add a simple pencil sharpener to your fire kit

You never know when you might need some tinder (saves your knife and possible injury to boot).

 

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I'm tracking on the concept, but I already have at least two knives on me at all times that will accomplish the same thing. How is a pencil sharpener better?

 

Brilliant...Added a handful to list for next trip to office supply store..

 

Never said it was better . . . .

• Makes a better bird-nest
• You won't cut your finger
• Better for a kid's kit
• Won't dull your knife
• Weighs nothing
• Takes up little space
• Costs <$1
• why not?

What if you lost your knives for some reason?

 

1) it should get on a plane.
2) keeps your knife sharp, longer.
3) cost much less for multiple locations.
4)matters little if lost.
5) NO ONE will ever claim you brandished a pencil sharpener at them.

 

Just wait, they'll get around to it.

 

By the look of the shavings in the picture, the wood seems to be green??

 

Yes..... A dry branch of hardwood will create a handful of thin slivers. That green stuff will dry out and you can store in a tinder bundle.

The biggest issue is finding a branch of appropriate thickness as to fit, but not break off and clog up the tip. I would stay away from pine. But, if you're in a pine forest, you can use needles for tinder.

 

Cool idea, I never would have thought of that.

 

Macgyver would unscrew the blade....wedge it in a chopstick and perform open heart surgery with it in lieu of a scalpel.

but seriously...if you did lose a knife....or had the knife confiscated...you'd still have a blade to cut with....not much, but better than fingernails or nothing.


a dual size sharpener will give you two blades...and allow you to insert sticks of slightly larger diameter than the standard single sharpener at the cost of little increase in bulk and weight.

 

If I were to carry tinder in my pack, I can do better that drying. I picked up downed pencil sized twigs to give it a try. Some are too soft from the decay process, but others produced dry tinder and were green. As a pencil sharpener is small and weighs little so including one in a day pack is easy.

Sizing a small branch with a knife would yield thicker shavings and tinder from the sharpener. I can't get by without a knife/folder and a small Swiss army knife for the tweezers and toothpick.

 

Or use one made for construction pencils. or large diameter kids pencils. As for Macgyver, I once saw him unscrew a garden rake handle(WTF) screw it onto a garden hose(WTF) use it as a grapnel and climb silently over a balcony railing(WTF) and take out half a dozen bad guys with big guns, barehanded from behind. Macgyver is completely full of doodoo.

 

Here is an example with dry hardwood (Dogwood I believe). Less that two minutes from stick to flame using my ol trusty fire stick and Mr. Speedy.

 

If you could find a metal pencil sharpener you could also throw a flint in with it and have a nice little fire making kit. Staedtler Handheld Metal Manual Pencil Sharpener, Silver:Amazonffice Products something like this maybe. I think I will need to try this.

 

DON'T SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT MACGYVER!

He's my hero.

 

I like your thinking, but as far as I can see, metal pencil sharpener casings are made of aluminium which probably will not produce a spark when struck against a flint. The sharpening blade is of steel though and if a flint is struck against it, it may well work. so even a plastic pencil sharpener could possibly be used as a means of fire lighting.

 

Heh, cool idea, thanks!

 

I must give credit where it is due: that idea is from Jake Griebe of The School of Wilderness Medicine and Survival. He is a paramedic and former Marine.

Check out his site.

 

I like some of his other stuff like the epipen...

How to Access Unused Epinephrine from an EpiPen