flint and steel firemaking

[Grenadier1758]

Wrap the char around the pyrite (or the flint) and then you don't have to worry about the direction of the sparks.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

with pirates how do you get a angle for the sparks to land into the receptive material? with a flint chard you can angle it!

With a downward strike, the sparks simply fall onto the tinder. This is pyrite on pyrite - no steel.

 

[Nessmuck56]

I changed over to charred punk wood

 

[Stony Broke]

I haven't used pyrites, but I normally just place a piece of char over my flint and strike through it with a steel. It generally only takes one strike for the char to catch a spark and you're on your way. I never have found a need to try to angle anything to get the sparks to land in a certain place.

 

[ShooterToo]

I have never tried flint and steel fire making. Where could I buy a fire making kit to give it a try?

 

[toot]

TRY CRAZY CROW TRADING Co. or TRACK OF THE WOLF?

 

[Tom A Hawk]

TRY CRAZY CROW TRADING Co. or TRACK OF THE WOLF?

Be careful with Crazy Crow. I bought some to evaluate as potential source of supply and they were dead soft. No spark.

 

[Brokennock]

I have never tried flint and steel fire making. Where could I buy a fire making kit to give it a try?

Watch the classifieds on the ALR forum, buy from someone who makes and sells a few at a time. I just bought 2 from a gentleman selling a few different forged goods, very happy with them. Some of the online big retailers sell mass produced goods with little quality control.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Townsend's has a good kit that all fits inside a round tin. The char cloth in particular is good stuff and properly made. Comes with an instruction book. Although I haven't seen their instruction booklet, I can tell you how I was taught to do it so that you don't accidentally slice your knuckles up with the flint.:

1. Presuming you are right-handed, hold the flint piece in your right hand.
2. Hold the steel with your knuckles covered by the face of the steel.
3. take about a 1" square of the char cloth and pinch it on top of the rounded part of the steel.
4. Hold the steel perfectly still and strike the face of the steel with the sharp edge of the flint.
5. As soon as the char cloth catches an ember, put that char cloth into the tinder nest you prepared and start blowing into it. The char cloth will hold an ember for a surprising amount of time, but don't take too long to move it to the nest.
6. As soon as you get any smoke, move the next up above your face and blow into it from the bottom. When it catches fire, it will quickly flare into flame and it won't burn your face if you're not hovering over the top of it!
7. Set the burning fire nest down and start feeding it by placing small twigs on top of it. Gradually use larger and more pieces of fuel until the fire is the size you want it to be.

This is a surprisingly easy thing to do. However, if you make your own char cloth and it is only dark brown instead of black, it won't catch an ember. I has to be black or it's not charred enough.

I know it sounds goofy to put the char cloth on the steel above where you will strike the steel with the flint, but it works perfectly well. I've done it this way for years after I sliced my knuckles open once by attempting to strike the flint with the steel instead of striking the steel with the flint.

I keep my fire kit in the same tin that they include with their kit. If you don't have any tinder to catch the start, you can cut off about a 6" piece of sisal rope, pull it all apart, and make a very flammable nest out of that.

Here's a link to their kit:
https://www.townsends.us/collections/wilderness-gear/products/classic-fire-starting-kt192-p-365
Twisted_1in66
Dan

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Townsend's has a good kit that all fits inside a round tin. The char cloth in particular is good stuff and properly made. Comes with an instruction book. Although I haven't seen their instruction booklet, I can tell you how I was taught to do it so that you don't accidentally slice your knuckles up with the flint.:

1. Presuming you are right-handed, hold the flint piece in your right hand.
2. Hold the steel with your knuckles covered by the face of the steel.
3. take about a 1" square of the char cloth and pinch it on top of the rounded part of the steel.
4. Hold the steel perfectly still and strike the face of the steel with the sharp edge of the flint.
5. As soon as the char cloth catches an ember, put that char cloth into the tinder nest you prepared and start blowing into it. The char cloth will hold an ember for a surprising amount of time, but don't take too long to move it to the nest.
6. As soon as you get any smoke, move the next up above your face and blow into it from the bottom. When it catches fire, it will quickly flare into flame and it won't burn your face if you're not hovering over the top of it!
7. Set the burning fire nest down and start feeding it by placing small twigs on top of it. Gradually use larger and more pieces of fuel until the fire is the size you want it to be.

This is a surprisingly easy thing to do. However, if you make your own char cloth and it is only dark brown instead of black, it won't catch an ember. I has to be black or it's not charred enough.

I know it sounds goofy to put the char cloth on the steel above where you will strike the steel with the flint, but it works perfectly well. I've done it this way for years after I sliced my knuckles open once by attempting to strike the flint with the steel instead of striking the steel with the flint.

I keep my fire kit in the same tin that they include with their kit. If you don't have any tinder to catch the start, you can cut off about a 6" piece of sisal rope, pull it all apart, and make a very flammable nest out of that.

Here's a link to their kit:
https://www.townsends.us/collections/wilderness-gear/products/classic-fire-starting-kt192-p-365
Twisted_1in66
Dan

Like so...

 

[Stony Broke]

Like so...

Exactly how I have done it for years, with no problems !!

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Exactly how I have done it for years, with no problems !!

That is very similar to how I did it before I shown a much safer way. You will notice that his knuckles are exposed in this. This method absolutely works. However, the way I mentioned above is far safer and at least as efficacious of not more so. That's how I have been catching a spark on my char cloth since about 2005. One time prior to that, using the method shown by Tom, I did indeed open up a knuckle with the edge of the flint because my strike missed. Yeah, I'm can be a klutz. I prefer to be a klutz with not flint cuts on my knuckles.

