Fire Skills with Ferro rods and Firesteels part 1

Fire is the most important skill and tool in the outdoors. I have read countless stories of people caught in survival situations who could not make fire and spent many miserable nights without one. Best case is your miserable and cold, worst case is you dont have a pulse anymore. Mastering fire skills to the point where you can light a fire at any moment in any weather condition will give you a great sense of self reliance and safety.

Learning to use a Ferrocerium rod or firesteel is a very good step towards mastering fire. These tools are more reliable than matches or a lighter but require a bit more skill in use. Your goal is to reach a skill level where you are as comfortable lighting a fire with a ferro rod as you are with matches or a lighter.

The first time you use a ferro rod type firestarter more than likely you will be scraping erratically throwing sparks at a big pile of tinder and because you are not stable you will knock the tinder pile out of the way while you are trying to throw sparks at it.This can be very frustrating , but with some practice and proper technique you can be successful every time. Here's How...

Controlled scraping action with a proper scraper.

For a scraper I stay away from using the cutting edge on my knives, this works well but is hard on your knife blade. In general you will need a hardened piece of steel with a squared edge on it. The spines of many knives can be squared off as in "Fine Tune Your Mora Part 1". The harder the steel the better, carbon steel blades work better but a good tempered stainless will also work. A cheap carbon steel hacksaw blade is what I would recommend for learning. Make sure it is carbon steel and break off a 3" piece and grind or file down the teeth....you are after the high tempered steel just beyond the teeth.

Scrapers I use on a regular basis are the backs of the saws on my SAK , the spine on my knife and a piece of a hacksaw blade.(you can also use the hacksaw blade with a hard rock to produce sparks for "flint and steel firestarting")

Now that you have a good scraper you will want to practice getting good sparks off of your rod with it. Take your scraper and set it against your ferro rod at a 90 deg. angle. You should be able to scrape this back and forth with no sparks and not much friction. Now angle the scraper away from you just a bit while scraping until it bites into that ferro rod. Keep an eye on the angle it bites best into your rod. Now you can put some pressure on the scraper with the correct angle and a slow scraping action and you should be able to scrape off some fine ferro shards without any sparks ( these shards can be added to your tinder if needed for some extra boost).

Now increase the scraping speed and pressure a bit you will produce nice controlled hot sparks.

These instructions may sound a bit overdone, but the point is to get you comfortable with producing constant hot sparks with a slow controlled action.

Good quality Tinder
Good quality tinder is a must for learning and well worth keeping on hand at all times. For the beginner I would start out with 100% cotton , cotton balls or q tips. Fluff these up a bit and throw some sparks at them, they should catch real easy. To make the cotton balls and q tips burn longer you can rub some petroleum jelly into them to act as a fuel. Magnesium bars are just about bullet proof for starting fires. They are not quite as easy to use as cotton balls, but because the magnesium will burn even if it gets wet makes it one of the best "back up" tinder's to have. Its best to have a decent pile of magnesium shavings on top of a coarser tinder pile or mixed in with a "harder to light" tinder ready to catch the flame. Or light a feather stick from the fast burning flame the magnesium puts out.

Good tinder's include cotton balls , q tips , magnesium block , Wet fire tinder and the Fire Fixins tinder kit.

Stability of your firestarting
You need to be stable in this whole operation and it is a good idea to find something solid to push against with your ferro rod. A log , stick , rock or even hard ground works. You can also hold your scraper still and pull the firesteel away from it in a quick action to throw good sparks, but this is not as controlled or accurate and is best used with "easy to light" tinder bundles. Holding your ferro rod against something solid with a slow controlled scrape will produce the most concentrated controlled sparks capable of lighting course tinder such as the small curls on a feather stick. Another trick is to hold your tinder against your scraper with a good grip and just run your scraper over the ferro rod. This takes care of the stability problem and is nice when its hard to find a dry surface to stable yourself with.This also works well with properly carved feather sticks to creat a "match"

Holding your tinder behind your scraper as you throw sparks works well with certain tinder's and gives you a "match" to light your fire with.

Fluffed up cotton swab, and a fluffed up twine from the fire fixins ready to catch a spark.

Fire Fixins "match"

From this point if you are a good boy scout you will have your fine kindling, feather sticks , etc. ready to be lit with this match.

I hope this will be helpful to get started on using ferro rods for your firestarting needs. Once you get some practice doing this it will become a very reliable way of starting a fire.

