Today I attempted to forge a flint striker. (I recently visited Colonial Williamsburg, VA; and couldn't resist when I saw flint at $2 per hunk) It was made from the axle of a lawnmower blade, which I guessed would be high carbon. It seems I must have been wrong. The striker, quenched in water, chips away the flint without producing a single spark. Was I mis-informed about the necessity of high carbon steel? Or about the quench? I know that I chose questionable metal, at best. Anyone have a guess as to what a lawnmower blade axle might be made of?
I don't know how commonly known flint strikers are, so I decided to include a brief description:
A thin, long, square or rectangular piece of high-carbon steel that is curved into a tall "c". Designed to fit over the first three fingers of either hand, it is used by striking perpendicular to the edge of a piece of flint to produce a spark.
Thanks