Flint & steel

[Timelord]

(6 April 2012, 21:31)Scythe13 Wrote: That's a fair point TL.

I'm going to go to the hardware store (or more likely the pound shop) tomorrow to get a couple of hacksaw blades and experiment with making a better striker as well.

Don't buy cheap hacksaw blades. I did this for years and they don't last 2 mins + snap for fun. Teeth rip out and it is all just a waste of time & money (CHINESE CRAP!!!)

Look on ebay & order a set of 5 or more quality bimetal blades. I ordered Bahco as I know these are v.good quality + all their other kit & it is not prohibitively expensive like some other hyped brands.

Even with one of these, due to the striking surface being hardened, it was only able to cut towards one end hardly at all. I do not know if the blade was wearing ou due to the excessive material hardness, but I suspect not. It was probably just that the striker(steel) had been tempered very very hard towards this end. I could have annealed it, reworked the grooves & retempered it, but It was quite satisfactory as it was.
You only want v.v.shallow grooves and with no real 90 degree edges on the finish. You are not looking to rip into the edge of the flint, merely to create an irregular sudden surface to the flint edge.