How to Start a Fire with Flint and Steel

Starting a fire with flint and steel is a centuries old practice, one that still serves outdoors men well today as a basic component of survival skills. While the modern way to start a fire is through the use of a match or cigarette lighter, these can fail at the most inopportune times but a small fire-starting kit consisting of flint and steel never will. This peace of mind makes the use of flint and steel to start a fire attractive as an alternative to conventional fire starting methods. Even when submerged in water, a flint and steel fire starting kit will work after allowing to dry out briefly.

A homemade flint and steel fire starting kit can be fashioned inside of any small metal container. The basic components are a piece of high carbon steel, a sharp edged piece of black or gray flint, and if possible a few small pieces of what is known as char. Char is simply a bit of fabric made of cotton that has been charred over a fire to remove moisture and serves as fantastic tinder to catch a spark from the flint and steel. The flint that is best for starting a fire is of a good quality, and flint used in a muzzle loading rifle is excellent for this purpose. The steel used for fire starting should also be of good quality, and a small piece of a broken steel file is perfect.

To start a fire with flint and steel, certain preparations such as gathering kindling and firewood must be completed prior to attempting to use the fire starting components. Small twigs from a hardwood tree make excellent kindling wood, and the wood that is gathered for the fire itself must be as dry as possible. Sap from a pine tree serves as a very good accelerant, and spread lightly on kindling really makes a small flame become large quickly.

With all of the necessary supplies present, set a small piece of the char on the ground with a handful of kindling very close by. Grasping the piece of steel from your fire starting kit in one hand, take the flint in the other hand and strike it against the steel with good force. The idea is to have a spark fly from the flint onto the char, resulting in the appearance of a small amount of smoke. When this occurs, very gently blow of the char and the presence of smoke will increase until combustion occurs and a small flame is visible. Next, it is a simple matter to add kindling until the fire grows strong enough to add progressively larger pieces of firewood.