I have this insatiable appetite for building and creating, which usually manifests itself in a new project that I buy the parts for and then lose rapidly interest. Last weekend, I got the bug again, except this time I already owned all the parts, and there were only two of them. Folks, that is beginning of a success story.
I use a 3/8″ x 4″ firesteel to light most fires, since I can usually get things going more quickly with it then I can with a lighter. Probably because I spend more time preparing the tinder instead of attempting to light a piece of wet cardboard with a mini Bic, but that is beside the point. A blank firesteel is slightly awkward to hold, and since my dad has been “making” some hardwood handles for three months now, I decided to come up with my own handle. A handle that you just hold onto is boring, so I thought one that you could stuff stuff into would be wonderful. I have seen similar contraptions made before with success, so I figured I could make it work. Luckily, I happened to have a couple thousand capsules sitting around.
I drilled a hole in the bottom of the capsule with my trusty Ridgid Lithium drill, inserted the firesteel, then filled in the caps with JB Kwik. JB Kwik is actually quite quick (kwik?), so I had to make sure that the firesteel was inserted relatively straight, and then it was all done.
I think it turned out pretty well. The firesteel is a lot easier to grip onto now, and I can see this being a benefit in cold weather if I am wearing gloves or my dexterity is not at its usual Da Vinci level. I love my Sparky, but there is something to be said for a 4″ shower of sparks raining fire down on some tinder. That something to be said is probably that I have issues, but we’ll ignore those thoughts for now.