Welcome to Flint And Steel

                   About me- I am a self taught flint and steel expert, as well as a self taught classical guitarist, and blacksmith. I also enjoy reading ( my favourite book is " The Lord of the Rings " By John Ronald Ruel Tolkien),playing pool, and spending time outdoors fishing, hunting,shooting,hiking, boating, and the list goes ever on.                     

 Note on this site- I am making this site to help those of you who need good information on Flint and Steel fire building, but are  plagued by countless false information or bad advice.I know what that feels like, I got started with flint and steel completely from what I read on the Internet. Below is my own personal way I have developed and perfected.I personally don't care if someone said the following does not work.BECAUSE, I HAVE TRIED,TESTED, AND PROVED EVERYTHING I HAVE ON THIS WEBSITE MANY TIMES, OVER A PERIOD OF SEVERAL MONTHS. WITH THE MATERIALS AND KNOWLEDGE BELOW I CAN HONESTLY TELL YOU FRIEND THAT WITH THE FLINT AND STEEL SET MADE 100% MYSELF USING THE METHOD BELOW, I CAN LIGHT A FIRE IN UNDER 1/2 A MINUTE. 

          Flint and Steel is the traditional method of lighting fires of European countries. This means our ancestors used it for hundreds of years before coming to America and still used it afterwards. Some people still use flint and steel today instead of modern fire lighting methods. I am glad to say that I am one of them.

                                                MODERN METHODS

           I prefer flint and steel because modern methods all have their draw backs. For instance matches can get wet, but the thing that made me use flint and steel instead of matches is the fact that they blow out so easy. I would use multiple matches to light a fire. cigarette lighters may be fine for lighting cigarettes but, I have found them hard for anything else. If there is wind they blow out easier than a match, they run out of fuel, and they can get broken and be a fire hazard.There are also lighters that are a piece of ferrocerium (it is what is called flint in a cigarette lighter, it is a metal alloy how ever, not a rock) that is scraped with a piece of metal with an edge.Many people (especially the ones on YouTube) tend to call this ''flint and steel'' FERROCERIUM LIGHTERS ARE NOT FLINT AND STEEL,they are ferrocerium and sharp edge.The thing about these is that if your gonna buy them, and use them, you might as well make your own flint and steel set that  is cheaper and will last past your death. 

                           WHAT IS FLINT AND STEEL AND HOW DOES IT WORK

       Flint and steel is making fire from a piece of steel and a rock. The  way how that works is the steel is struck down the edge of the flint, producing sparks that are caught with tinder.The sparks are actually the steel being shaved off by the flint, the sparks are not pieces of flint.The steel HAS TO BE HIGH CARBON STEEL THAT IS HARDENED RIGHT. By this I mean really high, Example- a file. Old files make great fire strikers. I have read of people just using the file, this did not work for me, how ever when I took that same file and forged a c shaped striker, Then hardened it to dull orange, it worked fine.For the flint, since there are not many pieces of flint in Northern Illinois, I use hard field rocks. Any fairly sharp hard rock will do, but a dark flint ( the darker the better ) will do best.I have found that the rocks don't necessarily need flint napping, just crack them open with a hammer, and that should produce sharp pieces.

          HOW TO MAKE CHAR CLOTH, THE BEST MATERIAL FOR CATCHING A SPARK

           Take a 100% cotton tee shirt, and cut it into small pieces  about 2'' by ''. Take an Altoids tin (round one not a mint one) and poke a hole in the top that is maybe 1/8 in with a nail. Fill the tin with the cloth squares, don't pack them very tight and don't fold any over. Next build a small fire, MAKE SURE IT IS SMALL a big one will be to hot and ruin the process. When you have some nice coals put the tin with the lid tightly on on the coals. in a few minutes you will see smoke. It will shoot out the hole in the lid. It should be under pressure, but if it lifts or bends the lid, widen the hole slightly and use a colder fire. The smoke will catch on fire and might go out several times. After about ten or so minutes if the flame goes out and the smoke gets very thin and is less prominent, take it off the fire, and using wet mud, plug the hole. WAIT UNTIL TIN IS COMPLETELY COOL BEFORE OPENING, other wise it will start to combusted and be impossible to put out. Once  cooled take out and try. Good char cloth will be all black, but should not fall apart when you touch it. It should be easy to tear. If it falls apart when you tear it, it is over cooked. If you under cook char cloth, start over.Once it has been re exposed to oxygen, if you cook it again, it won't be of good quality.

                                                     THE METHOD

           First take your steel striker in your dominant hand. If it is a c striker put your fingers in it. Have the striking edge facing your other hand. In your recessive (not dominant) hand hold your flint (or hard rock) with the edge pointing straight up. Turn the edge slightly toward your striker so that the edge is not quite straight up and down. It should be enogh to catch on your striker when it comes down, but to much and it will dull your flint.Now strike your striker down to and past the flint. As it touches the flint you should see sparks fly off. Try different angles with the flint until you get it to spark good. Different edges require a different angle. You should strike it several times until you get sparks. Then pick up a piece of char cloth and put it right up to the edge of the flint, ON THE TOP OF THE FLINT. All of the sparks fly up, so putting it on the bottom won't do any good.Strike a good strike downward with the steel striker. It may take you a couple of strikes at first, but you''l get it. As soon as the spark catches take it off the flint, and take up the tinder that has been made into a little ''nest'' (about the size of your palm) that you made before you started. For this you can use any of the following, jute fibers, fine grass,newspaper, or pine needles (if your good). Place the char cloth in it immediately and gently blow in small puffs and then give it a couple seconds before blowing again.It should burst into flame. Then place it in your kindling, and you know the rest.

                                           TIPS ON USING FLINT AND STEEL

  1 ALWAYS carry 2 flints in case you lose one or lose the edge.

  2 When you strike, strike fast, but not hard. Hard will wreck your edge,but fast will make more and stronger sparks.

  3 For the tinder nest, I have found newspaper to work very well. Just take a small piece (two big thumbs wide by two big thumbs wide  slightly crumple it, crumple a large piece. Then light the small piece with the char cloth and light the big piece with the small one.

  4 Keep your char cloth in something, preferably away from the flint, it gets ruined easy.

  5 Certain types of fungus allegedly work.

  6 I have found punk wood to work good. char cloth is the best thing around, but punk wood will work, if you don't get discouraged. I use punk wood that is from very soft wood trees and is well dried. The nice thing about it is it doesn't need to be charred.

  7 I have also heard of using charred wood left over from your last fire.  Give it a try.

                              HOW TO FORGE A STEEL STRIKER

              I have hand forged all of my steel strikers (even the first) and they work great. Take a good piece of high carbon steel ( example is an old file) draw it out to the size you want. All of my strikers are narrow since I like to keep them in my pocket. Then shape it. One thing you can easily find else where on the internet is designs. I think the best is variations of the c style.I like to have a narrow c with a curl on each end. After you have shaped it,heat it to a dull orange/bright red and quench it in water to harden it. Once this is done, hold it over the fire till the water is almost all evaporated, then quench it again to put a slight temper on it so it won't break as easy. For a chart on tempering and hardening go to this link. http://www.thecarvingpath.net/forum/uploads/post-1087-1179510589.jpg

    REMEMBER,ALWAYS,ALWAYS,ALWAYS KEEP   EXPERIMENTING, THAT IS HOW I LEARNED MOST OF  WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FLINT AND STEEL

                                                     Your Friend, 

                                                        J Farris

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