Well gonna try and 'fashion' a steel out of a horseshoe........sure I read somewhere that it will work.....has the striker part got to be less than 90o? Sure I read that as well any tips? ta
flint and steel
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Most that I've seen, rust enough to be carbon steel, I just don't know if they're hard enough to get sparks from.Snufkin said:
Good luck Tommy, please let us know how you get on.
ATB
Ogri the trog
Well this is deffo rusted!!!!! 
Got it from a my cousin who is into horses...........this looks fairly ancient so thought I may have a go. My mates got oxy-acet and a good compressor so I thought I would see what we could come up with!
It could only not work after all
any ideas on the 90o question?
D
Got it from a my cousin who is into horses...........this looks fairly ancient so thought I may have a go. My mates got oxy-acet and a good compressor so I thought I would see what we could come up with!It could only not work after all
any ideas on the 90o question?D
Horse shoes tend to have too low of a carbon content to make a good flint striker. And any carbon steel will rust, irreguardless of the carbon content - so very little can be learned about the carbon content from looking at the rust. Some old horseshoes were made up from scrap steel welded together to make a piece big enough for a horseshoe, and some of that scrap could have included some tool steel. But it's not that likely.
So, in general, a horseshoe will not have a high enough carbon content to make a good flint striker. I would recommend that you start with some known spring/tool steel. Like a lawnmower blade, garage door spring, or a modern hayrake tooth. I can buy a new hayrake tooth at the farm store for $1.09 usd. I end up with approximately 3 feet of round high-carbon steel rod that is 1/4 inch thick - when I unwind the curls and straighten it out. It takes between 5 and 7 inches to make a classic C shaped flint striker, so you can get around a half dozen flint strikers from each hayrake tooth.
Horseshoes are generally made from common low-carbon steel. Somewhere around 1020 steel - with 20 points of carbon. Garage door springs and hayrake teeth are around 1095 high-carbon steel - with 95 points of carbon. Lawnmower blades tend to be made from 1085 carbon steel or 5160 carbon alloy steel (other metal alloys mixed in) - both will work well for a flint striker, or even a knife blade.
Shape/style of flint striker is up to you. The classic C shape shows up from the very early Roman times on up to the present. It's one of the most common styles/shapes. To heat-treat it, you heat it up to the point where a magnet will no longer stick to the steel. Then you quench it quickly (cool it) in either water or oil. It should now be as hard as you can get it, and should throw pretty good sparks. But it will also be kind of brittle. So some people then bake it in an oven at aroung 500 to 600 degrees (F) for an hour or so - to releive some of the internal stress and brittleness.
Good luck on your project, but I would advise against starting with a horseshoe.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mike Ameling
p.s. Don't know what you mean by the 90o question. Something must be "lost in translation" crossing the Pond.
So, in general, a horseshoe will not have a high enough carbon content to make a good flint striker. I would recommend that you start with some known spring/tool steel. Like a lawnmower blade, garage door spring, or a modern hayrake tooth. I can buy a new hayrake tooth at the farm store for $1.09 usd. I end up with approximately 3 feet of round high-carbon steel rod that is 1/4 inch thick - when I unwind the curls and straighten it out. It takes between 5 and 7 inches to make a classic C shaped flint striker, so you can get around a half dozen flint strikers from each hayrake tooth.
Horseshoes are generally made from common low-carbon steel. Somewhere around 1020 steel - with 20 points of carbon. Garage door springs and hayrake teeth are around 1095 high-carbon steel - with 95 points of carbon. Lawnmower blades tend to be made from 1085 carbon steel or 5160 carbon alloy steel (other metal alloys mixed in) - both will work well for a flint striker, or even a knife blade.
Shape/style of flint striker is up to you. The classic C shape shows up from the very early Roman times on up to the present. It's one of the most common styles/shapes. To heat-treat it, you heat it up to the point where a magnet will no longer stick to the steel. Then you quench it quickly (cool it) in either water or oil. It should now be as hard as you can get it, and should throw pretty good sparks. But it will also be kind of brittle. So some people then bake it in an oven at aroung 500 to 600 degrees (F) for an hour or so - to releive some of the internal stress and brittleness.
Good luck on your project, but I would advise against starting with a horseshoe.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mike Ameling
p.s. Don't know what you mean by the 90o question. Something must be "lost in translation" crossing the Pond.
Thanks for all your comments and especially Mike for the technical stuff! :You_Rock_
I have got to agree with what you have said from experience ..... I can get a spark from the horse shoe but very poor. I wasn't sure if it was down to my technique but quite glad it wasn't and due to the low carbon.Not quite sure what a hayrake tooth is Mike but I do know what a lawn mower blade is!
Thankfully I never wasted any time on the shoe just tried it in the raw state.
Cheers Dave
Ps Mike your work rocks
I have got to agree with what you have said from experience ..... I can get a spark from the horse shoe but very poor. I wasn't sure if it was down to my technique but quite glad it wasn't and due to the low carbon.Not quite sure what a hayrake tooth is Mike but I do know what a lawn mower blade is!
Thankfully I never wasted any time on the shoe just tried it in the raw state.
Cheers Dave
Ps Mike your work rocks
Slight thread hijack.
Anyone have a recomendation of where I can buy a steel and the best one to buy?
Anyone have a recomendation of where I can buy a steel and the best one to buy?
SteveR,
Jason 01 on here does some fine ones. I also played with one called "dragon bones" by a member ehre (firestarter?) - very impressed in terms of form and function!
Red
Jason 01 on here does some fine ones. I also played with one called "dragon bones" by a member ehre (firestarter?) - very impressed in terms of form and function!
