How to Use Flint and Steel
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Now that you have your flint kit, the best way to generate the sparks is not by bashing the steel against the flint. What you want to do, is to basically scrape the steel so tiny particles of steel turn into hot sparks.
First take your flint rock and hold it with the sharp edge facing your steel striker. Angle the edge upwards so it will scrape the steel. At this angle, you are scraping the steel upwards and the sparks will fly upwards as well.
To catch the sparks with your char cloth, place a small piece of char cloth under your thumb on top of the flint next to the edge. As you strike, the sparks will fly upwards and ignite the cloth.
With your steel striker in your other hand, swipe against the sharp edge of the flint fast and hard. The faster and harder you swipe, the better chance you have at creating sparks. The particles of steel shaved off are heated from the friction and oxidation of the metal with oxygen. The heat melts the metal and gives you the bright sparks you see shooting out.
Once your char cloth has caught a spark, blow on it to grow the embers. Then place it in your tinder and feed it more oxygen. Keep blowing on it and it will start smoking and eventually get hot enough to catch the tinder on fire.
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