In part 2 I plan on covering natural tinders and lighting feather sticks with a ferro rod.....thanks Ben

Fine Tune Your Mora Part 2 - The Two Way Sheath by Jim Dillard

Although the Mora knife is one of the true bargains of bushcraft equipment, the plastic sheath does not always satisfy the needs of avid bushcrafters. Aftermarket sheaths such as the JRE are available, but of course one of the most rewarding aspects of bushcraft is to use your own self-made gear. The following is a step-by-step tutorial on a really easy sheath to make for your Mora. This particular sheath features a hard liner in the blade area, which will insure the safety of the user.
Photos 1 and 2 show the two-position use of this sheath. The handle up position is best when the sheath is worn beneath a shirt or jacket, and the handle down carry is best when the sheath is worn on the outside of the clothing. I frequently carry mine in the handle down position under my left arm. This provides a quick one-handed draw with my right hand.
Photo 3 shows the first step in the process. To use the plastic sheath that comes with your knife for a liner, cut the sheath at the same angle as the guard portion of the handle. Cut the sheath so that you have about 3/16” of free space between the tip of the knife and the inside of the sheath.
Photo 4 – bevel the inside of the plastic sheath to eliminate the possibility of the knife tip catching on the edge when the blade is inserted into the new sheath. Photo 5 – tape the knife to the sheath liner. This will prevent shifting when you are molding the leather and will make a more secure fit.

You will need a piece of thin leather about 6” x 10”. It should be 3 or 4 ounce, about 1/16” thick. This is a standard thickness for most Scandinavian style sheaths. Leather a little thicker will work, but will be harder to form. To form the sheath you can either wet the leather with water or with rubbing alcohol. I much prefer the alcohol because it evaporates quickly and therefore takes much less time to form. Soak the leather thoroughly until it becomes limp. With the alcohol this will take a half hour or so. Then wrap the leather around the knife and liner and begin to form it with your fingers. As the leather dries, it will begin to stay in place. Pay particular attention to the handle area around the guard of the knife because a snug fit in this area is what keeps the knife from falling out of the sheath.
When the leather begins to dry in the forming process, it will retain the shape of the knife and liner. When this happens you can clamp the edges and let it dry over night. Be absolutely certain that the clamps are put ONLY on parts of the leather that will be trimmed off. The clamps will leave permanent and ugly marks on the wet leather and you don’t want those on your finished sheath. When the leather has dried overnight, take out the knife and liner and let it dry another day.

After the leather is completely dry, trim off the extra, leaving it about a half inch or so larger than the size you want the finished sheath.This will give you room for adjustment if the leather shifts a little during gluing. Then take the tape off of the knife and liner and clean the liner of any tape residue. You will need a good rubber cement type glue such as Goop or E-6000. Spread glue over the entire sheath liner and where the leather comes together along the edges. It is necessary to have the knife in the sheath during gluing for good alignment, but be careful that you don’t glue the knife handle to the leather. When the glue is spread, clamp the edges, but be sure to use padding under the clamps to avoid ugly blotches on the finished sheath. Photo 9 shows the scrap trimmings being used as pads under the clamps. Have everything ready and laid out before you start to glue, because the glue will dry quickly.
When the glue is completely dry, trim off the excess about a quarter inch out from where you want the stitch line. You will need a knife with a narrow tip to cut the curves smoothly. Also notice in photo 10 that extra leather has been left in the tip area for the 3/16” hole that will allow for the handle down carry position. Once the leather has been trimmed, sand to smooth the edges. It is essential to use a sanding block under the sandpaper to do this, because sanding the edge with loose sandpaper will only enlarge irregularities on the edge of the sheath.

Before drawing the line for the stitching holes, pull the knife in and out of the glued sheath a few times to determine where the stitches should be around the guard area. Watch the guard bulge the leather as you pull it out. You want it to be snug enough that the knife can’t fall out in the handle down position, but not so snug that it is difficult to remove from the sheath. The stitching line in photo 12 is just right, but you need to make this judgment for yourself as the position of the stitch line can be influenced by differences in materials. If the knife ends up too loose in the sheath, stitching will need to be redone in the guard area, but if it is just a little too tight, a little bar soap and a few minutes working the knife in and out will usually fix the problem.
Once the stitching line is drawn, mark the stitch holes. At a cost of only about $6.00 a stitch marking wheel is worth the money. It will do an excellent job and makes quick work of marking where the holes go –also shown in photo 12. If you don’t have a stitch marker, you can use a ruler, making the stitches about 1/8” or 4 mm apart. Then use a small drill such as Dremel to drill the holes. A 1/16” but will work, but the thread will be loose in the holes. For the best job use a wire gauge drill bit size 55 to 60. This will make the thread snug in the holes.

To finish the edge of your sheath, use a commercial edge finisher such as gum tragacanth. This will eliminate the fuzzies. Apply the edge finisher to the rough part of the leather and burnish with a hard, smooth object such as a knife handle. Edge finishers along with the stitching marker and leather finishes can be purchased at leather suppliers or from knifemaker supply houses.

At this point you may stain or decorate the sheath. The sheath shown at the beginning of this article was left its natural color and was decorated with a common child’s woodburner, about $15. at a hobby store.

