Fire Steel Tutorial

A firesteel, also known as a fire striker is a piece of carbon steel from which sparks are struck by the sharp edge of flint, chert or similar rock It is a specific tool used in firemaking. The type and hardness of steel used is important. High carbon steels (1060, W1, tool steels, etc.) generate sparks easily. Iron and alloys (like stainless steel, 5160, etc.) are more difficult and generates fewer sparks. The steel must be hardened but softer than the flint-like material scraping off the spark. Old files, leaf and coil springs, and rusty gardening tools are common, re-purposed sources of strikers. 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 the shavings oxidizing in the air. The molten, oxidizing sparks ignite the fine tinder. Tinder is best held next to the flint and the steel striker quickly slid down against the flint, casting sparks into the tinder. Charcloth or amadou ("tinder fungus") is often used to catch the low-temperature sparks, which can then can be brought to other, heavier tinder and blown into flame.