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Making Fire with Flint and Steel

Like a lot of kids, I was fascinated by primitive technologies . . . like making fire by flint and steel or by “rubbing two sticks together,” – as we called the bow and drill method. Mike Procter,one of a number of locals knowledgeable about ancient technologies, will be demonstrating the flint and steel method, and helping you prepare your own fire kit, at a free Country Know-how mini-workshop on April 17th at 10 am.
Making a fire with flint and steel requires striking a piece of hard quartz against steel and sending off a spark that can ignite some flammable material. It’s exactly how a lighter works, without the gas as ignition and fuel. A hard stone can be substituted for the steel and was used in ancient times; it needs to be less hard than the flint.
Flint and stone have been used for making fire since ancient times, and during much of the historic period, was the way it was done. It’s how Shakespeare lit his fire for example – or was Anne Hathaway the firekeeper? Around that time matches were introduced but they were dangerous devices: flaming meteors of broken off matchheads burned down houses.
Mike will help workshop participants create their own fire kit, the ingredients they’ll need to make fire when they want. He has some flint or some tips on finding your own. The tinder that the spark will ignite can be natural materials like dandelion fluff or birchbark (Mike hasn’t found bulrush seeds efficient though they’re in the literature), or something pre-prepared – a natural fibre like linen or cotton half-charred will catch easily. Workshop participants can bring a small tight-fitting tin can ) like the ones some lozenges come in) and make their own tinder – Mike provides the cloth.
A candle is another useful part of your fire kit. Start a candle with the burgeoning flame to provide back-up till things are really going. One great source of the steel that’s perfect for great sparks is a file melted down and hammered smooth.
Come to the workshop, rain or shine, April 27th at 10 am, 2657 Zealand Rd., (just north and east of Sharbot Lake). Afterwards, weather (and my technical skills permitting) we hope to make a wee video of Mike creating a fire on a street corner after someone stops him to ask for a light.