tips for flint & steel
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Find a sharp edge on your flint shard and hold firmly in a way that the edge is more or less horizontal but angled upwards as if you were shaving a sliver of metal of the steel as you bring it sharply down. Also one edge of your steel may be smoother and rounder than the others strike with this edge. You only want to give the flint feather-light blows with the steel, just skiffing the edge. this way your charcloth, which is held against the top edge of the flint with your thumb, will catch the most sparks.
Ok webbie!
Hold one of the pieces of supplied flint in your left hand (if you are left handed) with a sharp edge horizontal and facing away from you (like pointing a knife away from you with the blade on its side with the cutting edge facing right)
Hold a piece of the supplied char cloth on top, about 1mm from the sharp edge, using your thumb, with one or more fingers supporting the flint underneath.
Hold the steel in a pinch grip with one of the long thin edges pointing out.
With a "snapping" wrist actionstrike the steel onto the flint so that it scrapes its length down the flint to scrape off steel shards which are the sparks you want.
The sparks should land on the char cloth and start glowing.
Put the flint and steel down, wrap the charcloth in a tube of the finest slice of birch polypore you can slice off the fungus supplied(or sandwich the charcloth between two or more slivers...)hold this carefully or use the jaws of your leatherman pliers/two twigs, and blow steadily. the polypore should soon burst into flames.
I am confident with a little practice you will get the hang of the technique.
All kits are tested before despatch so I am confident in thm working.
If you cannot get it to work I will happily refund your dosh or send you a replacement set.
John
Hold one of the pieces of supplied flint in your left hand (if you are left handed) with a sharp edge horizontal and facing away from you (like pointing a knife away from you with the blade on its side with the cutting edge facing right)
Hold a piece of the supplied char cloth on top, about 1mm from the sharp edge, using your thumb, with one or more fingers supporting the flint underneath.
Hold the steel in a pinch grip with one of the long thin edges pointing out.
With a "snapping" wrist actionstrike the steel onto the flint so that it scrapes its length down the flint to scrape off steel shards which are the sparks you want.
The sparks should land on the char cloth and start glowing.
Put the flint and steel down, wrap the charcloth in a tube of the finest slice of birch polypore you can slice off the fungus supplied(or sandwich the charcloth between two or more slivers...)hold this carefully or use the jaws of your leatherman pliers/two twigs, and blow steadily. the polypore should soon burst into flames.
I am confident with a little practice you will get the hang of the technique.
All kits are tested before despatch so I am confident in thm working.
If you cannot get it to work I will happily refund your dosh or send you a replacement set.
John
This might help you out webbie
Taken from the thread i started ages ago for making charcloth http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10049
This might also help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzeY1usbiVk
Taken from the thread i started ages ago for making charcloth http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10049
This might also help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzeY1usbiVk
How damaging is this? I have a Mora and am happy to have a go but only if it wont wreck it?? Can any steel be used or does it have to be carbon steel, can I use a piece of mesh fence or a nail?
Knives DO NOT WORK to get sparks from REAL flint for fire starting. **REPEAT THAT** Knives DO NOT WORK as a traditional flint striker!!!!! Trying to use one will scratch the back of your knife! Not to mention being dangers to operate like that.
Knife blades generally have enough carbon content in their steel, but they are heat-treated waaaaaay tooooo soft to use as a traditional flint striker.
What you are trying to do is chip/dig out little bits of the steel with a sharp edge of your flint. The energy you put in to chip/dig out those little bits of steel heats them up enough that the carbon in those bits of steel burns. That's the sparks you see/get. To do so, the steel must be heat-treated HARD - almost as hard as you can get it. But that also makes it kind of brittle - so you take a few other steps to aleviate that. Kknife blades are initially heat-treated HARD, but are then tempered back far more so that they are not as brittle. Simple high carbon steel works best. But some of the other metal alloys mixed in with some steels can interfere with sparking. No, common fencing or nails have too low of a carbon content. Think along the lines of Files, chisels, or garage door springs.
