Flint & Steel Fire Making

Before the invention of matches, percussion fire making was often used to start fires. Before the advent of steel, a variety of iron pyrite or marcasite was used with flint and other stones to produce a high-temperature spark that could be used to create fire. There are indications that the iceman, also known as Otzi, may have used iron pyrite to make fire. from the iron age forward, until the invention of the friction match in the early 1800s by John Walker, the use of flint & steel was a common method of fire lighting. Percussion fire-starting was prevalent in Europe during the ancient times, the Middle Ages & the Viking Age. When flint and steel were used, the fire steel was often kept in a metal tinder box together with flint & tinder. In Tibet & Mongolia, they were instead carried in a leather pouch called a chuck-muck. In Japan, percussion fire making was preformed using agate or even quartz. It was also used as a ritual to bring good luck or ward off evil. The type of hardness of steel used is important High Carbon Steels Used were 1060, W1, etc. the steel must be hardened but softer than the flint-like material striking off the spark. Old files were used, leaf & coil springs, rusty old garden tools are often repurposed as strikers. Besides flint, other hard, non-porous rocks that can take a sharp edge can be used, such as chert, quartz, agate, jasper, or chalcedony. The sharp edge of the flint is used to violently strike the fire steel at an acute angle in order to cleave or shave off small particles of metal the pyrophoricity of the steel results in shavings of oxidizing in the air. The molten, oxidizing sparks then ignite tender the tinder best known as char cloth is best held next to the flint, casting sparks into the tinder. Char Cloth or amadou (Tinder Fungus) is often used to catch sparks, which can then be brought to other, heavier tinder and blown into a flame.   

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