- Joined
- Oct 7, 1999
- Messages
- 1,747
Spent the day on Sunday with a friend of mine to catch up after Christmas and just enjoy the fresh air.
Temps had been in the high 30s for a few days so snow was melting and everything was a cold, wet mess. I had plans to get a fire started using only my GSO 3.5 and a firesteel and I wouldn't be deterred by frozen sticks, muddy ground, or all that darned moisture.
My friend had been eyeballing my GSO 4.1 the last time we were out and mentioned that he'd really like to get one so I picked one up for him and it arrived the day before Christmas. (Excellent timing!)
He LOVES it and sent me these pictures from our day out so I'll show you those first and then get back to the wet fire issue.
(Click thumbnail for LARGE images)
It was really great seeing him working with the 4.1, shooting pictures, and being so animated and excited about such an awesome blade. He kept going on and on about the ergonomics, the useful blade shape, the overall fit and finish I reminded him that he was preaching to the choir.
So, back to my fire you can see that he got a fire started but he was using one of my waxed cotton round fire starters which is like shooting baskets in a 6-foot hoop. I intended to use only my 3.5, a firesteel, and tinder, kindling, and fuel wood that I harvested out in the woods.
I collected grape vine bark on the walk in and shredded it as much as I could. I grabbed a frozen sapling and broke it into pieces to lay between the tinder and the cold ground too. Some of it I tried to split but it was pretty rotten inside. I knew the wet wood would steal some of the heat from my sparks so I needed a large pile of tinder.
The 3.5 did a great job on shaving down a few sticks to give me plenty of surface area and I kept at it until I had a pile of shavings that would've filled a baseball cap probably twice over. That way I had plenty of dry insulation (the tinder shavings) from my wet insulation (the sticks) and the ground.
It took some time, maybe 5 minutes, of striking the firesteel to get the spark that finally ignited the shavings but it DID finally go. The massive pile of tinder gave me plenty of time to get those marginally dry sticks onto the fire and the heat finally drove out the excess moisture and got them burning too. By the time I was adding real wood for fuel I had a nice bed of coals and the sticks under the fire were nice and dry.
Funny how you can do all that work and then almost forget to shoot a pic. (Some days I don't shoot ANY pictures of the stuff I cut.) LOL!
Anyway, another good day out in the woods spreading the Survive! gospel and converting another knife user. (I got his wife a matching 3.5 that she hasn't seen yet.)
I can't wait to see what our next adventure will bring
Thanks for reading,
B
Temps had been in the high 30s for a few days so snow was melting and everything was a cold, wet mess. I had plans to get a fire started using only my GSO 3.5 and a firesteel and I wouldn't be deterred by frozen sticks, muddy ground, or all that darned moisture.
My friend had been eyeballing my GSO 4.1 the last time we were out and mentioned that he'd really like to get one so I picked one up for him and it arrived the day before Christmas. (Excellent timing!)
He LOVES it and sent me these pictures from our day out so I'll show you those first and then get back to the wet fire issue.
(Click thumbnail for LARGE images)
It was really great seeing him working with the 4.1, shooting pictures, and being so animated and excited about such an awesome blade. He kept going on and on about the ergonomics, the useful blade shape, the overall fit and finish I reminded him that he was preaching to the choir.
So, back to my fire you can see that he got a fire started but he was using one of my waxed cotton round fire starters which is like shooting baskets in a 6-foot hoop. I intended to use only my 3.5, a firesteel, and tinder, kindling, and fuel wood that I harvested out in the woods.
I collected grape vine bark on the walk in and shredded it as much as I could. I grabbed a frozen sapling and broke it into pieces to lay between the tinder and the cold ground too. Some of it I tried to split but it was pretty rotten inside. I knew the wet wood would steal some of the heat from my sparks so I needed a large pile of tinder.
The 3.5 did a great job on shaving down a few sticks to give me plenty of surface area and I kept at it until I had a pile of shavings that would've filled a baseball cap probably twice over. That way I had plenty of dry insulation (the tinder shavings) from my wet insulation (the sticks) and the ground.
It took some time, maybe 5 minutes, of striking the firesteel to get the spark that finally ignited the shavings but it DID finally go. The massive pile of tinder gave me plenty of time to get those marginally dry sticks onto the fire and the heat finally drove out the excess moisture and got them burning too. By the time I was adding real wood for fuel I had a nice bed of coals and the sticks under the fire were nice and dry.
Funny how you can do all that work and then almost forget to shoot a pic. (Some days I don't shoot ANY pictures of the stuff I cut.) LOL!
Anyway, another good day out in the woods spreading the Survive! gospel and converting another knife user. (I got his wife a matching 3.5 that she hasn't seen yet.)
I can't wait to see what our next adventure will bring
Thanks for reading,
B