One big problem is people confuse those modern FERRO CERRIUM rods (called "fire steels" or "flint" by marketing departments) with a traditional Flint Striker - the ORIGINAL fire steel. (They were called fire steels way back in the Middle Ages already.) Those ferro cerrium rods are the same material that is in a cigarette lighter, and is a modern composite material. All you have to do is scrape them with a sharp edge to get showers of sparks. So there is a lot of confusion out there whenever anybody talks about a Fire Steel.
So don't try to use a knife blade as a traditional flint striker. It will be very hard to get any sparks, and will scratch up your knife blade.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
Many thanks for the reply, very helpful. I tried using a file today and got great sparks and now see the skill is in aiming the sparks correctly, mine were pretty random. I will try again tomorrow and will succeed I'm sure, with cotton wool anyway! many thanks again!
You can use a high carbon steel knife, but I'd only try it in an emergency or with a knife I didn't mind trashing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e16ojzcRkz0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e16ojzcRkz0
Thanks for the correction. I got into one of those "never say never" moments.
Yes, you can get some sparks from a knife blade using traditional flint. It is just VERY HARD to get good sparks - because the heat-treat is softer than with a traditional striker.
Most files can make excellent flint strikers - if they still retain their original heat-treat. But those file teeth do tend to interfere a bit. They can chew up the sharp edge of your flint really fast. If you carefully grind those teeth off of one of the thin edges and get down to full bare metal, it will work much better. But don't overheat it in the grinding. If it is getting too warm/hot to hold in your fingers, then cool it in water right away. Also grind the teeth back a little on each side/edge - like you would bevel the edge of a board in woodworking. This helps keep those teeth on the side from hitting your flint if you tilt your file a little to the side when using it as a striker.
The sparks you get from a traditional flint-n-steel are not as hot nor numerous as from those ferro-cerrium rods. You tend to have to use other materials to "catch" that initial spark. That's why people use charclothe (charred cotton/linen clothe) to catch their spark - or tinder fungus, or amadu. Those sparks might not be hot enough to catch in plain cotton wool. There are only a few natural materials that will catch that spark without some sort of prior preparation/treatment. Check out some of the other message threads for more information.
Just a few more humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
I'm too lazy to find it just now 
but after reading your other post Mike, I remembered seeing a video of a Swedish guy who was making a series of short bushcraft/survival videos. In one he got a fire going with his Fallkniven F1 and a bit of quartz - though I seem to remember he said it took a hundred or more strikes to get a decent spark!
but after reading your other post Mike, I remembered seeing a video of a Swedish guy who was making a series of short bushcraft/survival videos. In one he got a fire going with his Fallkniven F1 and a bit of quartz - though I seem to remember he said it took a hundred or more strikes to get a decent spark!
I have used hard quartz instead of flint to strike sparks. It does work, but good flint just works better.
Most of the quartz around me is too soft or crumbly. The sharp edges on it just fall apart way too fast. But every once in a while I find a piece that is almost as hard as granite. Those do work pretty good for striking sparks. But it is harder to get a THIN sharp edge.
And once you do get that spark, then you have to be able to catch it with something that it will start burning in. Getting everything to work and at the right times is the tricky part.
The Bryant and May Museum of Fire-Making Appliances published a catalog of their exhibits back in 1926. In it they also described a Scandinavian method of fire starting that used a block of Quartzite and a pointed piece of soft iron. They said it was in common use for several centuries. So I've been looking around for a piece of very hard quartz to try this out. What I have on hand just crumbles before I get any sparks. Just another one of those ... details ... in history.
Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
Most of the quartz around me is too soft or crumbly. The sharp edges on it just fall apart way too fast. But every once in a while I find a piece that is almost as hard as granite. Those do work pretty good for striking sparks. But it is harder to get a THIN sharp edge.
