Bulldog Ignitor Points have weak spark

[H.P. Firmin III]

I rebuilt the ignitor on my 2.5 HP Bulldog and made new points out of 1/4" solid copper rod. Spark is very weak, blue but thin, like static electricity. Battery is hot, have great ground,points line up perfectly and are touching flat against each other. Whats my problem? Are the points too heavy? Wrong Material? Thanks for your help in advance!

[Steve Kreiner]

I don't think copper make good point material I have used nails before and they work good for me.

[H.P. Firmin III]

Just a common steel framing nail? Is there an alloy that works better? Thanks!

[Eric M.]

Steel works fine and throws a nice fat spark. Stainless steel works fine too. You COULD use platinum, but you will not see enough improvement to warrant the cost. Many factory ignitors were cast iron on cast iron.

[cobbadog]

I knew a bloke who used to use our countries 5 cent coin (high content of silver). He silver soldered them in place then draw filed them smooth and then used an oil stone to polish them. He used this type of contacts on electric forklifts which worked on 48 volts. Now I do know here in Oz it is illegal to deface the coins but he just didnt care about that because to buy the real contacts were over $100.00 per set.
P.S. His contacts outlasted the genuine ones by up to 3 times.

[Gary Pflum]

Just a dumb question. Are you using a coil on your engine or a correct coil? I do know if you take a battery, coil, and copper wire and hook them up in a series and touch the wire ends together they will spark as good as the points will within reason. On the same note if you touch the copper wires together several times the copper will start to show electrical damage. Wrap the copper wire ends around two nails and touch them several times. The steel nails will show less damage.