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Fire with Traditional Flint & Steel |
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Written by British Red
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A article on using real flint & steel as opposed to ferrocium rod
(Firesteels) - I've been practicing this since getting my first
firesteel and it is as fast and reliable as I've heard.
To do this you will need some high tech ingredients :
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To do this you will need some high tech ingredients :
A piece of flint with a sharp edge,
A piece of high carbon steel (an old piece of file works well),
Some charcloth (theres a guide to making charcloth on another thread )
A leather pouch to keep it in and look authentic
Okay I confess, that’s a proper "steel" just like the Vikings used - it is forged from an old file though!
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 First, before you get going, prepare your self a "nest" made out of
bone-dry tinder. A good double handful of dry (and I mean dry) grass is
great. For the demo I used some wheat straw - because it was handy.
When using course tinder like straw, rub and crush it to break the
coarse
stems up into finer fibres. Make a ball when doing this and then
open it out into a ball shape.
Next, take your flint shard in your left hand. You do have flint round
you yes? We have tons (literally) - the ploughs keep dragging 18"
nodules out of the fields. Did you know that flint comes from sponges?
It does really...sorry, rambling. Your flint needs to have a sharp edge
like this
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 Next step is to tear a piece of charcloth and clamp it on top of the flint with your thumb - like this.
Next take your striker, piece of carbon steel, old file etc. and hold
the flint pointing upwards. Imaging you are trying to shave the edge of
the steel with the flint being a knife. However you hold the flint
still and bring the striker down sharply just grazing the edge of the
flint. Sparks fly and will catch on the charcloth.
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Blow a little on the cloth to get it going
Drop your charcloth into the nest now
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Next gather the nest in both hands, closing the nest so the charcloth is loosely surrounded by tinder.
Raise your hands towards your mouth,
blow on the cloth through the
tinder in
a long steady puff. Lower the nest,
breathe in then raise the
nest and blow
again. Repeat until you get a flame
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Make sure your tinder bundle is well alight....then place in the fire and add fine twigs and build
the fire 
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