Flint and Steel?

[Jay Templin]

I’ve used flint, jasper, chert, novaculite, pyrite, agate, quartz, quartzite… experiment with your local rocks. You’ll find something that works.
Jay

 

[tenngun]

Does obsidian work?
It’s hard but and it’s a glass, I don’t know as I’ve never had any to try.
Obsidian from the northwest made its way via trade in to the Mississippi valley three thousand years ago.

 

[Jay Templin]

Does obsidian work?
It’s hard but and it’s a glass, I don’t know as I’ve never had any to try.
Obsidian from the northwest made its way via trade in to the Mississippi valley three thousand years ago.

No. Obsidian makes amazing blades- when my son was born, I cut his cord with one- but it doesn’t spark. While a lot of the stones that are good sparkers have that glasslike conchoidal fracture going for them, that’s not what makes them spark. The stones that do are typically both sharp and harder than steel. The sparks are actually burning pieces of the steel, not pieces of the stone.
Jay

 

[Old Oak]

If I remember correctly, the obsidian points were locally sourced from the Native American mound builder digs that the university was doing at that time,
but many years have past and my memory is not what it once was.

Were the obsidian points from a local source?

 

[tenngun]

No. Obsidian makes amazing blades- when my son was born, I cut his cord with one- but it doesn’t spark. While a lot of the stones that are good sparkers have that glasslike conchoidal fracture going for them, that’s not what makes them spark. The stones that do are typically both sharp and harder than steel. The sparks are actually burning pieces of the steel, not pieces of the stone.
Jay

I mentioned above how sparks off of pyrite isn’t as hot as flint.
I THINK, as I’ve never seen data on it, that the sparks off of pyrite are pyrite instead of steel.
You can get sparks off of flint and pyrite.

 

[smo]

Obsidian point a Friend of mine made.

 

[Notchy Bob]

I'd like to get a few good pieces of flint, ready to use, for fire making. I have several good strikers. Can anyone set me up?

I would suggest that you check out Go Knapping for pieces of stone. The proprietor is Elliott Collins, and I can tell you, the man knows rocks. His "thing" is primarily knapping projectile points, but he is into all sorts of primitive skills, including fire starting. If you click that link, it will take you to his fire-starting page. He sells flint/chert pieces specifically graded for making sparks with steel. You can get a five-pound sack of flints for nine bucks. You can also get a one-pound sack or a fifteen pound box. I bought a one-pound sack from him a few years ago and I think it had eight chunks of stone about half the size of my palm. They spark very well with the strikers I have. I think Elliott has about the best deal you're going to find, and it's good sparking stone.

If you don't mind ordering from overseas, Jelling Dragon has flints for fire starting. I believe the flint is quarried in Britain. They sell large flakes and small flakes. That link will take you to the page with the larger flint pieces, which are about the size of a credit card. I would recommend these larger pieces. It appears they are currently out of stock, but this is one of their basic commodities and they will likely get more in. I have a couple of these, and they spark very well with a good steel.

As noted in a couple of other posts, a lot of the blackpowder suppliers sell flint shards. Turkey Foot Trading Co. sells flint chips for 75 cents each. I'm pretty sure Dixie Gun Works has flint chips, also.

Most of the flint pieces you get now are random chips and chunks, which can work pretty well, but in days gone by, flint pieces for fire starting were specially knapped in Brandon (England) for that purpose. They were knapped in sizes and shapes that were easy to hold and control, with good, sharp edges for striking the steel. These were described in a very comprehensive three-part series about flint and steel firestarting in an old British journal named The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 1, from 1903. The article series was entitled "Concerning Tinder Boxes," and in Part II, "Domestic Tinder Boxes," they show some of these flints. Hopefully, that link will take you right to that page on which these flint strikers were illustrated and discussed. If not, go to page 572 of the digitized document. You're on your own for finding Parts I and III of the series, somewhere in that 690 page document, but if you are interested in this sort of thing, those articles are worth finding and reading. They discuss tinder boxes, flints, steels, how char cloth was made... all sorts of really good, primary source material for folks like us.

Finally, if you get out into the woods, you might just find some suitable flint chips. In north Florida, where I live, we have a few limestone outcroppings and ridges, and our native chert is frequently found in association with these. I've picked up a few chunks while rambling in the woods. I leave cultural artifacts where they lie, as these belong to the Ancient Ones, but I figure chunks of raw stone are fair game. Not all of these chert pieces spark well, but some of them do. I never learned how to knap the raw stone to create the desirable sharp edges, but some have edges that are naturally sharp.

If you want to get going with this right away, though, I would recommend the stone strikers from Go Knapping. It is good stone, and I don't think you'll beat the price.

Best of luck to you!

Notchy Bob

 

[toot]

did the Aboriginal people make them as beautiful as the ones made today ?

 

[flconch53]

did the Aboriginal people make them as beautiful as the ones made today ?

Some certainly were.

 

[toot]

great. I guess they are who we all learned from.