Flint and steel Friday


MrFixIt

MrFixIt

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I figured since we have a friction fire day and a tinder bundle day, why not one for flint and steel?
I've just started down this road, and am intrigued by the history, the process, and the techniques.
Please share your flint and steel fires here.

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A kit I put together for a cheap campout competition. A little piece of a broken file some sisal bailing twine and blue jeans char cloth in an Altoids smalls tin. I ended up gifting it to the winner but I'm thinking of making some more mini kits just to see how small they can be made and remain usable.
Smalls File kit.jpg
Smalls File kit 2.jpg
 
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Here ya go @NWPrimate
 
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Finally took some pics of my 2 kits.

One is surface char punkwood with this funny looking file (sheet metal file?) and my dog collar tin.(great size)
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Next is my more inclusive kit with WCF striker, 2 flints, a tight little roll of birch bark, a few little squares of paper birch bark, some jute twine, some amadou from my travels up north to upstate NY, a couple pieces of rich fatwood, a piece of lamp wick with foil to snuff the edge, and Altoids tin of char cloth, char punk, and uncharred punk.

All this fits into my little homemade, self tanned squirrel leather pouch.
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Coryphene said:
Finally took some pics of my 2 kits.

One is surface char punkwood with this funny looking file (sheet metal file?) and my dog collar tin.(great size)
View attachment 325094 View attachment 325095
Next is my more inclusive kit with WCF striker, 2 flints, a tight little roll of birch bark, a few little squares of paper birch bark, some jute twine, some amadou from my travels up north to upstate NY, a couple pieces of rich fatwood, a piece of lamp wick with foil to snuff the edge, and Altoids tin of char cloth, char punk, and uncharred punk.

All this fits into my little homemade, self tanned squirrel leather pouch.
View attachment 325096
View attachment 325097
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The file in question is a farrier's rasp. It appears to be only a part of one, as they are much larger.
I love the set up of your 2nd kit!
 
MrFixIt said:
The file in question is a farrier's rasp. It appears to be only a part of one, as they are much larger.
I love the set up of your 2nd kit!
Click to expand...
Thank you. I had no idea what the file was, yes it is broken. I have a second smaller one as well. From what I've seen online, that type is also used for smoothing out welds on sheet metal. It was found in my late grandfather's toolbox and he has never touched a horse in his life. (but he did have other odd things I wouldn't have expected)

I like this style of file for F&S as the sides are already smooth and the teeth go in one direction so as long as you strike in same direction teeth are pointing you get great sparks without any grinding.

Edit: after some research, it appears to be a car body file and would be longer with another hole in the other end to be held by a carrier to use on a car body to smooth out welds without leaving marks. It wouldn't have a normal handle like most rasps and files do.
 
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Coryphene said:
Was the a demonstration of the "horizontal strike"? Love the sparks shooting off the stone. That pic is awesome!
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I wasn't trying to show the "horizontal method", but yeah, thats it. Its hard to see my blurry hand and steel in the first pic.
I though the sparks pic was neat. I set the cameral to burst and took a few shots; that was the best. It does show how the horizontal strike shoots sparks down into the tin. If my flint was a little closer to me, more sparks would have went into the tin. I love this new method.
 
TN_Woodman said:
I like that first tin, how you used very large pieces of punk wood. I usually break mine into small pieces. I don't know why, I just do, but I'm going to try some large pieces now. Mine tin in the pic above shows small pieces of punk and some kind of bracket conk.
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I got that idea from watching some YT vid where a guy had an oval brass snuff tin with flip top lid and his tin had a single piece that pretty much was cut to the exact tin dimensions. I think less air inside means it snuffs out quicker? I dunno. It was very clean looking and he just scraped the surface a little to fluff it up then lit it with F&S and once the surface got a good ember, held his tinder bundle to it and blew into flame then closed the lid. Hard to get a single large chuck to fill my large tin (about as large as 3-4 Altoids tins) but it does seem to last a very long time.
 
I was really hoping that this one would work, but I had my doubts. I wanted to see if I could strike sparks off the back of an AK magazine.



Zero sparks. Of course the steel was way too soft, but it would have been pretty cool if it worked, so I just had to try. :)



This was already an old beater mag body, so I didn't mind the spine getting chewed up, but it ended up with lots of little sharp burs that don't go well with the webbing of your hand. Luckily, the striker that @MrFixIt sent me is still a functional file, so I used it to smooth out the spine.



Since using the mag as a striker failed to produce any sparks, I used the file to drop some into a tin full of charred maple bark. Once that was glowing hot I grabbed some punk from a nearby stump and dropped it into the tin.



That charred bark is putting out some serious heat; thus charring the punk.



Once the punk is involved, it's hot enough to get a flame without any additional tinder.



Looking at the photos just made me realize that I should mention that the mag is not loaded. It needs a new follower so it's just the mag body. I don't think the tin would get hot enough to set off live rounds, but I'm not going to conduct that experiment. :)
 
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