Both work, use whichever you like. I would presume most people use the method Tom demonstrated.

Twisted_1in66
Dan

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Now, if you want to make the boys at the next ronde scratch their heads in wonder, soak a piece of uncharred cotton fabric, such as demin, in a concentrated solution of potassium nitrate. Let it dry and strike your sparks as above. It will catch and sizzle.

 

[Notchy Bob]

I have never tried flint and steel fire making. Where could I buy a fire making kit to give it a try?

I bought a flint and steel set from Track of the Wolf back in the seventies. It worked very well, and I still have it. However, that was over forty years ago, and I can't comment on their current offerings.

Without really intending to do it, I've become sort of a fire steel collector. By far, the best steels are blacksmith made, by individual craftsmen. Don Abbott, of Seymour, Tennessee, has tolerated my requests and made copies of historical steels that work very well. He is one guy with limited time, and I'm not going to put his contact information here because I would hate to see him inundated with inquiries. You can probably find him if you search, though.

I have also gotten excellent strikers from a Russian guy on Etsy (Mikhail something... I forget), from Randy Wolfe of Bethel Forge in Indiana, from Darrel Aune of Primal Connection/D&B Primitive Forgeworks, Orien MacDonald of Old School Tools, from Allen Schroll of Turkey Foot Trading, and from Andrew Kirkham via Ray Mears. The Kirkham steels are exceptional, but you have to order them from Britain. Some of the folks listed above may be out of business, but I put in links to Mr. Aune's retail page, the Turkeyfoot website, and Ray Mears because I am pretty sure they are still in business and I know they have good steels. Townsend (as mentioned in Post #29, above) may very well have good steels, also... I just have no personal experience with them. I can say that the little "Wilmas" Viking steels, imported from Sweden, and the John Russell "bright oval" steel from the Museum of the Fur Trade look really good, but in my experience they don't spark well. Both of these are mass-produced, and I think you are better off getting one hand made by a blacksmith. Prices vary. Turkeyfoot gets $13.00 - $20.00, while some of the other custom blacksmiths ask more like $30.00. Prices may or may not include a flint, depending on the seller.

If you are just getting started, I would recommend that you get an "oval" (actually elliptical, but they call them oval) steel. Turkeyfoot calls theirs the "Large Oval Striker." Darrel Aune calls his version the "Voyager Oval," and Andrew Kirkham shows his as the "Traditional Canadian Design." In the days of the early fur trade, these were called "bright oval" strikers, not because they were polished, but "bright" is an old-time ironmonger's term for "unfinished," meaning not blued, browned, japanned, painted, plated, or galvanized... Just plain steel. The oval steels were very common back in the day, and a great many of them have been recovered archaeologically from old fur trade sites. They give good protection to your knuckles, they are easy to hold, and you get twice as much striking surface as on one of the "C" shaped steels, so they should last longer.

If all of that is too much information, I apologize. It might be simpler just to ask this young lady where she got the steel dangling from her belt:

Notchy Bob

 

[ShooterToo]

Thank you! This is a lot of information and I do appreciate the trouble to put it all together. I would not have thought about the oval striker lasting longer because it has two sides or providing better protection for my knuckles. I will start with a kit. If I figure things out and progress I may try my hand at making char cloth and trying different styles of strikers.

Folks like you are just one of the reasons I like this forum Thanks again.

 

[ShooterToo]

Townsend's has a good kit that all fits inside a round tin. The char cloth in particular is good stuff and properly made. Comes with an instruction book. Although I haven't seen their instruction booklet, I can tell you how I was taught to do it so that you don't accidentally slice your knuckles up with the flint.:

1. Presuming you are right-handed, hold the flint piece in your right hand.
2. Hold the steel with your knuckles covered by the face of the steel.
3. take about a 1" square of the char cloth and pinch it on top of the rounded part of the steel.
4. Hold the steel perfectly still and strike the face of the steel with the sharp edge of the flint.
5. As soon as the char cloth catches an ember, put that char cloth into the tinder nest you prepared and start blowing into it. The char cloth will hold an ember for a surprising amount of time, but don't take too long to move it to the nest.
6. As soon as you get any smoke, move the next up above your face and blow into it from the bottom. When it catches fire, it will quickly flare into flame and it won't burn your face if you're not hovering over the top of it!
7. Set the burning fire nest down and start feeding it by placing small twigs on top of it. Gradually use larger and more pieces of fuel until the fire is the size you want it to be.

This is a surprisingly easy thing to do. However, if you make your own char cloth and it is only dark brown instead of black, it won't catch an ember. I has to be black or it's not charred enough.

I know it sounds goofy to put the char cloth on the steel above where you will strike the steel with the flint, but it works perfectly well. I've done it this way for years after I sliced my knuckles open once by attempting to strike the flint with the steel instead of striking the steel with the flint.

I keep my fire kit in the same tin that they include with their kit. If you don't have any tinder to catch the start, you can cut off about a 6" piece of sisal rope, pull it all apart, and make a very flammable nest out of that.

Here's a link to their kit:
https://www.townsends.us/collections/wilderness-gear/products/classic-fire-starting-kt192-p-365
Twisted_1in66
Dan

Thanks for the information.

 

[Rifleman1776]

This thread drifted (first time that has ever happened ) from pyrites to steels. Yes, pyrite is reputed to spark like crazy. Never used it. Where is some available? It isn't legal for ronny competition but is ideal for actual use and in a survival kit.

 

[Homesteader]

Amazon has it

 

[Rató:rats]

 

[Rató:rats]

View attachment 28503View attachment 28503

Char on top of the flint, knuckles out of the way