Flint & ferrocerium rod

Just out of idle curiosity - you know how it goes.

I found a long forgotten ferrocerium rod of some sort in the house, and a small shard of flint discarded from some flint knapping experiments out in the garden, so I tried the flint as a striker, really, just to see what happens.

I'm not an especially big fan of the ferro rods, so I've not experimented with them very much, but the evidence here clearly speaks for itself.

Maybe no need to carry around that old bit of hacksaw blade after all, just something harder than the ferro rod, with a decent squared off edge.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• ferrocerium
• ferro
• rod
• flint
• firelighting

[antiswattt2]

damn youre lucky you got such a big rod :p its ferrocerium and magnesium.. not flint, ferrocerium is the same as flint, ALMOST... Ferrum + Cerium = Ferrocerium.. its really good for flashpowder (:

[monkeypork]

Thanks.

;-)

This is a ferro rod - but I'm using a bit of flint as the 'striker' here, rather than the spine of a carbon-steel knife, or a bit of old saw blade, like one would maybe normally do.

... and yeah, you are right, these ferro rods shaved down into a pile are entertaining - more so if you add magnesium to it as well.

[FireSteels]

Yes, anything that is hard and sharp will work. One problem with some items is that they dull quickly or are affected by the hot sparks and change temper

[DjinnJuggler]

@antiswattt2 I'm pretty sure ferrocerium is a metal composed of Iron (ferro, means iron) and Cerium...

[TheBeebopper]

Been wondering on getting a ferro-rod, but seen too many people not getting fat sparks. Would It be right to say the harder the scraper the fatter the spark?

[antiswattt2]

dude :P make it alot more entertaining... that a sandpaper.. cant bee to rough.. then make some matchpowder (take the stuff from matches off them and powder finely into a powder) then take your ferrocerium powder from the sandpaper onto a paper, mix it with equal amounts of matchpowder (: ignite.. dont do too big amounts.. start out with 0.1 gram er so (; THATS entertaining :P