After decorating or staining your sheath, coat it with a leather finish. Since I live and play in a temperate rain forest, I really like two coats of an acrylic leather finisher inside and out. It lasts a long time and is waterproof, and it can be redone if necessary.

For the stitching, use nylon thread made for sewing leather and use as small a needle as possible. A needle that is too large will stretch the holes. I prefer to use a common small needle made for sewing cloth. To get the large thread through the eye of the small needle, set the end of the thread on fire and while it is still burning, smash it against a hard surface with the side of a knife blade. Then, as in photo 14, trim the hard, burned part of the thread to a point that will go through the eye of the needle. What you see in photo 14 is a macro shot of a very small needle. The knife blade in the corner is only the bevel of the Mora knife.

Although I have never had a problem with a knife cutting the stitching in a sheath, that is a concern with some. To protect the exposed thread in the upper part of the inside of the sheath, run a bead of the same glue you used before over any thread you can see on the inside of the sheath. The glue is actually tougher than leather and will provide excellent protection.

If your project isn’t perfect, try again. It won’t be long before you will have the skill you need to do an excellent job every time. The sheath in the first photo of this article cost me about $7.00 to make, and at that cost doing a few sheaths simply for practice is certainly reasonable. I have also found that sheaths make great trade items with other bushcrafters, and of course, the more you make, the more skilled you become.

Choosing a Bushcraft / Survival Knife

Deciding what type of Knife you need for your outdoor wanderings can be tough as there is so much to choose from, and so much hype.

When choosing a knife you should decide on what type of chores you will need it to accomplish. Do you need a knife that will be used in combat, puncture a car door, dig a hole, or maybe even be thrown like in the movies to fend off the boogie man?

Well for general bushcraft and survival chores you dont need any of the above, If you have succumbed to the advertising hype and gimmicks of many manufactures then you probably dont own a good working field knife.

As a general rule big knives and machetes are used in the jungle or rain forest and a knife axe combination in hardwood or boreal forest. This is a traditional way of looking at things and will help you make a decision toward a knife that cuts and carves, not hacks and whacks.....we will save the hacking and whacking for our axe.

Mora knives have been made in sweden for over a century, the design is basic and simple. They use high quality carbon or stainless steels and heat treat the blades to hold an edge. The knives are easy to sharpen as they have one wide scandinavian bevel that goes right to the cutting edge, this bevel also gives you a lot of control when carving or making feather sticks. Mora knives are thin and not overly built, this makes them lightweight and less fatiguing to use, even though they have a thin blade the knives will stand up to the use of a baton for most realistic bushcraft chores.


This is where I would start looking for a bushcraft/survival knife, this has also been the end of the search for many survival instructors, guides, and professional outdoorsman. That says alot for a 12.00 knife!!

I prefer the basic carbon steel blade models. I do keep a stainless knife in my fishing pack where I know it may get wet. The laminated blades are geared more toward carving. I like to sharpen the spine on my moras to work with a firesteel to throw sparks. The carbon steel is the best, the stainless also works, but the laminated and triflex steels are too soft on the spine to work as a scraper with a firesteel.

I really like the JRE sheath system for my bushcraft knives and is what I highly recommend for a knife system. These sheaths hold your knife and a army size firesteel in one compact package. These are important tools and its nice to have them together in one place.

Now if you are all ready familiar with the Mora type knife but want something a bit stronger built, in near the same size and weight. I would lean toward the Enzo trapper, Skookum Bush Tool , or Woodlore type knife.

Enzo Trapper o1

I guess overall I lean toward a carbon steel scandi ground knife for my all purpose Bushcraft / survival knife. This style of knife is tops for woodcraft chores and also does well with skinning game , cleaning fish and cutting food.

I hope this helps weed through the hype to find a knife you can count on!

Spoon, Cup and Bowl Patterns by Jim Dillard

Spoon, Cup and Bowl Patterns

There are few things more satisfying for a bushcrafter than to sit down in the woods with a few simple tools, and without plan or pattern, make a functional spoon or other woodenware from materials at hand. There are times, however, when a special purpose utensil or a special gift requires a little prior planning, and maybe a good pattern. One good way to come up with a plan is to draw the intended piece before starting to carve. Sometimes this is essential, because it is much better to discover mistakes in design on paper than in the wood after hours of work.

Some carvers may feel that the drawing is a bit of a challenge, especially while doing their first few projects. For those folks, I have provided a few pages from my own sketchbook. Some of these patterns are standard, traditional Native American or Scandinavian in origin. Most are original, but of course are influenced by looking at the work of others, and even by examining well-designed commercial utensils.

I would encourage anyone who carves to spend time drawing. But for those who are not quite ready for that as yet, please feel free to use the following patterns as you wish. You can simply draw them from your computer screen, or an even simpler method is to print a pattern and use a copy machine to enlarge the designs to fit your need.

Keep your tools sharp, and keep carving!