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  1. A

    Junk metal into treasures

    Those old wooden wagon wheel rims are generally all wrought iron - soft iron with little or no carbon content. They do work surprisingly well for knives, axes, and hawks, but they will be different from the same items made from modern steel. Wrought iron needs to be forged at an almost white...
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    Junk metal into treasures

    There are a number of blacksmithing web sites that have a Junkyard Steels list on them. Like ABANA (Artist Blacksmith Association of North America), AFC (Alabama Forge Council), or BAM (Blacksmith Association of Missouri). But, in the end, they are all something of a ... guess. Each vehicle...
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    Brittle Strikers

    When you are forging up your flint strikers, you usually forge them at temps a bunch higher than that Critical Temp - where a magnet will no longer stick. You generally forge well above that temp - in the bright red, yellow, and almost white ranges. That Critical Temp only really applies in...
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    Brittle Strikers

    A flint striker made from a good file is hardened high carbon tool steel. Hardened high carbon tool steel is just ... brittle. Simple fact of life. They are MUCH more brittle than a knife blade, and much harder. So if you drop them on something hard, they can break. But you can take...
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    Quite possibly the worst movie of all time

    The Pitt/Jesse James movie did have GREAT sets and costumes. They did that part very very well. But it did really drag on and on and on. But that also was a whole lot closer to how life really does work and did back then. So watch it for the sets, clothing, and gear. And try to stay awake...
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    Home made tinder tubes..

    Lots of the clothes line and sash/drape cords have synthetic material in their cores for strength. It is hard, but you can find some all cotton cord. One thing that does work pretty good is the strands from an old-style floor mop. They are basically twisted cotton cord. A used mop tends to...
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    Today I made fire

    There are a lot of people interested in ... aboriginal technology ... where the bow drill and hand drill fire starting methods are practiced. One group is the Society of Primitive Technology. They now have two books out that are collections of articles from their quarterly newsletter. They...
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    knifemakers - I got this old file

    First make sure of what you have INSIDE that file. Many files are made from soft low-carbon steel with the outside being case-hardened. And those junker files will not heat-treat. Heat-treating a knife blade made from a good file is no easy thing to do. Professional knife makers have a...
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    Building a Hawk/Knife Target

    I heat with firewood. So I just saved a cut section of a twisty elm tree to use. Some elm works well, some doesn't. I have heard that willow works very well. I then took two home-sawn oak 2x4's, drilled a pair of holes through them, and SPIKED them to the back of the block. A third longer...
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    Striker's Delivered

    Thanks for the kind words. They are appreciated. But a little ... full disclosure or true confessions here. I ran into a batch of bad steel with a couple strikers I sent John (jbtusa). The first Roman era C striker broke on him. It does happen sometimes, so I sent him a replacement and an...
  11. A

    Potted Meat

    This is the method my grandma still used up into the early 60's here in the German communities of NE Iowa. She fried the outsides, and put the meat down into the lard. When taken out, it still needed that extra "cooking", but it all cooked up fast. She also did the same thing with sausage she...
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    Tinderbox for punk wood

    Just break up those chunks of charred punky wood a little smaller. The greater surface area gives you a better chance of a spark catching. But historically most of those metal "tinderboxes" currently being sold were actually tobacco boxes - especially those oval ones with a magnifying lens in...
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    Roman C striker?

    The C shape flint striker is THE MOST COMMON style/shape of flint striker across the centuries - from very early Roman times B.C. on up to the present. THE MOST COMMON shape/style. An original Roman era C shaped flint striker will end up looking pretty much like early Colonial ones. There are...
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    Don't know how they did it!

    Yes, bark from a birch tree does start burning easily, and hot. But only if you have that initial spark caught on something else. If you take that birch bark, and "fuzz" up the surface, it will catch sparks from those modern ferro-cerrium rods and start burning. The sparks from those rods is...
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    Don't know how they did it!

    The problem with sooooo many things is that the details were ... lost to history. They just weren't written down. One of the things Karl Koster did find when he was researching fire starting around the Great Lakes fur trade area was many references in the journals about problems getting a fire...
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    Don't know how they did it!

    Catching that initial spark is the hard part. After that it becomes pretty ... mechanical. In the northern areas, the Indians were already using Tinder Conch for fire starting when Europeans arrived. This fungus grows primarily on Birch trees. Official name is Innonotus Obliquus. A nickname...
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    Haversack Question

    Several of the Rev War groups have patterns/drawings on their web sites. The NWTA used to have patterns. But I have not looked at their web site in a couple years. Also, the Sketchbook 76 has a measured drawing of a haversack in it. Historically, a haversack was a military issue item designed...
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    Using a beavers tail to sharpen a knife

    It acts like any leather strop for finishing and maintaining a sharp edge on a knife. For actual sharpening, you still need GRIT on that leather to cut into the metal. My opinion is that they were using stones the found along the stream for the initial sharpening, and then the beaver tail as a...
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    Striker's Delivered

    Glad to hear that they arrived, and have met your expectations. I still worry about such things even after all these years. Many years ago when I was first starting to learn to start a fire with flint/steel, I started out with several bad strikers. You had to POUND the steel against the flint...
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    Traditional Flint & Steel

    Hi. Thanks for the kind words. The best way to buy a flint striker, or most anything, is in person - like at an event. Thay way you get to see exactly what you are buying. Plus you can also test it out, ask questions, and even get some help/assistance with it. It's the best way. The rest...
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