tempering flint strikers

[meco3hp]

Hello,
My reenactor customer really likes the size of the flint strikers I'm making, but I'm having a problem getting a consistant spark from them. I'm using a 3/16" dia garage door spring for one size and a 5/16" dia coilover spring off of a car shock. The smaller dia material is real difficult to get right but I'm having better luck with them than I'm having with the bigger material. but going by color as I temper the bigger material, I'm getting a more consistant color through out the piece, but not a spark one. My customer wants them to spark a lot as he likes to work with kids at the rendezvous as they visit and show them how the mountianmen started their campfires. Then he lets them try so he wants all the spark capabilities he can get. Going by tempering color, what color should I have?

[Ralph]

I use garage door sping as well.
Here is how I do it. ( Glenn mebbe a BP?)
Cut off a piece about 5 or so inches long. SLIGHTLY flatten. Taper each end and make a scroll end Then 2nd heat I bend around the horn so that it is an open 'C"( with the long edge slightly flat, big enough for my hand. BUt I do not put whole hand in but I hold with finger tips and use a quick wrist action, more on that later..
I then heat a CAN OF WATER TO ABOUT 180 DEG F . Also heat the piece to non-critical ( AKA cherry red or better yet non-magnectic) then quench the flat edge ( the long one) then throw on floor. ( dirt floor) Oh yes I also file the striking surface to clear off the scale ( scale doen not spark) Or some times I
rub the quenched piece with some soft red brick for the same purpose.

Then the trick to getting sparks is a quick snapping action with the wrist and using a hard sharp edged rock. Agate, flint and others. Obsidion works but the rock flakes more than I like.

Just my nickle's worth

[Don A]

I'll pretty much second what Ralph said.

I make all of mine out of files. When I finsh forging the striker, I heat it to non-mag and water quench just the striking edge; 1/8" to 1/4" up. But instead of throwing it on the floor, I'll hold it in this position with the tongs until the whole thing cools way past black.

If I'm in the 18th century, I use the grindstone, if I'm at home, I use the bench sander; either way, you have to get the striking edge "in the white" with no scale.

And remember, not all flint is created equal. I use some local stuff that is a knapper's nightmare, but man, it will throw a spark.

[elkdoc]

Great thread...

DonA, where are you getting this sparky flint? I need to make a gift for a colleague, and a striker with a flint would be right up his alley.

[Ralph]

Don,
I get whatever stone I need form a local ( once or twice a year) gem and stone show ( sorta like a gunshow type thing but with gems and stones)
The agate I get is sliced into thin plates. I can get one about 8 inches acrtoss and 1/4 inch thick for about 3 bucks. Take it home and drop it on the floor. instant striker stones.. Once an edge gets dull a wee tap with a small hammer and you have a new sharp edge. ALso since they be flat they fit into
fire started kits ( flat cans) real nice. :o

[Don A]

The agate I get is sliced into thin plates.

ha! We're almost on the same page there, as well.

The stuff I use is called calcidium, but locally known as Tennessee agate (if we have any geologists on board, don't whack me too hard; I'm only repeating what I've bee told). It ranges from a translucent white to black. Beautiful stone, but mighty hard. I have made some decent points from it, but you can't beat it for gunflints and fire-steels.

elkdoc, watch your PM box.

[Strine]

Very interesting topic. A mate of mine demos at the Royal Ag Show every year (at making barrels and such)...what a character ! Anyway the bloke next to him demos exactly as Meco's customer and constantly laments the lack of "skilled blacksmiths" who can make a decent striker in Australia. So I set out to prove him wrong, but can not add to the advice given above. What My problem is, I am told there is no suitable flint to be found anywhere in Australia. Other sort of stone has been mentioned and I wonder if that geologist among us could give scientific names to these other rocks so's I can perhaps look for them instead. Calcidium is a good start, thanks Don

[HWooldridge]

Softer steel won't perform well. I make flint steels from files and harden without tempering. I then polish the striking surface to about 100-150 grit finish and this sparks pretty good on our old Texas chert.

Slightly OT - on one occasion, I was mowing the pasture and hitting rocks every once in a while. It was an extremely dry and hot summer so sure enough, I made a pass and came around to find a pretty good fire going. The shredder blade had busted a rock and thrown sparks - which had landed on just the right combo of tinder. If I had not found it, the whole countryside would have gone up in smoke. Mower blades are not extremely hard but they have enough to make sparks.

[elkdoc]

As do bush-hogs and hay cutters. I've seen 'em both start a blaze when things are way to dry.

[one_rod]

I have never tried it myself, but the advice I was given about flint strikers was to hold them at a "good red heat" in the forge for several minutes before quenching.

This is supposed to increase grain growth in high carbon steels and cause microscopic surface roughness, better at producing showers of fine sparks than trying to rough-up the surface after quenching.

Maybe worth a try?



one_rod.

[Ralph]

Have no idea about soaking before quenching.

ALl my good sparking strikers have I suspect a very find grain. I say this as I have broken one or two ( ones that sparked well) by accident and they both had very fine grain structures.

Ralph