Carbon steel knife to start a fire

by HarGopal Boyd
(Port Townsend, WA)

I don't have a favorite brand of knife there are many good ones out there. I do however prefer carbon steel (or high carbon) over stainless. There is an added value to having a carbon steel knife in a survival situation over the stainless. You can strike flint if you find some and get a spark but you won't get a spark with the stainless very often if at all and they won't of the intense incendiary spark like the burning fragment of carbon steel.

This is why you will often notice that the old survivalist and woodsmen always carry a carbon steel knife. Plus that easy of sharpening this steel means that you can use almost any stone that you find to sharpen it.