quote:

Originally posted by wwpete52:
Good post Beav. I have seen many folks use their striker totally backwards. You should hold the striker in your left hand and keep in totally firm. Hold the flint in your right hand and strike the steel. It sparks much better that way. You will get a lot more sparks that way.

Wat ever works fer you.
Have tried it all. Wat ye describe is terrible akward and near impossible to direct the sparks onto the char that way for me.

Nice knife

Very nice work!

quote:

Originally posted by captchee:
Not to argue with you fellas but...
Myself I hold the flint , as small as a gun flint , in my left hand with the char folded between the flint and my thumb . The flint is then held at an angle to the striker.
The strike is then directed down into the flint . . This produces a good shower of sparks which then jumps to the char very easily and with quality of spark .
Your hands are also protected that way with no to very little chance of taking the skin off your hands.

I'll have to agree with Captchee on this one. The sparks are made when the flint scrapes minute particles of metal off the steel. The friction makes them yellow hot, so the sparks are actually bits of heated steel. They will fly in the direction the flint scrapes them. Think about your flintlock... The flint scrapes down along the frizzen, and it throws the sparks down into the pan. If you are one of those folks who puts his char down on the ground, you would hold the steel in your non-dominant hand and strike the flint downward against it, as BeaverMan and wwPete52 suggested. This would throw the sparks down and (hopefully) onto the char.

Conversely, if you hold a bit of char with your thumb just back from the edge of the flint and strike the steel down against the flint, the sparks will fly up and onto the char. This technique is a lot more reliable for me, and evidently for Captchee, too, but each individual should use the style that works best for himself.

I guess with a striker-knife you could hold the knife point up, but if you are as clumsy as I am you risk poking yourself in the eye.

This is a discussion of technique, and in no way is it intended to criticize wwPete52's work. He did a beautiful job on the striker-knife. Any of us would be proud to own it.

Notchy Bob

Notchy,I have to agree with you,if for no other reason than that I would probably do myself an injury if I struck the flint with the knife striker.I know people use that technique,but I get the willies thinking about it.

I agree. I like to make my bird nest, with char-cloth or punky wood in the pocket. And strike flint down to shower sparks into pocket, like a funnel. Which traps as many of the sparks as possible.

How did you Re-Heat Treat?

Yes I use the Captchee method, I hold the flint with the char (cloth or charred bit of fungus) on top, and strike with the edge of the striker against the edge of the flint to catch the spark. I've been doing this for 25 years now, and it works well for me.

I've also seen it where the steel, especially when using the back or spine of the knife, is held next to a tinder box, and the flint was used to strike downwards against the steel, throwing the sparks into the char in the tinder box. When using a knife the tip of the blade pushed into a flat portion of a split piece of wood acted to help hold the knife in position while it was struck.

LD

Very nice work / craftsmanship.