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Magnesium & Ferrocerium |
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Magnesium fire starters can be purchased at any outdoor store. They consist
of a small bar of magnesium with a strip of ferrocerium (sparking material) embedded in
the one side. The magnesium burns readily when it is scraped off into
fine filings.
This photo shows the side with the ferrocerium sidefacing the camera. |
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Here's how to use this device. Using the
sharp side of a knife blade, scrape some magnesium filings onto a
board, or into a tinder bundle. A board is used here for demonstration
purposes, so you can see the magnesium filings and what happens with
them.
Normally if you are intending to start a fire, you would have some
tinder and small sticks ready to add to the resultant flame. |
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Gather the filings into a little pile. |
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Turn over the fire starter bar and turn
over your knife. Using the backside of your knife blade ... |
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... scrape some nice sparks off the
ferrocerium rod onto the
pile of magnesium filings. The spark shown here was deliberately
sent a distance away from the pile of filings for demonstration
purposes. |
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The small pile of magnesium filings
ignites quite readily. As soon as the spark hits it it flares into
flame. If you were actually trying to start a fire, you would've
placed the pile of magnesium filings onto a tinder bundle, which
would then readily catch fire and to which could be added small
sticks, etc. Or you could lift the flaming tinder bundles and place
it into a ready-made teepee of sticks or other ready-to-light fire. |
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Here is another one. This is a very
thick rod of ferrocerium. It can be used by itself if you have some
really good tinder material to catch the sparks. |
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