|
Post by huntingtag08 on Apr 20, 2011 18:29:42 GMT -5
What do you use to make flint strikers, steel wise? I've thought about 20p spikes, squared and drawn out to twist, but what works best? Rebar maybe, I don't know. I assume you have to heat treat them after forming,right?
Let me in on the info.
Thanks!
|
|
|
Post by phoenix1967 on Apr 20, 2011 21:41:08 GMT -5
an old file, beaten into shape, one edge hardened in water (only dunk about 1/4 inch of the edge in water, till it stops sizzeling), no temper, leave the edge as hard as possible. High carbon steel works best, thus the file.
|
|
|
Post by huntingtag08 on Apr 20, 2011 22:22:30 GMT -5
Thanks Phoenix!
I use an old file now, I just wondered if there was something else I should be using. I'll just make this something easier to hold and carry and be good to go.
|
|
|
Post by ThunderMoon on Apr 21, 2011 0:58:20 GMT -5
Magnezium Scrapr firmly and slow down the length of the striker,magnezeum scrapings at the bottom,push the sparks dow toward the mag with a little hair,brus,and dry strawage,the fooooff.oooeeeee oooeee oeee agh agh agh we gottsss fiwa... ;D so easy a caveman can do it
|
|
|
Post by phoenix1967 on Apr 21, 2011 10:04:48 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by phoenix1967 on Apr 21, 2011 10:08:43 GMT -5
Thundermoon: I KNOW! I AM a caveman.... aincha looked at my pic:
|
|
|
Post by ThunderMoon on Apr 21, 2011 14:03:52 GMT -5
You talented caveman.. ;D
You remind me of folks that used to live around here,you could get fresh duck,lamb,rabbit,eggs,man we et good back then.What they didn't have we went and got,like gray squirrel,pheasent,dove,duck,not no more,i never thought it would get that way here,i hate it! You have a great way of life..
|
|
|
Post by beaudro on Apr 21, 2011 18:00:57 GMT -5
The link that Phoenix posts is Mike Ameling's website. He passed away and is missed by many of us. The grumpy ole blacksmith in the Hinterlands did years of researching fire steels. You can tell by his website. www.angelfire.com/journal2/firefromsteel/He explains pretty good what you can use to make strikers, in a historical sense. Magnesium or Titanium does work of course, if they contain enough carbon, but were not used in history of course. It is the carbon thats doing the work. When you strike a glancing blow with a hard peice of flint against the surface of steel the carbon gets red hot, that is what your collecting in your char-cloth. In history high carbon steel was a little hard to find, it was not cheap and thrown away often. Old files many times were taken to a shop and re-cut , although there are strikers made from files , it's not as common as you would think. A file had to be really worn out before it would be converted to a striker. England produced the most strikers during the fur trade. The Bright ovals , were not polished to a bright sheen to earn the name, the name is from the type of steel , which was a high carbon steel, a very high carbon steel. These were also very thin , you can cut them from a power saw blade. Many originals are still found in archaeology finds. A classic "C" striker can be made from a piece of garage door spring easy, old hay rake teeth work well , it is the opinion of many that too many replicas are made of round stock however. It does seem that originals were made of square stock. Every country had a different style , America had them all since we are the melting pot and we had a huge influx of trade goods from other countries. A spanish version is the "chispa" , it almost looks like a coffin , Mike probably has one on his website. They are easy to make. What I do to make ovals or chispas , if I use a power saw blade it must be an old one that is solid carbon steel , not just the teeth. Older ones seem to pass the test, you can tell by touching a piece of it to a grinder, it should throw a good shower of sparks. First it has to be annealed , or softened, by heating it up cherry red and letting it cool real slow. You can now scribe the shape you want on it , heat it back up and use a chisel to punch it out. You can cheat and use a cutting torch if you want. Don't quench it yet , let it cool on it's own for now. After it's cut out you should be able to file on it , or use a grinder and get the shape you want. After you have the shape your looking for it's time to harden it. I heat mine up until a magnet won't stick to it , and hold it to that temp for a few minutes. I just drop mine real fast into cold water, sometimes they'll crack and you just live with it , make another and learn to live with it. You can edge harden if you want, but I don't see much difference in the end. After you harden it try it out with a good peice of flint , if it does not spark well try hardening again. What happens is the carbon is coming to the surface and when you strike it correctly you should get a decent shower of sparks. If you want to know how good it is , compared to an original, try lighting your smoking pipe with it , learn to light your pipe with just one strike off the steel , if you get it to work that well you have made a good fire steel.
|
|
|
Post by whitedove on Apr 21, 2011 18:45:26 GMT -5
Hello Allen, That was very interesting,I was reading this morning,over on that website link.And found the formations reminded me of art.Especially how the pattens were arranged for the displays.I called some of family earlier today.And mentioned they should go to that site,there were some things of interest there.I told them that might be something they could do on their spare time and sell.I'm sorry to hear that he has passed.I also enjoyed the carpet bags,and had even thought of checking into getting one in future.But,now I know I can't do that. But,this information is valuable, and I will pass it on.Do you think that the website is only informational now?
