firestarter knife?

[your_comforting_company]

that's a pretty good idea.. of course I don't know the answer. Is there somebody out there who could tell us some junk stuff that would work besides the obvious files and leaf springs? Like are my drill bits high carbon? they're sure as heck brittle and broken. I see you guys using saw blades for knives.. wouldn't hacksaw and sawzall blades be just as good? I got tons of those hardened yellow bolts, and forged shears. Gotta be something besides leaf springs to grind down into a nice 1/2" rod.
Kinda why I wanted somebody to explain it. I'm kinda backwards from most folks.. I gotta understand the fundamentals of something (why it works) in order to understand how to do it. My logic says that the metal should be soft enough for the rock to cut off a tiny piece; metal is normally harder than rock. hit a boulder with a 8lb sledge and the rock breaks; rocks that are highly siliceous often will throw sparks against one another, although small and unsustained. that indicates to me that "glassy" rocks, or those with fine crystalline structure should work whether heat treated or not; if not, there would be a "rougher" surface causing more friction because the rock hasn't "fused". heck I have some rocks that will strike a small spark on each other out there now but hit it on 20 different metal thingies layin around and none throw sparks like Bear Frills on the magic box.

according to what I've read, this thinking is wrong, maybe even backwards! but in my crude way of thinking it makes sense. somebody please enlighten me lol!

I dunno, maybe metal just isn't my thing lol. sticks and stones, yeah!
and for the record.. I was really just wanting to play with my rocks, and who's really gonna tell the caveman he can't bang them on something?

[your_comforting_company]

Okay.. I went to my parents today to goof around and me and dad got out in the shop and started torching anything that looked hard. We tried lawnmower blades, files, hardened bolts, all kinds of things. I took 5 different kinds of "flint" with me to try also, some of which will spark against themselves and other rocks.
The file worked best BUT it did NOT throw sparks the way I had imagined. I'm afraid If I had to start a fire like that, I would be cold. We both tried for about 10 minutes each and he looked at me and asked if it would take me that long to make fire with sticks. I told him "No. We'd have had a fire 15 minutes ago with sticks". I'm sorely disappointed in the metal. Hey Rick, how much for one of them fancy spark throwers like you sell? We used WAY more fuel and good files, bits, etc. than what it was worth.. at least my sticks will grow back.

We are missing something from the equation. Neither of us knows what it is, but after todays experiments, I'm pushing that to the side as something I can't make myself. Oh well, that's how you learn!

[Rick]

If you are making spark, you can make fire. You just need something to catch the spark, I think. Did you use char cloth? All char cloth needs is a single spark and you're on your way to a warm fire.

[Camp10]

I found this YCC. I was hunting for the steel type used in a bic lighter and struck out but this has some info that might be useful in your quest.

http://www.rutabaga.com/page.asp?pgid=65

[crashdive123]

got out in the shop and started torching anything that looked hard.

No sir. Not gonna do it.

[crashdive123]

On a serious note YCC. You won't get a big shower of sparks with your natural flint. As Rick said - char cloth works great and only takes a single spark to work.

[pocomoonskyeyes]

Looking at the Rutabaga site Camp10 showed, It said W-1 steel, Isn't that what files are usually made from?

YCC to test the flint I find, I use an old Buck Creek Carbon steel pocketknife. That sparks great on the Hornstone or whatever type of flint it is that I have. Maybe someone will know what type of Carbon steel that would be.

[your_comforting_company]

I tried to catch it in my standard tindle. dandelion (I used thistle) fluff, and dried grass. I guess with all that fire going we should have made some char-cloth to try lol. The sparks we were getting were like the 4 shown on the picture on the link. a small spark here, a little one there, never onto the tindle, and never very many at a time or any that would burn for more than the blink of an eye.

poco, I got a second confirmation on that rock being hornstone. One of the few that should not be cooked. It already flakes so cleanly there is no need to cook it. It threw a few sparks (I knew that was good flint so I brought a piece to try) pretty much like the other flints I found around here. Maybe I just had my hopes too high for this.. really expecting more of a "shower of sparks" than a few random flying ones.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll have another go at it when I come across some more metal things to try.

Oh yeah, we broke the file. I didn't realize it would get so brittle that my little rock would break it!!

[canid]

I wonder if drum brake parts are high carbon?

when i say high carbon, i mean steel. e.g. it is extremely difficult to get acceptable sparking with iron.

mild steel or better is what you are looking for. do you want to know if a scrap piece of steel has got a decent carbon content? ask your self what it was used for. if it's a mechanical part which was meant to be subjected to repeated stress, they probably didn't make it from pig iron.

want to be extra sure? get yourself a piece of flint. strike your part on it until you get sparks, and then strike a piece of rebar with it. if the sparks from our piece are twice as easy to strike, trail twice as long before fading out, etc, then it's a steel part.

it's even easier if you have a grinder, cutoff wheel, etc. when ground at high speed the sparks from steel are much brighter than those of iron, longer lived, and even like to fork, or 'burst' in the air. this is also more pronounced in hardened steel than in annealed stock.