flint and steel firemaking

[toot]

Any idea when the Scouts first started using ferro rods ? I know it goes back at least 50 years.

when I was a scout in 1954 we could go to a SCOUT Hdqtrs store and buy a kit, witch was a hardened steel flat bar and a piece of flint for,$2.35. the poorer kids ME! our fathers would break a file and give us a piece of the file and we would look on ledges for a chunk of QUARTZ, free and VIOLA! that we we did.