And once you do get that spark, then you have to be able to catch it with something that it will start burning in. Getting everything to work and at the right times is the tricky part.
The Bryant and May Museum of Fire-Making Appliances published a catalog of their exhibits back in 1926. In it they also described a Scandinavian method of fire starting that used a block of Quartzite and a pointed piece of soft iron. They said it was in common use for several centuries. So I've been looking around for a piece of very hard quartz to try this out. What I have on hand just crumbles before I get any sparks. Just another one of those ... details ... in history.
Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
I've used quartz or quartzite crystals found in the West Highlands to strike sparks from a steel - it does work, if you can find a bit with a good edge, but it's not as good as flint and it does tend to lose its edge more quickly.
The trick to aiming your sparks is simply to hold your tinder material on top of your striker, right up near the edge. Then, when you strike with a downward motion of the steel, the sparks go exactly where you want them too.
I've never been able to get a spark from the back of my knife. I guess that's what I get for buying a knife with a fancy differential heat treatment - the spine really isn't very hard at all.
The trick to aiming your sparks is simply to hold your tinder material on top of your striker, right up near the edge. Then, when you strike with a downward motion of the steel, the sparks go exactly where you want them too.
I've never been able to get a spark from the back of my knife. I guess that's what I get for buying a knife with a fancy differential heat treatment - the spine really isn't very hard at all.
I have almost got this sussed, I can make a shower of sparks but none hot enough to get even cotton wool going...... I imagine the problem is 1 of 3 things, my flint is a light colour, my file is not great steel or the angle of my flint is not sharp enough?
I would hazzard a guess that my flint angle is wrong and the shavings are to small to keep any heat but I dont know? Any ideas?
Also I cant find the thread where John is selling a proper steel, it is mentioned here but I cant find a thread....
I would hazzard a guess that my flint angle is wrong and the shavings are to small to keep any heat but I dont know? Any ideas?
Also I cant find the thread where John is selling a proper steel, it is mentioned here but I cant find a thread....
Hi Scrumpy,
Theres not much wrong with your set-up if you're getting some sparks - sure darker flint is said to be better but you are getting sparks and they won't get suddenly bigger with other flint. Similarly, changing the striker won't have a massive impact on the sparks, neither will the angle of the flint.
One thing I would reccommend you change is the tinder, cotton wool might catch from a ferrocium rod (firesteel), but charcloth is the thing for flint & striker sets - there are a few tutorials if you have a rummage.
ATB
Ogri the trog
If you are getting lots of sparks, then you are doing things right. You don't need to change anything - except for your expectations of what will catch that spark.
It will be VERY HARD to catch sparks in cotton wool with a traditional flint-n-steel set. And the same can be said about most natural tinder materials. It is VERY HARD to get those sparks to catch in natural materials. You generally need to CHAR those natural materials first, before they will easily catch a spark. That's why so many people carry and use Charclothe.
So forget about catching those sparks from your flint striker in cotton wool. Your chances are very small, like 1 in 100, or probably more like 1 in 1000 times.
If you absolutely have to use cotton wool, then use that ferro-cerrium rod for sparks. The combination of modern metal alloys in them makes those sparks burn hot enough to catch and burn in many natural materials/tinders. A traditional flint-n-steel just doesn't work that way. And changing the type of flint you use will make very little difference.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
Right then, I'm on the right track! I had assumed that cotton wool would work but I should have tried char cloth as suggested, I will cook up a batch tomorrow and report back with a success!!.....
Well a success would be an under statement, the char cloth took a spark first time, much to my surprise. Many thanks for the excellent advice!!
Also I cant find the thread where John is selling a proper steel, it is mentioned here but I cant find a thread....[/QUOTE]
it is my Welsh Bushcrafters leather pouches thread in Makers Mart.
it is my Welsh Bushcrafters leather pouches thread in Makers Mart.
