Authentic Strike a Light Flints

[Paul W]

Don't know much about firelighting so I was hoping anyone with experience could give an opinion.

Brandon Knappers knapped strike a lights for tinderboxes in the UK for 500 years, presumably adopting the standards methods from the past. They had pretty much the monopoly for the last two centuries till their demise about 60-70 years ago. As far as I know only one survives today in the Museum of London. I found this illustration of it and had a go at reproducing it.





As you can see the one in the picture seems to have been used and retouched a several times.

They made there strike a lights to a standard design and size which raises several questions, so what I was wondering is if anyone can read anything into this design. Why round? Why so neately knapped? Are there any advantages or is it just for appearence? Most modern firelighters seem to use random shards of flint, is there any difference. Any other observations you can make into the intricacies of firelighting would be great, thanks.

 

[John Fenna]

I would think that it is round to fit neatly into a tinder box, that it is flat to make holding tinder onto it easy, neatly knapped to look good.
As I only ever bother to use rough bits of surface flint (flint and steel are my favourite way of starting fire) I cannot see any real advantage in having a neat flint.
I think it is the case of - a poor man/ everyday user makes do with a bic lighter while the rich man/special occassion user gets out the engraved solid gold ronson lighter.
Status and bling!

 

[spandit]

If it was obvious that any old bit of flint would do then they probably wouldn't sell many! As John says, bling

 

[Paul W]

Thanks,

I should have added the diameter is 2 inches, so it's damn big, the one in the illustration then is almost half an inch thick at the thickest end. This would make resharpening it for an inexperienced buyer very difficult and not exactly a comfy fit for a small portable tinderbox. However the inconvenience does add to the bling factor.

 

[redneck]

Very impressive looking! Flint and steel is my favourite fire lightling method too, and I only ever use shards of flint,mind you if I could knap like that I'd probably use those instead!

 

[bushcraftbob]

Thats pretty! Looks a bit like a bottle top.