The Knife/Striker combo tool is mostly a ... gimick or fad. They are hard to use because of the Heat-Treat problems involved in making them. The flint striker handle part almost always ends up waaaay too soft to work well sparking. The blade needs to be heat-treated hard and then tempered back a bit to make it less brittle. But that striker handle portion needs to be as hard as you can get it to work well as a striker. And that makes the handle brittle and much more susceptible to breaking.
These combo tools tend to break into two parts - the blade and the handle. And that is because of the differences between the heat-treat in those two parts. It creates something of an internal stress line where the two different heat-treats meet.
There are a few (very few) original examples. But my opinion of them is that they were made as a knife, and the maker just extended the tang and looped it back for a handle. And people then "theorized" that the handle was used as a flint striker because it resembled half of that classic C shaped flint striker. But that's just my opinion.
Why "larp" was included in the title? Marketing, plain and simple. Add extra terms so more people end up seeing the listing.
In my humble opinion, forget about these ... combo tools. Get a real knife and a real flint striker. Each will then function properly, and can be used independantly. The "combo tool" concept of idea is nice, but you end up with too many compromises on the various functions to make it all work together.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
