FlintAndKnife

Flint and Steel. Or in this case Flint and Knife. The spine of a hardened high carbon steel knife can be used for a steel striker in a pinch if no dedicated steel striker is available. In the video I used a custom modified laminated Mora carbon steel Classic #2 fixed blade knife and a piece of flint to shave steel sparks onto a bit of char cloth. The same can be achieved with any Mora high carbon steel knife (I showed the #511 as an example) but is more difficult because carbon steel Mora knives are hardened at the bottom end for sparking of the Rockwell hardness scale at a hardness of about 59-60. It is I believe a 1095 steel or 95% carbon. The laminated blades are a bit harder at a hardness of 61 and therefore better at shaving steel sparks but still difficult. I believe that better results would be achieved using a harder true flint rock rather than a quartz type or chert type that may be softer type rocks.

I do not use knives for the purpose of shaving steel sparks as I showed in the video. The purpose of the video was to show that it could be done if need be and no dedicated steel striker is available. I prefer to use my knives for their intended purpose of cutting edges only. I do not like to baton a knife or abuse a knife in any way that may result in damage to it. A damaged or broken knife will do me no good. If wood needs to be split or sawn then I would use the proper tool such as an axe, hatchet, or saw for that task. If all I had was my knife then I could still break small branches or burn logs to size rather than abuse my knife. Many modern knives are now being made and on the market that are stronger, more durable, and designed to take force and abuse such as batoning. So it is all a matter of personal preference.