Re: flint & steel fires

Bob and Rusty Taylor wrote:
>
> would appreciate recommendations any of you have for flint &
> steel/magnesium? fire starters.
>
Bob,

With the increase in black powder shooters and colonial reenactment
groups knapped bits of flint suitbale for fire starting are more
available. I guess the trick is getting a spark and having plenty of
fine tinder/punk to catch the spark.

I've always had good luck ( luck usually equates to sufficient practice
to become skillful at the drill ) using a bit of flint and a bit of an
old file. Scrape the file sharply against the flint or vice versa to
get several sparks which are caught in the spark catcher. Dry punky
wood, dried and crumbled cedar bark, salvaged mouse nests, and even
drier lint make good spark catcher material - the idea here is to have
something that will shield the spark and that will burn when you gently
blow on the spark. Once there is a small coal in the spark catcher,
transfer the coal onto some finely divided timber that will form the
base of your fire. After some blowing, once a flame forms, you can
begin piling larger and larger pieces of wood on the flame until you
have a good fire going.

If flint is hard to find, quartz will work almost as well, but requires
a bit more energy with the old file to produce good sparks.

The spark catcher must be dry - this means it must start dry and be
kept in an air tight container so it doesn't pick up ambient moisture.
I've dried salvaged bits of cedar bark in a frying pan over a low
flame/heat until t became dry and crumbly, then sealed in something like
a discarded plastic film container, sealable bag, plastic medecin
bottle, or even small sealable plastic household container. If you are
using this sort of container, keep everything together so things won't
get lost in your pack.

Dave

To reply, remove the word, "nospam" from my return address.
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* Dave Loomis *
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* 164 Tuttle Lane * (603) 431 5342
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* Greenland, NH 03840 * dloomis@nh.ultranet.com
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* Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam
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* possit materiari? *
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