Thank You, Kathy
|
|
|
Post by beaudro on Apr 21, 2011 21:10:35 GMT -5
Mike Ameling passed away , Friday, October 23, 2009 , and all of his work was either sold or given to freinds, at least that I know of. Mike's website was left up probably because nobody had the heart to take it down. There are a few guys out there that have his goods but they are treasured. I make many like in the picture, for sale or trade, just about anyone can make them for you though. You should be able to find them at local rendezvous.
|
|
|
Post by huntingtag08 on Apr 21, 2011 21:25:09 GMT -5
Phoenix, thanks for the link!
beaudro, thanks for all the information! I never would have thought of using an old rake tooth, but they are springs, so they'd work great. It wouldn't be hard to heat one up and tap it square to look more original.
Thanks!
|
|
|
Post by huntingtag08 on Apr 21, 2011 21:42:34 GMT -5
When I was reading on Mike Ameling's site, he noted that what you're actually doing when you strike your flint is slicing a small piece of your steel off that sparks. I never thought of it that way. That's what you're doing when you grind steel, too. Makes the whole process easier to visualize for some reason.
Beaudro,
If I was going to only light my pipe with a flint and steel, I never would have had to quit smoking. I wouldn't have gotten through a bag of tobacco in a lifetime!
|
|
|
Post by ThunderMoon on Apr 21, 2011 21:51:11 GMT -5
Nice strikers.. Crimeny after lookin at that website i'm gonna have to get me a collection of different styled strikers now
|
|
|
Post by beaudro on Apr 21, 2011 22:13:46 GMT -5
I might add that if you try and make oval strikers out of power saw blades they come out very thin. Providing the whole blade is carbon steel, with them being so thin they do not work very well. The very thin originals are from Bright steel , which had more carbon than what you will find in the saw blades. There isn't much striking surface on an 1/8 inch blade. They also warp real easy when hardening. To remedy this, the best you can do is find a thicker blade, many of the old saw mill blades are thicker. It's a sacrifice I had to take because the only source of bright steel today comes from England and it's expensive. Mine are probably 3/16" thick, they should be thinner. Plow disc work fairly well, some have more carbon than others however. Very little carbon steel existed in America, it was expensive and wasn't laying around to make strikers out of. Carbon steel had to be made, sometimes by placing a sheet of wrought iron into a furnace and throwing old leather/bones/hides on top of it , as the metal became hot enough it absorbed the carbon. This became blister steel. It's carbon content is only on the surface, much like case hardened steel. It took huge factories to make better steel, we had very little manufacturing. This is the reason for England to be supplying strikers in large quantities. It goes the same for knives, traps, sewing needles, fish hooks and other steel products. The warranted Bright Ovals were made by Hiram Cutler in Sheffield, they were stamped out of annealed plate , polished and hardened and sold very cheap. Labor was cheap everywhere. Before this process of stamping, the French made an oval striker, but it is forge welded and not of bright steel. The two styles are confused but actually are 100 years apart, the French used a common carbon steel.
|
|
|
Post by beaudro on Apr 21, 2011 22:27:58 GMT -5
On Mikey's site, he describes that when you strike your steel you are slicing pieces of steel , and that is correct. Mike used to have a section on that site that showed the burning carbon. I think he took it down for bandwidth or to make it simpler. You do loose some peices of steel when you strike, however it's the carbon that is glowing red when it hits your charcloth. It would take a bunch more heat to make the steel get that hot with a glancing blow, but some steel is lost. Original strikers are often found nearly worn to nothing. Different time periods, and different regions all used different material for catching a spark. I have gotten away from using charred cloth , it's too hard to keep dry, it's fragile, and a little hard to document. I use a tinder fungus, or even better I like a frayed piece of hemp rope. Sisal works good also, but both work best when they have been charred one time. It takes a little practice to aim the spark at the tip of the rope , but when you get that down it's much easier to use than char cloth.
|
|