Question - Magnesium Block/Flint Fire Starter

LightGuy

LightGuy

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Sep 12, 2010
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I have a very quick question for you. I'm taking my first BUSSE out with me on a 3 day camping trip starting tomorrow. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::D:D:D

Anyway, I have a magnesium fire starter that I like to use, and I was wondering if I can use the blade (Boss Jack) to both scrape the magnesium as well as to spark the flint. I read on here someplace where someone mentioned using the back of the knife. In the past, I have always used the sharpened portion of the blade to both scrape the magnesium as well as spark the flint.

Will either one of these things hurt the blade? I don't want to harm this knife the first time out! :eek:

Thanks in advance,

-Rich
 
Raining said:
The spine is probably not sharp enough to use anyway.
Click to expand...

Some time and work with some sandpaper may change that though, you could probably "sharpen" the spine enough so that it would fling some sparks.

But if not, use the edge. The BJ has enough blade length so that if the a part of the edge does get rolled a bit, it won't be missed.

The spine on my FFBM feels sharp enough to do that, but I haven't tried, the notches on my SAR 3 does well enough for that.
 
I sanded down the top of the spine and a mm or two on the sides of a HRLM to use as a striker and find it works as well as a dedicated striker (which is just a sharp 90deg piece of hard metal anyway). It works very well on the Doan rods and mag block but to some degree less so on the Brunton branded rod which I believe is a light my fire. The spine has not rolled or blunted and I've gone through two Doans with it. Occasionally I'll run the edge of the spine throught the magnesium to clean any buildup off.

Some knives have radiussed spines that will require significantly more work but I think it's worth it to keep from unneccesarily rolling the edge which takes a bit of time and steel to repair.

 
another option:
RCAH1ARROWHEAD.jpg
 
My favorite cure for that problem is to grab an old hacksaw blade (you can buy cheap new ones for a couple of bucks) and break off about four inches. Use a grinder to grind the teeth almost all the way back and round the broken end. Use the hole in the end to thread it onto the beadchain on your mag block.


You can see a couple in this photo:
firestuff.jpg


You now have a hardened steel scraper for making mag dust and a striker that will draw a real shower of sparks from the rod. You won't have to risk damaging your knife blade.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
I have seen the edge get fried from sparking :eek:
It gets as hot as a Arc welder, thus the sparks :)

I would use a hack saw blade or something to spark the magnesium if it were me in a none survival/emergency situation.

I am really positive it will more than roll the edge. :eek:

Hope this helps.
 
Have to agree with Dave on that one. If its hot enough to ignite magnesium its hot enough to ruin your temper. The ignition temp of the kind of magnesium in those blocks is somewhere around a 1000degF if I remember correctly.
 
sputnick said:
Have to agree with Dave on that one. If its hot enough to ignite magnesium its hot enough to ruin your temper. The ignition temp of the kind of magnesium in those blocks is somewhere around a 1000degF if I remember correctly.
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David Brown said:
I have seen the edge get fried from sparking :eek:
It gets as hot as a Arc welder, thus the sparks :)

I am really positive it will more than roll the edge. :eek:

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...


This surprises me. Sure, the spark is hot, but it has no mass to speak of. The edge of the knife has a great mass of metal behind it to adsorb and dissipate the heat. It is analogous to the phenomenon whereby you can boil water in a paper cup over an open flame; the water absorbs the heat of the flame, and the paper never reaches the ignition point.
 
Just checked, 2 decent strikes usd 0.028g of ferrocermium rod. Also consider that its liberating energy through combustion so its not just the thermal mass of the material. It might be small but that one micron point on the edge is being subject to what...maybe a half second at those temps? It won't be a large portion of the edge as the heat gets dissipated. In the knives I've used edge on to strike with theres been appreciable damage but without dragging the edge along or a soft nail or something to replicate the action without heat its hard to say just how much that heat increases deformation. I have no way to check if the temper is effected since it would be such a tiny little portion. Oh yeah...forgot to mention geometry. The knife I'm referring to had a super thin edge and .083" blade which will see more temperature change than a thicker geometry. No doubt the effect on temper would be small but I wonder if over time it could establish a point of stress for failure during heavy/abusive knife use.

To bring it back on topic, I've read that infi has a higher temper point before any alteration occurs. Perhaps this would make infi blades more resistant to to this use?
 
Give it a try dragging a spark rod along the edge of a SAR3, LMS, or Cutillus or something like that, then post pics of what happens :D

I am really curious now. :thumbup::)

Just do not really want to sacrifice one of my edges.

resinguy said:
This surprises me. Sure, the spark is hot, but it has no mass to speak of. The edge of the knife has a great mass of metal behind it to adsorb and dissipate the heat. It is analogous to the phenomenon whereby you can boil water in a paper cup over an open flame; the water absorbs the heat of the flame, and the paper never reaches the ignition point.
Click to expand...
 
I would not use one of my Busse knives sharpened edges to strike a ferocerrium rod. I'm not sure of the temperature generated but I would think it might ruin the heat treat on that area. Too many cheaper alternatives out there. I would use the spine though if sharp enough. A good Custom Shop mod. might be to sharpen the spine specifically for this reason.

I used one of my Rat Shakers sharpened edge one time. The edge held up as you would expect a Busse to, but it did change the metal color which made me wonder. I'm not willing to chance it unless Big Daddy gives his blessings.



SGB
 
so where are the pics ? of the sparking rod ?
 
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