Will" got it mostly right, but there are a few additional things to be

aware of. I make museum replicas, very fancy ones, and they have to throw a

really good shower of sparks. I quickly learned that not all files are

created equal...and OLD files are my favorite material to make them out of.

I have made them from a variety of materials, including titanium, which

throws off huge intensely white sparks that can actually burn your skin, but

not nearly as many sparks as very high carbon steel does. I have a jpg image

of a titanium striker and a file steel striker that I made side by side and

it is difficult to tell them apart because the titanium will take on really

beautiful tempering colors, even brighter than steel.

Anyway, you want really OLD files. Files that are more modern are not just

plain high carbon steel but are special alloys and they do not throw nearly

as good a spray of sparks. Its the carbon that helps to make the steel

shaving burn brightly, not the other alloying elements. How can you tell?

The only way I know is to test each file for sparks. Also some of the newer

files are now case hardened, and they are worthless.

"Will" said not to temper them, but that only holds true if its a relatively

new file that is a modern alloy. Those will work without tempering just

fine, but the really old files have to be tempered. I should add that the

spray of sparks you will get with the new alloy files is not really very

good, perhaps a third as many sparks as the pure high carbon steel of old.

On the old files, if you don't draw the temper they will be so hard that

they will not throw sparks, but will do a dandy job of taking the edge off

your flint. Again, you have to experiment to see where to temper them to. I

use an oven and take them up 50 degrees at a time, starting at 250 degrees.

Let then "soak" in the oven for half an hour and then take them out and try

sparking them. If you find you have to hit really hard and only get a few

occasional sparks its still too hard. A good striker will throw a spray of

many sparks, and do it with a very light hit. You should be able to "catch"

the spark (on the char-cloth) on the first try almost all the time if its a

good striker. Don't be afraid to draw the temper too far. Just keep track of

where it sparked the best, and then reharden and draw it again at that

temperature. Also you will then know how to draw the temper for the rest of

the steel in that particular file, but only that file. I like to use a

marker to mark the temper temperature on the remainder of the file if I am

going to put it away for later use.

As to flints, real flint is the best stuff other than some of the harder gem

stones. If you have any big sharp edged diamonds laying around you have it

made....grin. Here in Idaho we have lots of agate and chert. Both will work,

and the agate (cryptocrystalline quartz) is the best substitute there is for

flint. It will not hold an edge as long as flint, but can be easily enough

resharpened by striking off the old worn edge. I include an agate chip, that

I pick up out on the desert, with strikers I sell and they serve very well.

I do not try to make the chips myself, although you could do so easily

enough. I would rather select smooth nicely formed chips that have lost that

"newly chipped" look.

Another good source for striker steel is old hay rake tines. You can

generally get them at flea markets, and they are straight high carbon steel

too, and work quite well. There are two different diameters of tines out

there, and the bigger ones are what you want, they are 1/2" rod, while the

thinner more common ones are about 3/8". I think the bigger ones are John

Deere tines, but not sure about that.

Another thing I would say about strikers is that its worth making them

carefully and doing a nice job. I use museum tracings of a variety of

shapes, including some really neat little mini-strikers originally made by

"GF Ainslie". I know that because the name is stamped right in the side of

the striker portion. They are a fancy "U" shaped striker and are 2" long by

1-1/4" high. BTW, its worth taking your sketch book along when visiting

museums. Most that I have visited have allowed me to access the item and

make tracings. This goes for other items besides just strikers too. If you

approach them nicely they are often very cooperative. The two little

"Ainslie" strikers I took tracings of were both in brand new never used

condition and in a superb private collection. I do not know the history of

those strikers, and I don't know when they were produced, but perhaps

someone on this group will have that information.

If you make them for sale you can get a lot more if they are done in a fine

workman like fashion. My strikers sell for between $20-$35 each, and I can

easily sell all I can make. Compare that with $3-$5 for most of them that

are available, but are very quickly and poorly made. A good well made

striker will have chamfered edges and will have very finely formed and

tapered scroll ends where appropriate. It will not have any sharp edges to

abrade the hand, and will be clean of all scale and nicely finished. I like

to leave the differential tempering colors on the striker. The scroll end(s)

