Thread: Blacksmithing Funtime

My daily razor is 200+ years old and I’ve become interested in other 200+ year old technologies. As of late, I’ve been researching the flint and steel method of making fire. I had some free time this afternoon and decided to forge my own striker (in the traditional "C" shape). I made the striker from a piece of O1 tool steel 1/2” round stock. I first forged it rectangular and thinned the material in the process. Then I tapered each end and rounded them over. If I was more skilled at blacksmithing and had the right tools, I would have added some decorative twists. Then I quenched it in water. I did not bother tempering the striker as I would if I was making a blade.

Here’s a picture of the final product, including the flint (from an old necklace/pendant I had lying around – not sure what it’s made of), some homemade charcloth, and a quarter for size.

Works great. The kids were amazed that I was able to get a fire going with nothing but a rock and a hunk of metal. Fun stuff!

Brian

PS: Hand forging at razor remains on my bucket list. I’ll get around to that project one day – hopefully soon.

That's a very traditional looking forge ;-)

If you want to really go old school, make a bow drill. That is pre-iron age and its a pretty interesting way to make fire. The seriously hardcore, make their own cordage from found/harvested natural materials.

There is a certain romance to do things the old ways.

LOL. Coal is definitely more traditional and a whole lot easier to use (I actually prefer coal), but I think my neighbors would have a fit if I used a smoky coal forge. I use propane so nobody complains.

I will have to give a bow drill set a try some time. Agreed, trying old school technology is a lot of fun.

great stuff,what is char cloth?.How do you use the C shaped striker?

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

great stuff,what is char cloth?.How do you use the C shaped striker?

I believe it's tinder, dry distilled cloth, to make it really good you can boil it in KNO3 first.

Where did you get the pipe to make your furnace in. I have been wanting to build one but alas money is tight

Originally Posted by Lemur

I believe it's tinder, dry distilled cloth, to make it really good you can boil it in KNO3 first.

I just smoked 20 lbs of elk jerky in the past few days,I could put some cloth in my smokehouse,would be loaded with nitrates.

A modern ferrocerium rod that you used in Boy Scouts uses an alloy containing magnesium that produces abundant hot sparks when scraped. These sparks are hot enough (3000+ F) to catch a many number of things on fire. The “flints” in your Zippo lighter (and your Bic lighter for that matter) are generally the same material.

However, before the alloy’s invention (roughly 100 years ago as far as I can tell), striking a piece of carbon steel with a flint produced very weak sparks by comparison. It is very difficult to ignite materials with this very weak spark. Charcloth is one of those materials that will produce an ember from these weak sparks.

Charcloth is made via pyrolysis, the process of heating flammable materials in the absence of oxygen. Take an airtight tin and poke a small hot in the lid. Fill the tin with cloth (I used an old cotton rag), place the lid back on, and place the tin in a campfire. The cloth will smoke (evidenced by smoke exiting the small hole in the lid) but the cloth will not burn due to the low oxygen. When the tin stops smoking, the process is done and you are left with charcloth and will produce an ember with the weakest of sparks. It’s really amazing stuff. Traditionally, char was made from a number of materials (certain fungi, punk wood, etc.). The idea was to use your existing fire to always keep your charcloth supply sufficient to start future fires. All of this I learned from YouTube, of course.

Using the striker (see holding position in the photo), strike the flint (or vice versa) and direct a spark into the charcloth. Once an ember catches, blow into the char to increase the heat. I then place a candle into the cloth and the candle will eventually catch fire. It surprised me how easy it is.


PS: I bought my rig from another enthusiast so I don’t know where the pipe was sourced.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

great stuff,what is char cloth?.How do you use the C shaped striker?

Char Cloth is natural cloth such as cotton, hemp ect. that has been processed into charcoal, by heating it in an anaerobic environment. Such as in a tin with a small vent.

The iron is slipped over the fingers and with a clenched fist the stone is used to strike a glancing blow on the iron. Carefully positioning the iron and stone allows you to direct the sparks into tender such as char cloth.

Jonathan