American Bushman

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing." —Benjamin Franklin

Friday, October 31, 2008

Firesteel Project

I spent some time drilling out Firesteel Blanks yesterday for a project.

This requires some special attention to safety including DARK safety glasses (carbide bits and ferrocerium combine to make big sparks,) closed toed boots or shoes, and, apparently, some sort of respirator would have been handy.

I have spent the past several hours blowing crud (for lack of a better term) that looks an awful lot like powdered firesteel out of my nose. Oops. I guess I need to keep from inhaling any flames for a couple of days. :)

What I ended up with, other than a snoot full of firesteel, is a very compact and yet robust Army-sized firesteel that'll easily fit into an Altoids Tin with plenty of room for other firestarting gear.

Once I come up with a suitable underwater drilling solution I plan on making a handful of these for JRE Industries as yet another alternative to the many firesteels they already carry.

Thanks for reading,


B

2 Comments:

At 12:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How fragile is firesteel metal? I've never had enough of it to experiment with.

Mac

 
At 12:32 PM, Blogger American Bushman said...

I wouldn't consider it to be especially fragile. My son has thrown mine repeatedly on the driveway and that might have chipped a small piece off the tip but the rod is unbroken.

I believe the powdered metal is compacted under tremendous pressure into the rod shape.

I haven't cracked one yet while drilling it either.

Let me know if I can give you more information.

Thanks,

B

 

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