My grandson and I did some experimenting with starting a fire with flint and steel. I found that if I taped two hacksaw blades together with a couple of layers of tape between them so that they were a little separated, (and cut down to a 3 inch length) he got a lot more sparks with each strike.
We got some very ripe cattails, (where they had already burst open and were white and fluffy), some common reed (Pragmites australis) and some dry pine needles.
It seemed that the cattails would ignite, almost as easily as a cotton ball, but they/it would not burn all the way through, once ignited. Often there would be a quarter sized flame that might move a bit but not really spread out. It was OK, but not the best on the planet.
Depending upon, I guess, how dry the common reed was: sometimes one strike was all it needed, and it went up in a ball of fire, other times it might have taken 50 strikes, and there would be some smoldering.
I did find some milkweed. That stuff is like flash paper!
My son and I took a stroll into the woods and found a damaged pine tree, with a golf ball sized hunk of sap that oozed out. Later that week, my grandson and I pulled some bark off of a white birch tree.
We mixed together some milkweed fluff, birch bark, common reed, and pine sap, and put it in a baggie. I showed the kids to use that as tinder, and to build the fire with kindling around and above that. Yeah... well they didn't.
Fortunately, we had to do some blowing to get the fires to catch on some of our practice fires, so my grandson knew when he had to blow on it. His second strike caught the common reeds on fire, and with some blowing, the kindling caught! As a team, they got all ten points for firebuilding.
Overall, they came in third place, out of a group of about 12.
Thanks to all for helping me with this learning experience.
When I start a fire at home, I usually use some citronella oil, and a lighter
but going forward, it might be my grandson, who is starting it with flint and steel. :thumbsup: