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Flint and Steel Kits
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Flint and steel kits go back to the beginning of fire making with flints. A flint and steel kit uses real natural flint rock while other flint fire starters use man made flints. The main difference is the sparks come from the steel instead of the flint.
Using natural flint and steel is the most difficult method of all flint fire starters for a few reasons:
- There are less sparks generated.
- Sparks do not burn as hot and long.
- Requires the use of a char cloth.
However, since the sparks come from the metal, there is a virtually infinite supply of sparks. People also like to use flint and steel kits because they like to start fires the old fashioned way.
In this method of fire starting, a piece of char cloth is held together with a sharp edged flint rock. There are many kinds of flint rocks and they will all work. Even other hard stones such as jade can work. Flint is preferred since it is naturally hard and breaks into sharp pieces. The char cloth is a piece of material, usually cotton, that has been treated in advance to ignite easily when it comes in contact with a spark. It can be made by cooking small pieces of cotton cloth until it they become completely black and charred.
With your flint in one hand, and a piece of steel in the other, the steel is scraped at the flint fast and hard. Usually the flint is angled upwards to send the metal sparks upward into the char cloth. Once the cloth catches the spark, you blow on it to spread the embers. Then the cloth is placed into your tinder and you keep blowing on it until the tinder catches fire. Many kits contain twine to make the tinder. The twine is unraveled into small threads and make into a bundle resembling a birds nest.
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