Whale shaped flint strikers - or how I spent my afternoon

[Mike Ameling]

Here's how I spent a good portion of my day. They are made from 1080 high-carbon tool/spring steel, and fully heat-treated to use as a flint striker - and spark well. I started with pieces of steel roughly 1 inch wide by 3 inches long and 1/4 inch thick - give or take a few fractions of an inch. And then did what one master blacksmith said to do --- Move the metal to where you need it! Yeah, easier said than done. I should still ... tweak ... the tail flukes a bit. But doing that quickly leads to that "fix it until it's broke" syndrome.

Two people have already expressed interest in them. After that ....

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. A number of people have asked me about "borrowing" some of the shapes/styles of strikers that I make - expressing concern about "stealing ideas". But I told them, as well as anyone else, to go ahead and "use" any of the shapes/styles with my compliments. I borrowed the ideas from whomever made them 100 to 1000 years ago, so I have no claim on the shape/design. Plus, I know the work involved in making them. Anyone willing to do that work is welcome to try. (Plus you can't patent/register/copywright those old/ancient designs anyway.)

 

[Dave Budd]

they are great, I love 'em I did a shark a while back along the same lines, you held the dorsal fin. Not doing that again

 

[Mike Ameling]

they are great, I love 'em I did a shark a while back along the same lines, you held the dorsal fin. Not doing that again

Thanks for the kind words.

Yeah, every time I make these I ask myself WHY? - and say "never again". But a few weeks or so later there I am doing it again!

But then, I am a bit ... Slow of Mind ... but I'm no Mendicant! (old comic book hero refrain - Groo)

Yes, I know the WORK involved, and the attention to detail required. That's why I mentioned that anybody who wants to try making them should go right ahead - without any concerns about "stealing ideas". Anybody who wants to do the work is welcome to try.

Thanks
Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. The top two are being shipped out this afternoon. And one of the other two is spoken for, with the other being "considered". Rats ... grumble ... growl ... that means I have to be Slow of Mind again, and make a few more up so I can keep one ... growl ... grumble.

 

[Eric_Methven]

They are beautiful strikers. I can imagine they'd have been used back in the days of the old whalers - a personal possession of a sailor or deck hand to strike a spark onto a bit of charcloth to get his clay pipe going after a hard day's work. You could almost treat it like an amulet, to ward of sea monsters.

Eric

 

[Matt Weir]

Nice Mikey

 

[spamel]

Very nicely done. If I had the spare wonga, I'd have one off you in a heartbeat but I owe one member some money already and a second member has a tarp for me, so I find myself sending money out faster than I can make it! Your turn will come though, Mikey!

 

[jojo]

Beautiful, Mikey. I love seeing your work. A fire striker is such a simple thing, and yet you make them into some works of art. Pity I am broke

 

[Mungo]

Next time you find yourself randomly shipping your pieces of art to Toronto, Ontario, Canada - feel free to contact me and I can pick them up at the post office and show them around.

;-)

The Whales are incredible - nicely done and nicely shown!!!

Mungo

 

[Mike Ameling]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. They are appreciated.

It is nice to occasionally do a "fun" project.

But I haven't been able to figure out WHY those fun projects are so much harder to do than the normal "work" stuff.

Now the even harder task - figuring out how to keep one for myself! About a year ago, I managed to keep one for myself for almost 3 months (mostly by not letting anybody know I had it or see it). But then I went to a living history event and a buddy's 4 year old son saw it. Love at first sight. Michel was in his normal family/mortgage/vehicle always broke mode, and Devon had already spent his carefully saved up allowance and "egg money" on some 18th century clothes for himself (and a touch of candy of course). So I made it a present to him. And then his dad and I showed him and talked him through using it to strike sparks and start a fire. His eyes were already wide from getting the gift, but they got even wider after he got that fire started. Even his sister "borrowing" some of his candy didn't wipe that smile off of his face!

So it goes. And it really helps the early education of kids.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Giving stuff away? It kind of reminds me about a question a friend asked me at the NAVC Fall Conference last November. I was teaching a hands-on class in forging a section of a musket barrel into a hide scraper for fleshing and de-hairing animal hides to get them ready for tanning. Jerr-Bear (don't you just luv how we acquire nicknames from our "friends) asked me how I could make any money when I keep giving everything away? My response was from an old Saturday Night Live fake/joke commercial -- "One word - Volume" It took him a few minutes to get the joke. Then he just shook his head like a bear does, and walked away. (I had made some iron work for Karl Koster, Mike Galban, Dave Powers, and several other people. And he saw me "give" it to them. When they asked how much they owed me, I told them to forget about it, just "trade me something sometime". And Jerr-Bear had seen/heard all this, prompting his question - right after I reshaped and re-heat treated a knife for him and told him to forget about it when he asked what he owed me.) It all balances out over time. If I worried about chasing all those nickels and dimes (ooops, translation error -- pennies and farthings), I'd be a professional "business man" - and miserable. That old saying about "what goes around comes around" really does apply in real life. Hmmm ... or was that something they call karma? Naaa ... probably just what you get from the south end of a north bound cow.

 

[Singeblister]

love those they are really great never seen one like it either

 

[Celt_Ginger]

Very impressive. Lovely work. I bet they throw huge amounts of sparks too.

 

[Oggie]

I can vouch for Mikes Steels. I recently received one based on a 15th -17th Century example and its a great sparker as I knew it would be because I also own two other steels made by Mike.
Oggie.

 

[mick miller]

Me too, after a disappointing buy from the EvilBay (which broke in 2 strikes!) I got in touch with Mike and asked if he would make a couple for me. They are utterly superb, throwing off a shower of sparks with every strike.

Always nice to work with well crafted items and these have a very friendly look to them. Shame I'm utterly skint this month otherwise...

 

[Seoras]

Was in the woods all last week so gutted I missed this thread.

I use Mike's steels all the time when teaching. The kids would have loved to use one of these.

I have a load of Mike's steels ranging from Oval Roman styles, classic 'C' shaped ones, one based on a style used by French Fur trappers and one based on a style used by soldiers in the American Civil war.

They have had much use and still keep striking well.

Definitley would like a couple of fun styles to add to my teaching kit.

George