Blade steel and Firesteels

[Pablo]

I know this might be a stuid question (there is such a thing if it comes from moi ), but can someone explain why some steels in knife blades work well with firesteels and some don't? What is the main constituent to make a blade work well with a firesteel? Finally, is HRC a strength rating?

Cheers in advance,

Pablo.

 

[leon-b]

HRC relates to how how hard the knife blade is which is measured on the rockwell scale, i think ???
i think its just hardness that effects the spark producing, anything harder than the firestell will produce sparks aslong as it has a sharp edge
leon

 

[JonathanD]

What Leon said, plus a very square sharp edge. With a lttle file work to the spine of a knife to get a sharp 90 degree angle, you should get great results from most steels. You can get great sparks off glass.

 

[Dave Budd]

yep. The material doesn't matter as long as it's sharp. But with use softer blades will dull and not work so well. I've used all sorts of daft thngs to demonstrate this point to people. broken mugs, glass, High brass (hard, pale coloured brass), even teh odd knife blade

 

[Singeblister]

ahh I never knew that I always thought it was the carbon steel that did it and stainless didn't work , don't know where that came from but I never put it to the test as all my knives are carbon anway

 

[Dougster]

I managed to light a featherstick with a firesteel tonight, off the back of my Sandvik bushy. Pretty chuffed I was too.

 

[Draven]

HRC isn't necessarily a strength rating. It just refers to the hardness of the metal. The harder the blade, the sharper it can be and the longer it will retain the edge, but it will be prone to breaking. A soft blade will be easy to sharpen, but won't get as sharp and won't stay that way. Hence why it's often advisable to have an inner core of a high HRC and outer layers of low HRC - to keep flexibility, while still having the edge retention of a hard blade. Alternatively, some have a hard edge with a soft spine - to each their own!
Either way, I believe a good hardness for general purpose knife blades is oft' considered to be around 57-59 HRC.

 

[leon-b]

An example of hardness was when i made a screwdriver at school, i hardened it in the forge and was carrying it around about to temper it when i dropped it on the floor by accident, it was so hard and brittle that it just snapped, with tempering it would have never happened
leon

 

[Galemys]

ahh I never knew that I always thought it was the carbon steel that did it and stainless didn't work , don't know where that came from but I never put it to the test as all my knives are carbon anway

You are also right. For a traditional firesteel (= flint & steel), the steel must be made of (hard) carbonsteel.
For a modern firesteel (ferrocerium rod) anything hard & sharp enough will do the job.

Tom