You ought to know how to make a fire, even when matches or a lighter are not available to you. This proficiency can be a lifesaver, particularly if you find yourself without matches or a lighter in a survival situation.
What do you need?
You will need a Survival Knife with a carbon steel blade. This is essential because a survival knife with a stainless steel blade might not produce the spark you're looking for. The spark comes from little pieces of metal coming off of the striker or Survival Knife in our case. That's why we use the backside of the blade and not the cutting surface. Using the sharp surface will make your blade dull. That is also why a stainless steel blade might not work. The stronger the steel, the smaller and hotter the pieces that come off will be, making it easier to burn the tinder and get our flame going.
You will also need a strike rod. No, not the style they used to beat a red-headed stepchild in years past. A strike rod is usually made of magnesium or a combination of steel and magnesium. I propose you use a string to affix it to your survival knife if the handle of your knife has a hole that you can use, or attach it to your survival knife's sheath. At the very least a strike rod should be easily accessible in your survival kit.
You will also need properly prepared tinder. Use your Survival Knife to shave dry bark off of trees, ideally dead tree limbs. Dried grass or the cotton like material behind some tree barks like a cottonwood make excellent tinder. Shape the tinder in to a bird's nest, this can provide the glowing embers some defense from the wind. Try to keep the material as loose as possible. Don't bunch it together like a snowball. Loose material has more gaps where oxygen can satisfy the flames.
How do you actually make a fire with your Survival Knife?
Clean the ground of debris where you are going to build the fire. Clean an area wider than you need to. Safety is always very important. You want to use the fire for warmth and to cook food for survival. You don't want to discover how the U.S. Forest Service trains their firefighters.
Pre Build your bundle of kindling, making a tee-pee frame. Leave yourself a space to place the burning tinder in to the middle of the tee-pee configuration of kindle wood. Make an effort to use the cover of your surroundings to prevent strong winds or rain from directly hitting the site where you plan to build your fire. This will make your job less difficult when conditions are less than perfect.
Gather your tinder. You want loosely spaced, very fine thread-like shavings In conjunction with slightly thicker shavings. A birds nest configuration should work well because it has built-in protection from the wind. If you need to, you can smash thicker bark against a rock to expand the fibers of the wood. You can use your survival knife to make small thin shavings from bark. Some barks like Juniper or Cottonwood are especially great for tinder but any dry bark should do well. Dried grass can also be used. It isn't a bad idea to stash this kind of tinder in a dry Ziploc bag for future use. The tinder will need to be dry. While you can most likely get away with wood or even kindling that isn't entirely dry, you will be up the creek if your tinder is wet.
Put your tinder near to the site you made. Place the strike rod just a little above the tinder or lightly touching the tinder and strike the rod with the backside of the blade of your survival knife in a downward motion. This will cause the spark to shoot off the blade and on to the tinder. You can also keep the knife stationary and drag the strike rod down the length of the backside of the blade of your survival knife if you choose. I prefer to leave the strike rod stationary and as close to the tin der as possible, but this is based on preference. The moment an actual spark catches on the tinder you will need to apply air to your budding fire by blowing softly on the glowing tinder. As the red glow grows bigger, apply more air. Remember you aren't the big bad wolf blowing down the three little pig's house.
When the tinder is hot enough (glowing) or in fact has a flame of some sort, cautiously move it underneath your pre-built kindling pile. Continue to provide a supply of air by blowing directly on to the glowing tinder. Once the tinder is lit to a flame, you may need to continue adding tinder to get the flames high enough to burn the kindling. Once the kindling has caught fire you can continue adding kindling to get the fire healthy enough to add smaller pieces of wood and bigger ones after that.
Remember making a fire with just a Survival Knife and a strike rod can be tricky, even when conditions are ideal. The best thing you can do, is b e prepped by practicing. Once you have the skill of making fire with your survival knife down pat, practice as often as possible. You want to have this skill already mastered when you find yourself in a survival situation. That is NOT the time to learn or practice fire making skills. Rehearse not only in favorable conditions but try to practice in unfavorable conditions as well. Some windy or damp situational practice will make you a pro in no time, or just cold, wet and frustrated.
