Firesteel and [replacement for flint]
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andyn
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Quartz is an option. The sparks arent as hot as those that flint can produce but with a little practice and patience you can light charcloth with it easy enough.
See here if your not sure what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz
See here if your not sure what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz
British Red said:
Agate ? Great got those too ! I forgot to say but huh, I used to collect minerals / stones (semi-precious and some precious ones).
Perhaps I should try the ones I have in double in order to test them. Not gonna give a go to my emerald tho...
I knoew flint like stone was very rare naturally in Scotland but I searched around and found this map which is fascinating...
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_109/109_007_021.pdf
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_109/109_007_021.pdf
Flint is just a hard/sharp edge used to "chip" little bits of steel out of the striking surface of your flint striker or fire steel. The energy involved in chipping out those little bits of steel heats them up enough that the carbon in the burns - that's the sparks you see.
So, most any hard rock will work - some better than others. The key part is that sharp edge. With flint, you can get a sharper/thinner edge than other types of stone, and it holds that sharp edge longer than others. The sharp edges on most other types of stone tend to break or crumble faster.
Quartz works, but cracks/crumbles faster than flint. Chirt/Chert is a softer and coarser version of flint, and crumbles faster. Granite will work, but it's hard to get a sharp enough edge in the first place, and the grain structure is much coarser. The edges crumble pretty fast also. Slate will even work - a time or two before you end up with gravel. Some fancy 1600's and 1700's flint striker sets actually included and used cut/sawn/polished pieces of jasper and agate.
Don't use Obsidian! It is volcanic glass, and crumbles even faster than normal glass. And the chards are EXTREMELY SHARP/THIN! You can use it to get sparks, buy you also have a high likelihood of bleeding from lots of small cuts, and ending up with little pieces of obsidian lodged in those cuts. Some doctors use obsidian flakes for doing eye surgery. You can get the edge down to one molecule thick! And the edge is smooth, where the cutting edge of a scalpel looks like a jagged saw under high magnification. So the cuts are very smooth instead of ragged. Just be careful around Obsidian.
All of the above is premised on you using a traditional Flint Striker (fire steel) made from high carbon tool steel - instead of those modern Fire Steels made from ferro-cerrium.
I hope this helps. Experiment with what rocks you have available. Flint just tends to work better.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mike Ameling
So, most any hard rock will work - some better than others. The key part is that sharp edge. With flint, you can get a sharper/thinner edge than other types of stone, and it holds that sharp edge longer than others. The sharp edges on most other types of stone tend to break or crumble faster.
Quartz works, but cracks/crumbles faster than flint. Chirt/Chert is a softer and coarser version of flint, and crumbles faster. Granite will work, but it's hard to get a sharp enough edge in the first place, and the grain structure is much coarser. The edges crumble pretty fast also. Slate will even work - a time or two before you end up with gravel. Some fancy 1600's and 1700's flint striker sets actually included and used cut/sawn/polished pieces of jasper and agate.
Don't use Obsidian! It is volcanic glass, and crumbles even faster than normal glass. And the chards are EXTREMELY SHARP/THIN! You can use it to get sparks, buy you also have a high likelihood of bleeding from lots of small cuts, and ending up with little pieces of obsidian lodged in those cuts. Some doctors use obsidian flakes for doing eye surgery. You can get the edge down to one molecule thick! And the edge is smooth, where the cutting edge of a scalpel looks like a jagged saw under high magnification. So the cuts are very smooth instead of ragged. Just be careful around Obsidian.
All of the above is premised on you using a traditional Flint Striker (fire steel) made from high carbon tool steel - instead of those modern Fire Steels made from ferro-cerrium.
I hope this helps. Experiment with what rocks you have available. Flint just tends to work better.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mike Ameling
Strange! The URL didn't show on the main page. However, when I used the 'Quote' function to reply to the post, there it was. Solution was to cut and paste the URL from the quote and bingo! Great paper since I live in NE Scotland!, Thanks :You_Rock_
Brilliant find Woodsmoke 
.
I stopped once at the beach at Stirling Village and found some wee busted-up weathered flakes. Didn't know at the time that Boddam Den was inland(my first rockhunt ), had just been told there was flint on the beach.
It's funny reading the first sentence there, written 30 years ago.
After posting here a while back I got an email from a chap who's compiling a database of tool grade rock in Scotland to assist archeologists. He was interested in the light green glassy pitchstone from McCulloch's listing so I fed him all the maps, pics and vein diagrams that I'd come across. Nice guy, continuing the work .
They missed the jasper in the Campsies. I thought that classified as chert, or is it chalcedony, like bloodstone.
Sorry to ramble. Cheers again Woodsmoke. I owe you a big chunk of Norfolk's finest gunflint quality if we ever meet(or I could chuck a lump out the car round your way and let you know which field it landed in, then you get the rockhounding kick as well ).
.I stopped once at the beach at Stirling Village and found some wee busted-up weathered flakes. Didn't know at the time that Boddam Den was inland(my first rockhunt
), had just been told there was flint on the beach. It's funny reading the first sentence there, written 30 years ago.
After posting here a while back I got an email from a chap who's compiling a database of tool grade rock in Scotland to assist archeologists. He was interested in the light green glassy pitchstone from McCulloch's listing so I fed him all the maps, pics and vein diagrams that I'd come across. Nice guy, continuing the work
. They missed the jasper in the Campsies. I thought that classified as chert, or is it chalcedony, like bloodstone
.Sorry to ramble. Cheers again Woodsmoke. I owe you a big chunk of Norfolk's finest gunflint quality if we ever meet(or I could chuck a lump out the car round your way and let you know which field it landed in, then you get the rockhounding kick as well
).
rich59 said:
Hi, Richard.
There seems to be a bit of confusion associated with this topic.
The term FIRE STEEL has two different meanings these days.
A Traditional FIRE STEEL is also referred to as a FLINT STRIKER. It is a piece of hardened high carbon tool steel. To get sparks from it, you have to lightly "tick" it against a sharp edge of a piece of flint. That sharp edge then digs or chips out a small bit of steel from your flint striker. The energy involved in chipping out those little bits of steel causes them to heat up enough that the carbon in them burns. That's the sparks you see.
The Modern FIRE STEEL is a man-made composit material called Ferro Cerrium. To get sparks from it, all you have to do is scrape along it with most any sharp edged item - and you get great showers of hot sparks. But that is because of all the alloys mixed together to create that little rod. It is the same material that is built into a cigarette lighter.
So it can get confusing when someone talks about a FIRE STEEL. Which one is being referred to? And just to complicate things a bit more, there are books and TV programs (like the Survivor show here in the States) where they call it FLINT - where that ferro cerrium rod is often glued into a groove along a block of magnesium.
So, in the case of this discussion, we have been discussing flint and other types of rock to use in conjunction with a Traditional Fire Steel or Flint Striker.
I hope this helps clearify the issue.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Thanks
Mike Ameling
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