Flint, steel, and other cool stuff

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coyotlviejo

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Mar 26, 2001
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I went out with a friend of mine today to forage for wild foods and to enjoy the Great Outdoors in general. We found a cattail bog and dug some roots and young shoots. To this we added some young dock leaves, then headed off to a spot by the river where we could clean, process and cook our edibles.

So we sit down in a meadow, and my friend pulls out a piece of steel. He also had along some Civil War gun flint and some paper birch wrapped around flax fibers. To this he added his home-made char-cloth. Cool! I had never seen a fire started with flint before.

However, I found a piece of jasper on the ground so I suggested we use it, since it's very similar to flint, and I like to experiment with local materials. Well whaddayaknow, it struck a beautiful spark, and we were soon dodging smoke from our rip-snorting fire. I tried to strike a spark on the jasper using my pocket knife, but the steel seems to be too soft or something. My friend also said that stainless doesn't strike a good spark.

My friend also produced from his pack an ancient Indian aluminum pot (Coleman, I think) and a canteen of clean water. So we put water on to boil, added cattail root, cattail shoots (a.k.a. Cossack Asparagus), and dock leaves. Then my friend (I guess I'll just call him Lone Wolf) brought out some authentic pemmican (cleverly disguised to look, smell and taste like beef jerky) to provide protein for our meal. I threw some into the stewpot and viola - a soup fit for kings!

All in all it was a great day of foraging and practicing primitive skills. I don't know if I'm just rambling or if I'm trying to get a discussion going. So reply if you wish. I'd love to hear about your wild edible meals or your primitive fire-building experiences.
 
in the wild but I really appreciated you sharing that awesome experience.


how did you know it was jasper?

is it possible to describe it in words?
 
Hmmmmm. How familiar are you with rocks? Jasper is similar to flint in that it is a cryptocrystaline quartz stone with concoidal fracture patterns. If you are familiar with agate, jasper is exactly the same stone except that the name agate is applied to clear and translucent stones while jasper is darkly opaque at best. It usually occurs in red, orange and brown, but can often be found in shades of green.

If none of this makes sense, maybe you are familiar with chert or chalcedony? Jasper is a type of these.
 
FYI Jasper has long been valued because slabs of it can present 'pictures' to the willing mind, I've seen some ancient Chinese 'painted rock' slabs at the Nelson Art Gallery in Kansas City that are very interesting indeed. You might enjoy this one.
 
I got it.....of course the pics helped alot!

if it is polished, do you think it would still spark?
 
Chris, I don't know if 'polishing' really hurts, helps or just what, but here's a photo of a flint and steel firemaking kit that shows a nicely sawed section of agate, looks pretty smooth to me.

Re: wild edibles...I love 'cossack asparagus', I like mine steamed, served hot with olive oil & vinegar but it's still a tad bit early for it around here. It's on the 'watch for' list, tho, right up there behind "lost money" and "wild women with low expectations".
 
I personally preferr the bow/drill method, but I can work with flint, and steel in a pinch. I've never tryed the pyrite two rocks method, but I carry a striker set on me. Just out of boredom, I lit a cigarette at a bus stop with it, and a peice of tinder once. It got me some weird looks, but it was fun. I guess I'm just perverse that way.
 
I doubt that polished stone would strike a good spark. It would tend to slide over the steel too easily. To make a spark you need resistance.

I've experimented with bow & drill and also the hand drill, but so far smoke is all I get. I'll keep trying, though. I'm more attracted to the drill methods because they can be used almost anywhere, whereas flint & steel requires a man-made material. Yeah, some stones will strike sparks from each other, but it's a pretty rare find.

This was cool though becuase it was the first primitive fire of any kind that I've ever started or seen started. I tried to get the sparks to ignite cattail down, but it didn't want to catch.

BTW, the kit that "Lone Wolf" had was similar to the one shown in the link provided by Texascarl. The agate in the picture wasn't polished, so it should strike a good spark.
 
Coyote's right. You want an edge to make a good spark. Polished stone might work, but I'd guess that you would end up roughing it up before getting good sparks. I know the steel gets good and roughed up prior to sparking well.

Keep trying on the friction kit. I've done bow drill, hand drill, flint & steel and neolithic, two stone spark methods.

Mike
 
Well, as a follow-up, I had so much fun on my foraging trip that the next day I took wild greens out to my parents' house for Sunday lunch. I weeded the church yard after service (true story) :D and got a whole gold pan full of dock leaves. Of course I got a few strange looks :confused: Then I went across the street from where I live and got a whole pan full of mustard leaves.

We got out to my parents' house and I presented my treasure. My mom thought it was cool. We boiled the leaves with a dash of salt, strained them, then added balsamic vinegar and butter. Wow! It was much better than other "domestic" cooked greens I've had, and much more personally gratifying. It was accepted as a normal dish on the table, since it looked no different than boiled spinach or collard greens.

And I've realized that I have at least two days' lunch growing in the lawns at work. Hmm. So there's even an urban application for wild food knowledge...
 
coyotlviejo, you are almost there for your drill fire..... It seems no books tell you what to look for.... That just gets me!!

next time you get smoke and keep at it for a bit more... besure your board is on bark or some other ground insulating something... shingle maybe.... if you can stop and still see smoke wave your hand over the little pile of black dust... don't knock it, don't blow it away waving, just add a little air, and it may begin to glow.. if it does attempt carefully to remove the board, so you end up with a little hersy kiss pile of black dust with a trace of smoke... don't rush the pile should stay hot inside and begine to glow.. the coal will last 2 minutes or more...... I am exited!

Transfer the coal to good tinder, jute twine, of tow, or what ever you have that you think is best... grape vine bark maybe... get the coal in there and wrap it with something like birch bark for a handle and circle this bundle around like a windmill... tack care to not toss out the coal..... you can blow on it too, but I don't like to it adds mostiure, and you get smoke in your face... Good luck!!!! your nearly there!!!!

For the flint and steel the stone needs to be sharp,as it is cutting off steel... it is the steel that is burning not the stone.. I have never run across 2 stones that will make spark.. still hunting for it.

I have tried pyrites too.... Oh one more thing if there are new Knappers reading this... don't breath the air with the smell when you crack a rock open.... that is 1-00% pure silica dust, and if you breath that in you will never get out the micro scaples that will cut your lungs to slithers in time......it is far better to bleed all over the place than breath that burning burnt smell.....Mac
edited some typos
 
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