are tempered to a purple/blue as you don't want them breaking off. I temper

the whole thing in the oven and then put the striking edge in a shallow pan

of water while to further temper the arms with a torch. It will take a

third of a day to make a fine striker and 10-15 minutes to turn out one of

the cheap ones you see in black powder shops. There is no comparison in how

they feel in the hand, nor how good a shower of sparks they will throw...as

I said, not all files are created equal. I know of one new smith who was

making and selling strikers, on location at a flea market that I frequent,

and he was hammering them out of 3/8" mild steel rod! I asked him if they

would throw a good shower of sparks and he said he assumed they would. He

was less than amused when I explained what he was doing wrong, especially

after he tried to make one spark and it wouldn't. A number of the strikers

were returned to him and he did make good ones to exchange. He just didn't

know about steel types yet. He was an honest man and is a good friend of

mine now. I gave him a tracing of the Ainslie strikers and he has made a lot

of money selling them in northern California and eastern Oregon.

BTW, its not worth the time to make a titanium striker unless you are doing

it just to say you did, and to have one to show off. They are quite a

surprise to people when you pull one out and show it off, both due to its

very light weight, and also because of the nature of the sparks. They are

very hard to make, and you have to be careful about the kind of titanium you

use. Some kinds of alloys put off poison gasses that will give you "titanium

fever", so be careful. When you work it don't heat any hotter than the

"brown powder scale" range. You will know what I refer to the first time you

put the titanium in the fire. Any hotter and you will damage the metal. And

don't cold hammer it or you will damage your anvil and your hammer. Draw

them dead soft, which is still very hard.

Well, that is probably a lot more than you wanted to know Sal, but perhaps

will be of value to you. And no, I don't make lots of strikers, mostly by

request.

Yours,

Ron

Golden Age Forge

E-Mail:

Boise, Idaho

<Evidence without certainty is called science>

<Certainty without evidence is called religion>

"Will Hutt" <> wrote in message

news:8kqcp7$eml$...

> Salut Sal!

> Sal <> wrote in message news:...

> > Does anyone know of a book that covers "how to make a striker". I need

> > some information on how to make a striker for starting fires. I need

> > something more than find some tool steel, get it hot and cool it in water.

> Right, you need a steel with lots of carbon in it so tool steel is good or

> even better, an old worn out file!

> Forge it, shape it ( here I can't resist pointing out that the striker was

> the emblom of the Dukes of Burgundy especially that of Charles le Témeraire

> who tried to rebuild the kingdom of Lothringinen post Charlemagne and then

> to be become Holy Roman Emperor. He was the richest prince in Christendom

> and ruled modern Belgium, Holland, French speaking Switzerland, Alsace,

> Lorraine, Savoy, Burgundy & Franche Comté [pet subject!!!!!]).

> Quench it in water, or oil if water quench produces cracks. Don't temper

> it. More importantly don't drop it, it's glass hard!

> Easy bit that! but I'm a smith. Next, get a flint stone with a sharp edge.

> They occur usually as a very rounded deposit so put it into a couple of

> plastic bags and smack it one with a big hammer. Again not too difficult.

> Now the difficult: find a very, very fine cloth of linen or cotton. Take a

> tabacco tin and place a pile of rectangles of this cloth within. Make a

> small hole in the top with a compass point. Next, heat the box from below

> with a blow torch or on a gas cooker.

> As soon as it is heated a bit, light the gas coming out of the small hole on

> the top then continue heating below until the flame goes out. Leave it to

> cool.

> The cloth is now reduced to carbon and should be excellent tinder.

> Hold a folded sheet of this tinder next to the surface coming off the sharp

> edge of the flint. Strike the "briquet",or steel striker against the flint

> and have prepared a match 'cos once the spark is caught on the tinder cloth

> you need to get this to flare by using a match.

> A match is most easilly made by taking a fine wood spill and then throwing

> up some burrs with a knife along the edges then finally dipping it into

> molten sulphur.

> Many damp evenings I have laboured at this fire making process, but once,

> just once, a sublime once, in front of television cameras I did it in 20

> seconds flat!

> The secrets are to keep the tinder & match dry and choose a sharp flint, the

> steels are easy!!!

> I've a load of pictures of steel strikers if you want them. Some use a case

> hardened low carbon steel. These are only good until this case hardened skin

> is worn away but then the case hardening process needs doing again.

> Good luck,

> Will

Message 2 in thread
From: David (tose)
Subject: Re: Strikers (long)
View this article only
Newsgroups: alt.crafts.blacksmithing
Date: 2000/07/17

Ron,

Great informative post, thanks. Perhaps the jasper and chert in my area will

work after all. I must have been using a bad file; as well as the source that

informed me that only true flint would work.

