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Fire Lighting with a Zirconium StrikerFire Lighting with a Zirconium Striker is a basic Modern Wilderness Survival Skill. |
Zirconium is a rare earth metal, used to produce a spark by shaving it with steel. Various types of Zirconium Striker are available commercially. Many are still called Steel & Flints, but the use of flint is very rare today because of its brittleness.
Use of a Zirconium Striker takes practice, but it is worth the effort. The video below shows Niall lighting a fire using a Zirconium Striker and Birch Bark as Tinder. Notice that he has prepared a Twig Bundle and other wood to light the fire with before he began using the Striker. Niall has also but his back into the wind and has a pair of leather gloves handy.
To use a Zirconium Striker the Steel is rubbed along the striker and produces small sparks. For ignition a 'spark' must hit the tinder and then ignite it. These burning embers of Zirconium can light tinder if they land on the tinder. A striker requires Tinder and lots of practice, but it will allow you to light thousands of fires and can be soaked and still work.
Zirconium Strikers will allow you to light a fire with synthetic or natural tinder. Numerous forms of both Synthetic and Natural Tinder's are available. The most common form of Synthetic Tinder is cotton batten and wax. It is cheap and easy to make and also readily available at nearly any camping store or department of any department store.
Natural Tinder's are not readily available in the wilderness. The most common is Birch Bark. Normally you use the tissue paper thin outer bark ripped apart and placed atop a bigger piece of bark. The basic rule for collecting birch bark is that if you can rip it off the tree easily with your hand then the bark is dead and therefore dry and it lose will not hurt the tree. If you need a knife then it's live and cutting it will damage or kill the tree and live bark will be wet therefore useless as Tinder or even a Fire Lighting Aid.
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