I made one of those strikers the other day at the RV. We noticed that most people hold them up the way you do Ash, but if you hold it up the other way, it affords some protection to your hand.
I made one of those strikers the other day at the RV. We noticed that most people hold them up the way you do Ash, but if you hold it up the other way, it affords some protection to your hand.
thanks for that - have often wanted to learn this but had no success. Hadn't even realised it was the steel that 'ignited'.
excellent.
several quick questions - you quite often can buy these made 'steels' and they arrive oiled. is it better to remove the oil?
does it work better if the steel is v. slightly rusted or not?
does the flint need to be nice pure black or will a greyed flint piece work as well? (have a big big lump of Norfolk flint that I picked up and it's quality is variable but been waiting 10 years to make good use of it!!)
1. Yep, remove the oil. It's tiny shavings of the steel that burn hot. Oil can hamper this process.Originally Posted by Hushwing
2. In my experience it's better to have clean steel rather than rust. The rust will soon be worn away tho by the action of striking on the flint.
3. As a rule of thumb, the darker the flint the better the quality. But I have used flint and steel for years as my primary fire lighting kit and have had success with black and brown flint. Even used quartz as an experiment too which worked ok (but poor quality sparks). The real trick is to have a razor edge on the flint. The sharper the flint, the better the sparks in my opinion.
Hope this helps
Ade.
My website http://www.northwestbushcraft.co.uk
My YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Northwestbushcraft
Cheers - very helpful. Now can you travel up and light my fires this way any time!!?
Lol.
My website http://www.northwestbushcraft.co.uk
My YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Northwestbushcraft
A cleaner unoxidised surface will produce better sparks, that's why your steel probably came oiled because the seller didn't want the (likely ground) surface to become rusted during storage or shipping, I'd agree; wipe the oil off before using.
Well got my striker and flint today.....eager to try it out and this thread has been of so much use thank you Ashley. |One question if anyone can help.....does anyone know where i can get flint without travelling 12 hours down south and back again ? There must be an easier way ?
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Yes, buy a jungle hammock from Tony, he will ship flint with it :-)
Jokes aside. I use quartz, and I can't really see any diffrence on the sparks, if I find good quartz (nice and shiny bits as oposed to milky white. But milky works also).
The quartz is more brittle though. But you will find it just about everywhere when you start looking for it. Gravel roads are a good source for it. But I like to find largher chunks that I just smash to pieces with a hammer.
You will need to use thicker chunks with sparks also so it's not so packable in a tin as a flint shards are.
Victory awaits the one, that has everything in order - luck we call it
Defeat is an absolute consequense for the one that have neglected to do the necessary preparations - bad luck we call it
(Roald Amundsen)
Bumbling Bushcraft on Youtube
Nordisk Bushcraft - The Nordic bushcraft blog and forum
Cheers rune sadly I have a couple of hammocks now and quartz is fairly hard to come by in Yorkshire
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Hence look for it on gravel roads. The gravel is likely to be from somewhere else. So you may find some on the roadsides. Once you start looking for it, it's surprising how much you can actually find. It's the most common mineral on the planet.
Victory awaits the one, that has everything in order - luck we call it
Defeat is an absolute consequense for the one that have neglected to do the necessary preparations - bad luck we call it
(Roald Amundsen)
Bumbling Bushcraft on Youtube
Nordisk Bushcraft - The Nordic bushcraft blog and forum
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