Fire steel.

[Pattree]

I’ll give the saw blade a try. I’ve used it on ferro. The only flint sparks that I’ve seen are tiny and short lived.

Does flint vary as far as fire making goes.

I’ll be in Norfolk in a few weeks where I once went on an “Architectural Flint Tour” of houses around the town. There is flint that shapes, flint that splits and flint that is best left whole for cladding.

I wonder if there is good and not so good flint for sparks.

 

[forrestdweller]

flint and steel is my preferred method to start my daily cooking fire (the inly ferro rod i regrettably bought has been chucked away long, long time ago because of it's UNreliablity (it came from a swedish company daring to misname their product "firesteel"...)) -- my striker is a broken piece of a "lima cuchillo" (==basically a toothless file used by locals to sharpen machetes), but some "normal" files here don't work at all, i understand that has to do with different manufacturing methods?!

 

[demented dale]

flint and steel is my preferred method to start my daily cooking fire (the inly ferro rod i regrettably bought has been chucked away long, long time ago because of it's UNreliablity (it came from a swedish company daring to misname their product "firesteel"...)) -- my striker is a broken piece of a "lima cuchillo" (==basically a toothless file used by locals to sharpen machetes), but some "normal" files here don't work at all, i understand that has to do with different manufacturing methods?!

I have a bit of old file and piece of flint. It works ok if I use charcloth but hard to get it ignite much else, I must try that with some birch bark dust. x

 

[demented dale]

Currently I am asking £15.00 and for that you get a prepared file steel striker, a bunch of flint and a chunk of charcloth all in a leather pouch

Thats not bad John x

 

[forrestdweller]

I have a bit of old file and piece of flint. It works ok if I use charcloth but hard to get it ignite much else, I must try that with some birch bark dust. x

i haven't found any tree funghi around here which work, so my go-to tinder is charred punkwood. unlike some guys on youtube i only char one end instead the whole piece as it makes it easier to hold (tinder on top of flint, downwards strike with steel) because it's less fragile + i can get several uses out of one piece. about eight and a half years ago i started a fire either with magnifying glass or bowdrill (can't remember) after making the HUGE mistake of coming to central america, using it to char some punkwood and have kept the chain going since...

 

[Watch-keeper]

I have pretty much the same set up at John even down to the tea towel charcloth I thin ive had my bit of file for 20 years. I have also made crude steels at home with some scrap of O1 steel, and a hacksaw, file to shape it and a Brenner blowtorch(using their special gas) in a crude brick furnace to harden it. They have mostly turned out quite good and throw sparks quite well although some of them didn't harden completely and were too soft.

 

[John Fenna]

The "fancy" steels that I have forged from old files have been rehardened after the forging (using an old BBQ for a furnace) by taking them to a bright orange heat and then throwing in a bucket of water. It worked very well although some of the steels were a little brittle ... fine for striking sparks but I would not want one to be dropped from a height onto a concrete floor ...