Red
Steve R said:
MIke Ameling
a couple of posts above, makes really nice fire steels, I should know I just got one. very reasonably priced too.Stephen
Here is some that mike made also some by someone else but his gives better spark
click to make bigger
click to make bigger
I've been known to beat up some steel into something resembling a flint striker - on occasion.
Style/shape of a flint striker, also called a fire steel over the past several centuries, is a matter of personal choice. Some people want simple functionality, and generally go with the C shaped striker. The C shape is one of the oldest shapes out there - starting way back in very early Roman times with the first uses of iron/steel, and has remained in use through the centuries on up to present times. There are many little variations on the C shape over the centuries and assorted cultures, but it is the most common shape flint striker. And then there are all the other shapes and styles that vary by culture, geographical region, and time period. Literally dozens of different shapes/styles. Such a simple everyday tool, with over 2500 years of use.
There are a lot of people and companies that make and/or sell flint strikers. As noted below, several members of this board make them - myself included. A search for "flint striker" on ebay will usually show you an assortment listed for sale and in people's "ebay store". If you know a good blacksmith, he/she should be able to make you one. There is a company out of India called Deepeeka that makes a lot of historically based stuff for people doing Living History demonstrations/presentations. They have at least half a dozen different styles/shapes on their web site. (They also do a lot of Roman, Medieval, and Viking era arms and armour) Here in the States we have a bunch of companies to choose from, like Dixie Gun Works, Track of the Wolf, Bradley Company of the Fox, Avalon Forge, Jas. Townsend and Son, Crazy Crow Trading Post, and numerous others. Most of these have web sites, and many will ship "across the pond".
The best phrase to use when doing a web search is for "flint striker". If you search for "fire steel", you will also get all the listings for the modern ferro-cerrium rod fire starters.
I hope this helps.
Mike Ameling
Alledged Blacksmith and known Iron Torturer
Style/shape of a flint striker, also called a fire steel over the past several centuries, is a matter of personal choice. Some people want simple functionality, and generally go with the C shaped striker. The C shape is one of the oldest shapes out there - starting way back in very early Roman times with the first uses of iron/steel, and has remained in use through the centuries on up to present times. There are many little variations on the C shape over the centuries and assorted cultures, but it is the most common shape flint striker. And then there are all the other shapes and styles that vary by culture, geographical region, and time period. Literally dozens of different shapes/styles. Such a simple everyday tool, with over 2500 years of use.
There are a lot of people and companies that make and/or sell flint strikers. As noted below, several members of this board make them - myself included. A search for "flint striker" on ebay will usually show you an assortment listed for sale and in people's "ebay store". If you know a good blacksmith, he/she should be able to make you one. There is a company out of India called Deepeeka that makes a lot of historically based stuff for people doing Living History demonstrations/presentations. They have at least half a dozen different styles/shapes on their web site. (They also do a lot of Roman, Medieval, and Viking era arms and armour) Here in the States we have a bunch of companies to choose from, like Dixie Gun Works, Track of the Wolf, Bradley Company of the Fox, Avalon Forge, Jas. Townsend and Son, Crazy Crow Trading Post, and numerous others. Most of these have web sites, and many will ship "across the pond".
The best phrase to use when doing a web search is for "flint striker". If you search for "fire steel", you will also get all the listings for the modern ferro-cerrium rod fire starters.
I hope this helps.
Mike Ameling
Alledged Blacksmith and known Iron Torturer
Would I be able to use the steel from old scaffold clamps as a striker?
I would presume, but I am obviously not sure, that they would be made of a tool grade steel but feel free to correct me if I am wrong of course!
I would presume, but I am obviously not sure, that they would be made of a tool grade steel but feel free to correct me if I am wrong of course!
Greg said:Would I be able to use the steel from old scaffold clamps as a striker?
I would presume, but I am obviously not sure, that they would be made of a tool grade steel but feel free to correct me if I am wrong of course!
Hmmm ... so hard to tell without having the original manufacturer's spec sheet. My initial thouhts would be no. The carbon content is probably not high enough to make a good flint striker.
The classic way to tell is with the "spark test". You do this with a grinding wheel - like a bench grinder. You press the steel to the grinding wheel, and observe the sparks coming from it. Short white sparkling ones show pretty high carbon content. Long dull red sparks with few sparkles mean little of no carbon content in the steel.
Scrounged steel is fun to work with, but sometimes hard to identify just what type you have. That's why I try to work with some known steels - either new steel or things I have already identified.
I've got about a dozen well made and shaped flint strikers sitting on the shelf right next to my computer. They look great, but when I made them, I picked up a piece of low-carbon steel to start with. So, all that work and they won't spark! Doing this a couple times really teaches you that lesson. (OK, I'm a slow learner, and it took me a few more times.) Know what steel you are starting with! Oh, well. They will make a great display - some day. I'll just have to keep them locked away under glass so that nobody tries to use them.
Just my humble thoughts to share.
Mike Ameling
Mike Ameling said:
Thankyou Mike, your advice is appreciated
I will put them to the grinder test tomorrow after I have had a decent nights sleep!!
Cheers my friend...
I found this thread as I had wondered about using a horseshoe as a striker, seeing I have a couple of them lying around the garden.
I don't know if this would work to increase the carbon content, but I saw one of the Mythbusters programmes recently where they were trying to increase the carbon content of a bit of metal - they heated it up on a barbecue and then quenched it in a bath of old engine oil.
I'm not sure my wife would like me doing this in the garden, but it would be an interesting experiment.
Geoff
I don't know if this would work to increase the carbon content, but I saw one of the Mythbusters programmes recently where they were trying to increase the carbon content of a bit of metal - they heated it up on a barbecue and then quenched it in a bath of old engine oil.
I'm not sure my wife would like me doing this in the garden, but it would be an interesting experiment.
Geoff