Dave

In an effort to create a FAQ, and based on an email I got, I'm tossing

this out to the group for consideration. Many of you are far more

skilled than I (hey I'm a hobbiest) but the FAQ needs to start

somewhere. I'll also post a followup, incomplete article on

firestarting for any of you who want to try the striker out.

HOW TO MAKE A FLINT STRIKER

by Roy Parker (aka "Muffin")

Ok, here's the write-up I promised. If you ever wanted to make your

own striker, here's the information. I intend this to be the first in

a series of articles that will eventually become a buckskinner FAQ,

Standard Disclaimer

This article is copyrighted by the author, October 8, 1996. This

article may be freely distributed or posted on a web page as long as

the entire document is unchanged. Contact the author for commercial

publication permission at . Comments and

criticism appreciated.

I'm a hobbiest blacksmith, so take what I say for what it's worth. I

make a lot of small things, and strikers are one of them.

I make two types of strikers, public grade (usually at demos and Boy

Scouts) and buckskinner grade. The public grade actually work quite

well, are very simple to make, but really aren't the sort of things

most 'skinners would carry around. The trick here is to find the

right steel which is 5/16 or 3/8 garage door spring. Cut off a coil

of spring about 7-8 inches long, heat it to a even color, bright

cherry to orange, on all links, grab the end of the spring with a pair

of pliers, drop the coil over the handle of the leg vise, and walk

backwards. The steel unwinds like line off a fishing reel. Drop it

on the ground and let it cool. You now have 8-10 feet of straight,

OK-grade striker material. (Disclaimer-I have yet to find a spring

that didn't spark, but YMMV.)

Whack this up in about 5 inch pieces. Heat to orange and taper both

ends. Reheat, and form in a C shape. Reheat to bright orange and

quench using my secret formula and technique ;), Done. Not fancy,

but they work well, especially when you have to make a few to give

away to the audience.

For buckskinners I start with either files or old harse-drawn hay rake

tine (yes, you can find it if you really look-I have about 20 in my

garage, but haven't found a replacement source yet). Great stuff, but

hard to work until you get it hot enough, then you have to worry about

burning it or decarbonizing it. Most of the old horse drawn farm

equipment was made of high carbon steel. Modern bed frames often are

good steel too. Best way to check for high carbon is to put it on

your grinder. If it throws a steady stream of sparks, it's probably

mild steel or a strange alloy. Use it for something else. If it

throws starbursts of sparks, it's likely good carbon steel for

strikers.

If I'm using a file, I start by grinding the teeth off the face that

will be the striker and part of the teeth near that face to reduce the

risk of cracking during hardening. At this point, regardless of the

steel type, I like to work it down into a bar that is 3/16-1/4 inch

wide and 5/16-3/8 inch thick. Draw out one end to a taper maybe 1/16

thick. This is going to be one of the curves.

Figure out how much you need for the striker section, plus another

tapered section, and cut the striker loose from the bar. Now taper

the other end to match the first taper. Ya really gotta be careful

with your heating at this points. Those thin tips are awfully easy to

burn or melt. If you pull the striker out of the fire and it looks

like one of those 4th of July sparklers, it's burnt. Throw it away.

The carbon is gone, so it will never spark.

Now heat one of the tips to cherry, and bend it back toward the side

you've decided will be the striker portion. This bend should be about

3/8 inch long. This will be the little curly tip that reverses at the

end of the C shaped striker. There's two ways to make this bend. The

first is to start it with a pair of needle nose pliers, then tap it

with a hammer. The other is to hold it at 45 degree angle over the

side of the anvil about 3/8 inch, and tap it with a hammer. Then put

it on the anvil and finish the bend. I use a small 8 ounce crosspein

hammer (my kids named it "Dinky") for such delicate work.

Now it's time to make the big bends. Heat to orange, being very

careful not to burn those thin tips. Pull the striker out of the fire

and quench about 3/4 inch of the tip in water for no more that a

quarter of a second. Lay the striker face up across the tip of the

horn and start the bend with a tap near the horn. When you get it

bent 30 degrees or so, lay it on the anvil with the tip in the air

and start pounding on that tip to finish the curve. When the tip is

parallel to the striker face you can put it back on the horn to smooth

up the curve if you want.

The tip was quenched because I'd planned to pound on it. If it wasn't