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Flint and Steel

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  • #16
    Re: Flint and Steel

    Hallo!

    "What will keep your tinder, slow match, or char cloth dry while your matches get soaked?"

    It is not so muc ha matter of having dry char to dry tinder, as it is a matter of having the knowledge and skill to find natural materials suitable to catch and hold a spark long enough to coax it into a flame.

    Even after downpours, there are dry areas to be searched under rock overhangs, the leeward side of rocks and trees (dead leaves as well as inner barks), the undersides of fallen trees.

    Once Upon a Time, on the secoan highest mountain in Pennsylvania, we had a frog-strangler after a vertical wall of water that put four inches or rain water in my cup and totally soaked the forest so that even the above techniques failed.
    I had my lads search for and process tinder in a three hour process of creating and sorting out piles of progressively larger tinder materials from micro shavings on up.
    It took three hours or prep work, but a flint and steel fire was made from a wet woodland.

    (The "cheat" if necessary would have been black powder.)

    The account of the Irish Brigade (116th PA, IIRC) complaining about being soaked in a soaked woods and only getting fires going with flint and steel, would seem to support the knowledge and skill of the fire-makers.

    Curt
    Curt Schmidt
    In gleichem Schritt und Tritt, Curt Schmidt

    -Hard and sharp as flint...secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
    -Haplogroup R1b M343 (Subclade R1b1a2 M269)
    -Pointless Folksy Wisdom Mess, Oblio Lodge #1
    -Vastly Ignorant
    -Often incorrect, technically, historically, factually.

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Flint and Steel

      if you want to light a fire from the flint and steel method this is what you do
      1) make yourself some tinder( charred cloth) the day before put some 100%cotton in a small can that you can open and close easly i e shoe polish container without any polish in it . then put it in a fire next to the coals for about 15 minutes. then retrivie it from the fire.
      2) get you fire ready with lots of kindling ect.
      3) take some of the tinder(charred cloth) out of the tin.
      4) Now strike a piece steel i e knife with a flint so that a spark is formed and catch that spark with the tinder.
      5) very gentily blow on the spark until it burst into flame and light your kindling with it.
      Bill shackell
      private Gray and blues of montreal Canada

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Flint and Steel

        Originally posted by kevin View Post
        Smoke-fire.com has strike-a-light kits. They even come in a little hide pouch. If I recall correctly, they are only about $10.00. I've been meaning to get one myself but as of yet, have not. If you get one, post a review of how it works for ya.

        Kevin, those work fine with a bit of practice. For more reliability, click one page further in the catalogue and spend $5 more for the complete kit, which includes a tight tinned box to hold the whole assemblage and keep the your char cloth or tow dry.

        One source of fire pistons/match syringe is www.turkeyfootllc.com
        I find the particular use of exotic woods/horns to be a bit problematic, but the stock used for manufacture varies. Like the flint and steel, this is an item that requires practice, and a supply of dry tinder.
        Terre Hood Biederman
        Yassir, I used to be Mrs. Lawson. I still run period dyepots, knit stuff, and cause trouble.

        sigpic
        Wearing Grossly Out of Fashion Clothing Since 1958.

        ADVENTURE CALLS. Can you hear it? Come ON.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Flint and Steel

          Hallo!

          Charred cloth, charred punkwood, charred fungus can be used to catch and hold spark.

          But they are tedious, and require some skill in their making.

          The easiest char is charcoal bits from a fire that are buried to cut off the oxygen. Stored in a tinder box, they readily hold and catch a spark (and require no "char cooker" device or cloth, punkwood, or tinder fungus to make.)

          Curt
          Curt Schmidt
          In gleichem Schritt und Tritt, Curt Schmidt

          -Hard and sharp as flint...secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
          -Haplogroup R1b M343 (Subclade R1b1a2 M269)
          -Pointless Folksy Wisdom Mess, Oblio Lodge #1
          -Vastly Ignorant
          -Often incorrect, technically, historically, factually.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Flint and Steel

            Take a shovel/spoon/tooth and grab a coal from the fellas that already started their fire...

            Why people want to go backwards in time while recreating the 1860s, and go all rustic and to the lowest common denominator is funny, I guess civilization started proper in 1865.
            Ryan B.Weddle

            7th New York State Militia

            "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes" - Henry David Thoreau

            "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country."
            – George Washington , 1789

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Flint and Steel

              I to have wondered if not some man would have carried a striker and flint in the war. But as Pat Craddock has mentioned earlier in this post, about the lack of the strikers being found in camps or while on a active campaign, there's seems to have been limited use. I know all to many times I have either sweated or been soaked by rain unitl my matches and striking surface were rendered useless. So, I always have my fire starting kit with me!
              Regards,
              Allan Becton


              "Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading."
              Thomas Jefferson(?)

              Western Independent Grays
              Ga. Armory Guards
              Savannah River Squadron

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Flint and Steel

                Truth be told there are probably as many US soldiers carrying flint and steel in Iraq today as there were in 1861 to 1865.
                Robert Johnson

                "Them fellers out thar you ar goin up against, ain't none of the blue-bellied, white-livered Yanks and sassidge-eatin'forrin' hirelin's you have in Virginny that run atthe snap of a cap - they're Western fellers, an' they'll mighty quick give you a bellyful o' fightin."



                In memory of: William Garry Co.H 5th USCC KIA 10/2/64 Saltville VA.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Flint and Steel

                  In re-reading this old thread... I find it interesting that no one has brought up the subject of where are soldiers getting matches from anyway. Yes they were around in civilization in abundance but if they are on campaign, constantly on the march, what chance do they have of comming upon a store that has not already been picked clean of such devices by the soldiers marching ahead of you to replace those that have been used up or destroyed by the elements?
                  Brad Ireland
                  Old Line Mess
                  4th VA CO. A
                  SWB

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Flint and Steel

                    Sutler, sutler, sutler if they were lucky.
                    Mike McGee
                    Cure All Mess ~ Hard Case Boys
                    Co A, 4th Tennessee Infantry Regiment "The Shelby Greys"
                    Co C, 25th Regiment, Indiana Infantry


                    Pvt. Francis "Frank" Agee- G, G, G-Uncle
                    Co H, 22nd Tennessee Infantry Regiment
                    KIA Battle of Shiloh-April 6, 1862
                    Resting in Peace on that Hallowed Ground

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Flint and Steel

                      Mike,

                      Sorry... I should have been more specific. Sutlers were in quanitiy in the union army sure nuff but not so much in the Confederate army. So lacking any local sutlers... where'd they get em?
                      Brad Ireland
                      Old Line Mess
                      4th VA CO. A
                      SWB

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Flint and Steel

                        Somewhat simplistic but in modern practice I've sat by many a fire when I didn't have any matches. As long as one man has them then hundreds can benefit.
                        John Duffer
                        Independence Mess
                        MOOCOWS
                        WIG
                        "There lies $1000 and a cow."

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Flint and Steel

                          Yes, I too have stood and sat by many a fire that I didn't start. If one man had matches then once a fire was going, others could possibly benefit from it, to a point. But, all this still doesn't answer my original question about the common practice of starting fires. I guess a trival part of life as this was did not spur any soldier to write it down in a diary or memoir.
                          Regards,
                          Allan Becton


                          "Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading."
                          Thomas Jefferson(?)

                          Western Independent Grays
                          Ga. Armory Guards
                          Savannah River Squadron

                          Comment

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