the dry wood in the center of larger logs where the small stuff will be soaked through. of course if you have a small hatchet or an ax

Yeah, I was guessing that would be a reason to do that. Although, if I have ability to cut logs, I probably also have an ax with me. Maybe even a sledge hammer and wedge.
 
Make sure you have a good 10" knife with a full flat grind. I've seen a friend break the blade on lesser knives doing this while we were camping.

I carry a RTAK 2 and he now does as well. The cold steel trailmaster is another good choice, but is no longer US made.
 
Make sure you have a good 10" knife with a full flat grind. I've seen a friend break the blade on lesser knives doing this while we were camping.

I carry a RTAK 2 and he now does as well. The cold steel trailmaster is another good choice, but is no longer US made.

The Gerber LMF II is awesome at splitting wood--the spine is very thick.
 
Oh. I would probably just use smaller branches that did not require splitting. Saves on work, and wear and tear of knife, and small burns easier.

Prepper you are right~!!! that is sometimes called a twig fire. But that's no good if everything is soaked
and I don't wast to feed the fire every few minutes.
Many can start fire but it really sucks on a day like today where everything is frozen ice or rain...Cold and wet sucks when trying to get fire.....
The test will solve that problem ….try it, it's fun and let us know how you did...;-)
 
Make sure you have a good 10" knife with a full flat grind. I've seen a friend break the blade on lesser knives doing this while we were camping.

I carry a RTAK 2 and he now does as well. The cold steel trailmaster is another good choice, but is no longer US made.

i keep one of these in my pack http://www.countycomm.com/eodrtool.html for this purpose
 
i keep one of these in my pack http://www.countycomm.com/eodrtool.html for this purpose

That is pretty cool, but shouldn't a quality survival knife be sufficient?

I try and keep my packs as absolutely light as possible, so while something like this would be nice to have, it seems a bit redundant if you already have a fixed blade on you.

Now, I guess you could argue that instead of the fixed survival knife which can be heavy, you can simply use this tool along with a smalled locking blade knife and have equal or perhaps greater functionality at a lower weight.

In any event, at $15 its a pretty cheap item to add to your kit.
 
i keep one of these in my pack http://www.countycomm.com/eodrtool.html for this purpose

That is pretty cool, but shouldn't a quality survival knife be sufficient?

I try and keep my packs as absolutely light as possible, so while something like this would be nice to have, it seems a bit redundant if you already have a fixed blade on you.

Now, I guess you could argue that instead of the fixed survival knife which can be heavy, you can simply use this tool along with a smaller folder and have equal or perhaps greater functionality at a lower weight.

In any event, at $15 its a pretty cheap item to add to your kit.
 
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