How to use the steel for modern Robinson?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

In ancient times, people made fire by quickly hitting two stones against each other - in fact, this was the first steel. A modern flint and flint is a compact, stylish and fairly easy-to-use device that sometimes helps to survive in very difficult conditions.

Device

The flint and steel consists of three parts: flint, tinder and flint.

Flint - uses the natural mineral pyrite, which is called the "stone that strikes fire" for its ability to spark when struck by a metal object.

Kresalo - is a file with a surface consisting of many small notches. It is the blow of the flint on the flint that causes a sheaf of sparks from which the fire flares up.

Tinder is a flammable material, most often natural - moss, tree bark, but can also be vegetable cellulose, cotton wool, etc. It must be dry.

How to use the steel?

Using a modern fire starter is unlikely to cause anyone any difficulty, since it is no more difficult to use than a regular lighter. The most difficult moment inoperation of the appliance is the correct selection of tinder.

How to make tinder?

Most often, a piece of cotton wool is used as tinder. Its disadvantage is that cotton wool flares up instantly, but it also burns out just as quickly. Experienced tourists use a slightly burnt piece of cotton fabric for tinder. To do this, before putting out the previous fire, a piece of fabric is slightly singeed so that it turns black, and wrapped in polyethylene. This cloth is then used as tinder.

If you still decide to use cotton wool for ignition, then roll it into small balls and dip it in melted paraffin - it will protect them from moisture. Inside each ball, you can also inject some kind of flammable liquid with a syringe, after which you won’t even think about how to use the flint-and-tinder - such tinder will light up from the smallest spark.

But how to use the new steel? Is it ready to use right away, or does it need to be prepared in advance?

The walls of the new silicon are covered with a special protective film that protects it from corrosion, so you need to carefully scrape off this layer before use. If, on the contrary, you do not plan to use the steel in the near future, then apply wax or paraffin to the walls - they will prevent the appearance of rust.

Homemade Devices

The stores sell a wide variety of flint and steel, their price varies, but they are almost the same in terms of device. The only difference is what chips were used for it.decorations. Even a fire starter bought at the lowest price is likely to serve you faithfully. But if you want to fully experience what it's like to survive in extreme conditions or are fond of designing various devices, then you can make a flint and steel with your own hands.

There are many ways to make a fire starter at home. Here are some of them:

• Cut a screwdriver into two parts, and in one of them make a cut, into which you place silicon (it is sold in many stores). Fix the silicon with superglue. The fire starter is ready - process it with sandpaper and attach a wooden handle to it for ease of use.
• Cut a pencil in half and place the flint from the lighter inside it. Then put it back together and sharpen it.
• Take magnesium, choosing a piece that is soft on one side and silicon on the other. Such a fire starter is quite simple to use - magnesium shavings are cut on the soft side, and a spark is struck on the other, which will ignite these shavings.

How to use your own fire starter? Their principle of operation is the same as that of the store ones - you need to extract the spark. The difference is that a homemade fire starter takes perhaps a little more effort to adapt, so to speak.

Magnesium appliances are good because they can light a fire in almost any weather. If with an ordinary flint flint you will have no difficulty in dry, calm weather, then with magnesiumthe question of how to light a fire without matches in the rain or in strong winds will disappear by itself. It is much easier to do this than in the usual ways - with a lighter or matches. It will only matter if you have enough dry tinder.

Today, thinking about what tricks our ancestors had to go to in order to make fire, we don’t even suspect that in the future our descendants will look with the same interest at the flint and flint that is modern for us and regret that how much effort and time we spent on making a fire. And this is good - because it all gives impetus to make new achievements in the future.