Flint and Steel Questions

[Goose]

The "fireball" is made of ferricomium and works differently to a flint, a flint takes the sparks from the steel striker, with a ferricomium rod the steel, it usually comes with a piece of hacksaw but the back of your knife will do, takes the spark from the rod. it gives off a good shower of sparks compared to flint and steel and will ignite some tinders straight off bypassing the ember stage.
It is a lot easier to use than flint and steel, but is a modern material it is good in an emergency and there are several brands/types around.

 

[jamesraykenney]

The "fireball" is made of ferricomium and works differently to a flint, a flint takes the sparks from the steel striker, with a ferricomium rod the steel, it usually comes with a piece of hacksaw but the back of your knife will do, takes the spark from the rod. it gives off a good shower of sparks compared to flint and steel and will ignite some tinders straight off bypassing the ember stage.
It is a lot easier to use than flint and steel, but is a modern material it is good in an emergency and there are several brands/types around.

If you really want to see some sparks, strike one of THOSE with a flint!!!

The harder the striker is, the better the sparks!

 

[rich59]

Is there any steel you can't get a spark out of?

Deliberately provocative question. Drag a bit of ordinary steel behind your car and you get sparks I am told.

I have made fire with an ordinary garden spade. You need a bigger, faster flint for the softer metals. In this case I got a fist sized flint and struck hard, glancing blows along the side edge of the spade blade. The resulting sparks came off at a fair speed, scattering from the impact point. So, I used a large piece of charcloth to spread round the spade in a ring on the floor. Oh, and wearing a glove helps protect your knuckles.

 

[jason01]

All youre doing is cutting off and heating up a tiny bit of steel to burning point with friction, Ive seen sparks off a swiss army knife blade when I dropped it on a hard floor in a dark room but I wouldnt want to rely on one to start a fire If you ever use a grinder of any sort you will indeed find that most any kind of steel will spark under the right circumstances which is why hand tools for use in explosive spark hazard environments arent made of steel at all but usually phosphour bronze.

The quality and the quantity of the sparks and how easy they are to produce is however not equal for different types of steel, the harder it is and the higher the carbon content the better it seems to burn, up to a point