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Flint and Steel
Flint-and-Steel
Pictures, Movies, Notes
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In this method of fire-making, sparks are shaved off a
piece of steel by striking it briskly with a piece of flint or other rock.
In actual use, the steel is struck against the flint, since it's usually
easier to do it that way. A piece of char-cloth is held against the flint
(or other rock) to catch the sparks. Once a spark is caught by the
char-cloth, it is easy to blow into flame.
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Char-cloth is made by placing pieces of woven cotton inside
an airtight metal container. That container is then placed in a fire and
left there until the cotton becomes charred and black. Due to the lack of
air in the container the cotton doesn't actually burn.
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At the Wildwood Trackers Club meeting in February 2004, Michael Tryggvason
demonstrated a flint-and-steel fire starting kit, using steel wool
to catch the spark.
(For a report on that meeting, see the
Wildwood Trackers
website.) |
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The flint and steel firemaking
kit. This can be obtained at most outdoor and camping stores. |
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Here the sparks are being
"scraped" off the flint with a knife into the steel wool. It
is ridiculously easy to start a fire with this method. |
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Click on the small photo to
watch a movie of this kit being used |
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Windows Media format (WMV)
320x240, 758 KB |
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The following shows sizeable sparks being made with a flint
and steel, demonstrated by Rob Bicevskis at the June 2002 meeting of the
Wildwood Trackers club.
(For a report on that meeting, see the
Wildwood Trackers
website.) |
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Click on the small photo to
watch the movie |
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Windows Media format (WMV)
320x240, 466 KB |
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