Fire lighting with flint

[DougieH]

Watched a video last night on lighting a fire with flint and steel, and thought I would have a go at it. So tonight I went into the garage and had a play. Had some bits of flint and an old broken file, which seemed to throw a few sparks. On the video the chap made char punk wood I think it was called, instead of cloth. So to start with I got some old rotted wood from my log pile, put it in a tobacco tin, punched a hole in the lid and stuck it on my coke can stove.



Making the char.



Before and after.



Success!!!



My file and flint that I used. Dead chuffed I managed to get the fire going. But there was a few times that I got the ember, blew lots of smoke but didn't manage a flame. Will be doing this again. Thanks for reading.

 

[TarHeelBrit]

Nice job and a good post. I've been in the same boat as you with the ember and not getting a flame going F&S firelighting is so dependent on everything working in perfect unison. For me my biggest problem was getting the ember from the char to the tinder I must have gone through an entire pair of jeans worth of char messing round with different tinders. I love how they make it look so easy on YT videos that why bother with anything else. It's quite an acheivement when you make your first fire using F&S.

 

[DougieH]

Thanks TarHeelBrit, it was a great feeling getting that first flame. Just received a couple of cheap ferro rods, tried them last night and had good sparks, lit a piece of toilet paper the a bit later a cotton wool ball that I then used to light my main fire. Great fun.

 

[Robson Valley]

We have a TV series here, called "Survivorman" with a guy name of Les Stroud.
He carries a container of dry grass. Pound some of that into fiber with a stone
to make the core of a fire bundle which you can actually pick up even when lit.

I agree that practice, when you least need it, is the best teacher for when you do.
All I have is the usual block of magnesium metal with a rod down the side.
With some shavings and some tinder, 30 seconds was the best I ever did.