Flint and

tonym

tonym

Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
9,491
Flint and steel


I was recently gifted with a set up from Stitchawl. He sent me a steel I believe he forged himself, char cloth, jute twine, and a big chunk of English black flint. He went through alot of trouble shipping me these in 2 shipments all the way from Japan.

I am home with my daughter who is sick, so while she is sleeping I went to the garage and decided to give it a try.

I got the char cloth to catch a spark in two strikes and blew the jute into a flame in about 15 seconds. :thumbup:

I repeated it about a dozen times and am loving this method of fire starting.

I probably won't get a chance to get out till Tuesday, but when I do I will make a complete fire with this method.

Many thanks to Stitchawl for sending me this excellent piece of traditional gear:thumbup: I owe you 1 bro!

My wife is out with the camera, but when she gets back this evening pics will be up.


How many of you guys use this or other traditional methods to start your fires?

Also if you will, what natural materials can you use to catch a spark from this method?
 
right on tony...:thumbup: flint and steel fire making is a lot of fun... it is a great skill to have and not to mention it doesn't get much more traditional/old sckool than that...:)
 
Cool Tiny!
I have a Flint and Steel kit from my Gradnfather(God bless his soul!) and it rocks!
I use natural fungus for tinder.However the flint and steel is the cooles fire starting method for me and it's lot of fun,i prefer using a firesteel :D It faster and easier.IMHO
 
Way to go. I've gotten the bundle of grasses lit from flint and steel/char cloth. Next step is to get a whole fire going.

I love flint and steel. Just seems to feel right for starting a fire.

Definitely want to see pics of the kit and you doing your thing with it.

Charlie
 
Thanks fellas, I am really enjoyng this. I was going to hold out for the good camera, but I couldn't.

So here's some pics from my crap camera.

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In the pic below; I don't know if you can make out the spec of orange in the char cloth, but the ember is in there. If you can't I'll be happy to do it again.

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Here is the jute burning after I blew it into a flame.

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That's really neat, I'm gonna have to buy one of those to play with someday. I assume you have to keep buying pieces of charcloth for this method to work?
 
SpookyPistolero said:
That's really neat, I'm gonna have to buy one of those to play with someday. I assume you have to keep buying pieces of charcloth for this method to work?
Click to expand...


Charcloth is easy enough to make, and I know steel wool works as well.

I would love to know what natural materials that can be found in the field will catch a spark.
 
SpookyPistolero said:
That's really neat, I'm gonna have to buy one of those to play with someday. I assume you have to keep buying pieces of charcloth for this method to work?
Click to expand...

Charcloth s really not very difficult to make. Take 100% cotton, put it in a metal container with a tightly fitting lid. Poke a small hole in the top and sit on some coals from the fire. It'll smoke, even possibly burn a bit coming out of the hole. When it quites smoking take it off the fire and let it cool (if you open it while it's still hot it will catch fire) and voila you have char cloth. Really neat stuff.

Charlie
 
I have a similar flint and steel setup that I acquired a few months ago. It is quite and experience to make fire with flint and steel for the first time.

Paul
 
I've used char cloth, jute twine, and old mans beard before. I also split up some dry cedar bark for this fire using Flint and steel. Sparked the char-cloth, blew ember into jute twine and old mans beard, and put the whole flaming bundle into the dry cedar bark. Worked well.

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Hey Tony,try to light some cotton with this stuff ;)
I have tried,but haven't got any sucess and i'm just wondering - is it me,or cotton can't be lighted with flint and steel... :)
 
I love flint and steel. I was utterly amazed at how easy it was the first time I tried it as well. That is one great chunk of flint ya got by the way. Always keep sharp edges on it as you wont get a spark from dull spots.
 
ZombaiO said:
Hey Tony,try to light some cotton with this stuff ;)
I have tried,but haven't got any sucess and i'm just wondering - is it me,or cotton can't be lighted with flint and steel... :)
Click to expand...


No luck with cotton here.
 
Alright ya bastid, where's a good place to get a cheapish, solid flint and steel?

(and how long does a piece of flint last? For many, many uses or a relatively short while?)
 
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