Make and Use: Flint and Steel

The challenge used to be to light a fire with just one match. Now the challenge is to do it without any matches at all. It's very picturesque, entertaining, and satisfying to start your campfire with flint & steel, and when you do, it's your fire, you get to decide who gets to poke it.

In this class we will make a fire-steel from high-carbon steel and learn to use it.
Techniques used will be drawing-out, bending, hardening, and tempering.

When the fire-steel is made we will learn to strike a spark with it and turn that spark into a fire. We will also go over the particulars of making char-cloth for catching the spark.

When the class is done you will have made a fire-steel, learned to make char cloth, and struck a fire. You will come away with your own fire-making kit consisting of  a fire-steel, a flint, a char-tin & charcloth, and a bit of tinder, enough to get started.

No prior smithing experience necessary or expected.

Instructor: Carl West

To bring if you can:

•   a small metal box (like an Altoids tin) with a metal lid that fits fairly snugly, empty
•   ~square foot of clean, old, worn, 100% cotton cloth to make into char-cloth
•   a pouch or other container to hold your fire-kit, something you can fit both fists into should be the right size

One meeting    Fee: $120  4 students