Hi, I have just joined an outdoor education centre which has fire lighting as part of our sessions and we have around 50 of the traditional steels to use with flint which we gather locally. A lot of the steels don't work anymore and we are about to replace them but as a charity I am trying to save us some money. Do the steels get worn out? Can they be refurbished, retreated, retempered, recoated? Or is it likely that the flints we are using are too blunt? They were probably cheap when we bought them but if they worked once then I am guessing they shouldn't have 'run out' within a few years. Any advice on this would be appreciated. Thanks
Can Steels Get Worn Out?
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The sharp, hard, flint scrapes a piece off the iron, but in doing so it's fast and full on energy, (the strike) and that makes the ripped off metal 'spark' red hot.
Are you sure you have flint ? and not chert ?....good chert is as good a mediocre flint, but poor chert just isn't hard enough.
Look for the classic signs on broken flint, the concoidal fractures, etc., the edges ought to be sharp, sharp enough to easily cut skin.
If they're not, break the edge again until it is.
I know people who make fire with broken glass and a steel; it just needs to be sharp and hard enough to scratch off the metal quickly enough to cause that spark.
Steels do wear done, but they are worn away worn done, as in nothing left of them, and that takes years and years of use to do so.
Are you sure you have flint ? and not chert ?....good chert is as good a mediocre flint, but poor chert just isn't hard enough.
Look for the classic signs on broken flint, the concoidal fractures, etc., the edges ought to be sharp, sharp enough to easily cut skin.
If they're not, break the edge again until it is.
I know people who make fire with broken glass and a steel; it just needs to be sharp and hard enough to scratch off the metal quickly enough to cause that spark.
Steels do wear done, but they are worn away worn done, as in nothing left of them, and that takes years and years of use to do so.
Depends a bit on the type of steel used. Usually, the steel is a high carbon, low alloy and it would be fully quenched so all the area that you strike would be hard. Then the only issue is that over time the striking face gets grooved and ridged, which in my experience makes it less good for striking sparks. The fix for this is to grind the striking face flat again, can be done with an angle grinder at a low angle with care, or a belt sander. By hand would be laborious. I would try that before replacing.
I suppose there is a chance that really cheap, imported steels, might be only case hardened and over time the hard case is worn away. You might try filing the striking face. Properly hard steel should just skate a file, no bite. If you have worn through a case hardening, the file might be expected to bite somewhat.
Flint does blunt and need to be re-knapped regularly to refresh the sharp edge.
I suppose there is a chance that really cheap, imported steels, might be only case hardened and over time the hard case is worn away. You might try filing the striking face. Properly hard steel should just skate a file, no bite. If you have worn through a case hardening, the file might be expected to bite somewhat.
Flint does blunt and need to be re-knapped regularly to refresh the sharp edge.
