Flints and steels

Most people wear a pouch on their belts, this can contain a number of useful items, car keys, loose change, mobile phone?, all the normal things 'you' as a 21st Century person don't want to leave around. The public are however very curious about such things, and to save some embarrassment, I wanted at least the top half of my pouch to contain the kind of items that should be in there.

I decided to keep string, and a flint and steel. String's easy, wool, flax or hemp, even the flint is easy, the garden's got tons of the stuff in it, but then came the problem; what kind of steel do I need to be able to produce sparks.

I tried the flint on almost every thing metal I had. The websites and survival books supply lots of information, but don't really go into this subject at all well, in general they say that 'strike a piece of steel, ie a knife blade, with a flint and it will produce sparks which can then be used to ignite the tinder'. Try this at home, but please take all the precautions necessary (especially to protect your eyes) and you will find out just how reliable that information was.

The flint needs to be fairly hard, a deep blue colour appears to work best, too black and the flint shatters, to light and it looses it's cutting edge. Knapp the flint; for the less skilled like me wear goggles and hit a big block of flint with a hammer until the right shape appears. This should be a lump the size of your fist, with a nice clean square edge on it. The steel will be stuck against this edge, to take off a very thin curl of metal, which should be ignited by the friction of the impact.

The sparks should be a warm yellow in colour, and should last for a while. Smaller brighter sparks are caused by the metal being too hard, and the curls being that much smaller. If the metal is too soft, then you don't get enough friction, hence no spark. If the carbon content is too low, again no spark, or the steel too hard again no spark. That is the basic theory of it. Getting the steel right was for me the difficult bit. The steel needs to have a very high carbon content. Old files, preferably woodworking ones, are good; the temper appears to be about right for this application. You will get sparks off most files, but that is mainly the file teeth being removed - small bits of metal, very glittery sparks, but no real heat. The striking surface needs to be smooth so that a good curl of metal can be removed. Once you have found both a flint and a piece of steel which work well together, you will need to make it into the correct shape.

Basic Shape for Steel

Four fingers should fit within the curves of the steel, and the thumb should rest on one of the recurved ends.If you have the skill to forge metal, then just copy the shape and set the temper as if it is a wookworking tool, anneal the curved bits. If not then you will have to try to make sure that the striking edge of the steel does not loose it's original temper, ie keep that bit cool. Take your old file and, using an anglegrinder, smooth the surface and make the basic shape as closely as the metal allows. Heat the ends on a gas ring and bend them carefully to shape. This can be done with a couple of pairs of pliers. Try to keep the heat away from the main striking edge; holding that point with one of the sets of pliers should sink enough heat out of the metal to aid in this. Keeping the curved ends thin means you will require less heat to shape them. Do not cool straight into water as this will make the metal very brittle. Air cooling the ends makes them softer and less likely to break in your hands when using the steel. Well that's your basic steel made, now all we've got to do now it learn how to use it. I am told that wrapping the flint in charred linen works best, but this will take a lot of practice. Best of luck.

Flint and steel update

As we have now made several sets of steels, which seem to work very well, and we are now regularly lighting fires with them, it seems a good time to record our new findings.

The steel used for Steels should be good quality, high carbon steel, the sort of stuff very old woodworking rasps are made out of, or possibly old cart springs. Most modern files and indeed most modern steels are complex alloys, which may not work properly. If the metal type is correct you should be able to work it at an orange heat, with the hammer, until it's in the right shape. It might be a good idea to 'soak' the metal in the fire for a while before trying to work it, to relive any stresses present. However you make your Steel, heat it to a red heat and leave it beside the fire to cool slowly. Once cool clean it up with a file, rounding edges next to fingers etc (leave the striking edges sharp).

Now your Steel is made you need to harden it. It needs to be hard to produce the hot sparks you want. Prepare a bucket of water and heat the Steel to a dull red heat, pick it up with tongs and drop it into the bucket! Well done, its now finished. You can re-harden the Steel at any time as it wears down.

To light a fire with a Flint and Steel you need to prepare your tinder. We have had good results with baked linen, as the initial spark catching material. You will need a smallish tin box (old tobacco tins are good but sadly inauthentic) with a tightly fitting lid in which you can punch a small hole. Fill this with linen and place in the fire, leave until no more thick smoke issues from the hole, then hook it out of the fire and leave to cool. Your linen should be a very dark brown or a black colour. Test a piece with your Flint and Steel to see if it's done. I am told King Alfred's apples (a black round fungi found on ash trees) also make excellent tinder, whatever you use, it must be very dry.

Once you have your initial tinder you will need some very fine wood shavings or other fibrous material, as the next flammable stage, again it must be very dry. If you wrap a handful of this in a piece of birch bark its both easier to hold and also helps with the draft. The smouldering linen is placed, either on a layer of shavings or directly on the birch bark, more shavings go on top and the bark can be loosely wrapped into a tube. If you need to blow the shavings do so from a distance as your damp breath will not help. As soon as it is burning well, dump the shavings onto your fireplace and start adding thin dry twigs in the usual way.