Bush Craft Fire Striker - from scratch in nature
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- čas přidán 9. 03. 2023
- You need tools to make tools, materials to form, steel to make a fire striker, fire to forge the steel. But the fire to forge a fire striker cannot be lit with the fire striker. The fire striker therefore cannot exist in the first place. This is a chicken and egg paradox, what came first? Obviously, the egg came first, since chickens derives from less evolved egg-laying vertebrates… or was it God who made the eggs? Who knows? Anyway, I made the fire with a stick and bow to unravel the paradox and here is a video of the process. Paradoxes are often nothing special in practice, only in theory.
Here is a link to the hammer used: • Forging with stone too...
and to the tongs: • Forging with stone too...
chisel: • Forging with stone too...
And this is where I broke an axe and got another chisel: • Re-steeling the axe af...
Unfortunately I got a bit to engaged in the process and forgot to aim the camera at the water can when hardening. It is a pity since it is quite a specific process. The steel is heated to cherry red color and then dipped only part ways into the water, the two scrolls are therefore not hardened, only the long straight side. This is important since the steel spark more when not tempered after quenching, but that makes the steel brittle and brake if its backside is not soft, especially since it is beaten into a rock over and over again… if that makes any sense in words like this.
The whole forging process took me almost three hours but counting the hammer tongs and chisels etc. used, the process easily grows into days. My interest has been to track the origins of tools, not their material or the hearth but the hand-tools. Somehow I think of a hand tool as the sum of tools coming before, and time spent to make them. A fire striker is not an object but a piece of human time and engagement. I wanted to share that, invite you to the experience of a tool and its origin.
In Sweden we call this an eldstål, firesteel, but I heard it is called a flint striker in English. That is an odd name, at least when there is no flint, fire striker then makes more sense. Or do you know any other names for it? In other languages? I wonder how commonly it is to connect it to flint? Apparently, (as you see in the video) the gneiss used for a hammer in previous videos that I had lying around, sparked as well.
Also, I like your train of thought and practice. For every utensil we use we must think about how we acquired the item and if we're able to reproduce that item with our own hand from scratch. For a long time I've wondered if I'd be able to produce iron from ore. The proces becomes complicated but that's how we get to the core. And then again, the production of bellows is a complicated subject on it's on. But that's the reproduction of the transition from the stone age to iron age. Lest we forget the times where briljant minds found a technology no one had imagined was possible up until that point. We should not undervalue and take for granted the treasure that is iron
So true, in a way we still live in the Iron age, surprisingly much of our everyday utensiles are made in iron alloys... then again, it is all about time, not materials but what and how to do with the materials.
Such awesome videos, you inspire me to be more resourceful and practice old arts. I made sure to subscribe!
Welcome, that is good to hear, thank you.
I'm really glad I stumbled onto your channel. Great content, very authentic. I'm looking forward to more
In the italian language it is called "acciarino" which means "tiny steel"
Ah, cool, acciarino, beautiful.
Soon 1000 subscriptions!
Soon, and you are one of us.
Do you have a shop or is there any possible chance to buy things from you? 🙏🏽 thanks
Well I do have a shop but I am not taking any new comissions the next year and a half, but in 2025 I assume there will be more time for that. Quite a tight schedule until then.
Nice video. What type of stone are you striking?
Nothing fancy, it is just a stone I had lying around, a local gneiss that I used as a hammer to forge the hammer I used here.
Really awesome. If you woukld like me to send You some flint let me know!!!
Thank you, that's so kind of you, but I actually find it to be a rather interesting format to use what is allready there. And I am moving on from the stone age into steel tools since it is the forging that is my favorite game.
How would someone get into blacksmithing like this?
I imagine that after the big catastrophe, the few surviving people would simply have to...
@gustavthane2233 haha, no I meant if someone like myself wanted to start forging like this, how would I start?
@@mayzonet first step is getting a bellows, some scrap metal and a place to be. If there is clay a bellow can be made out of that but I would recommend bringing the bellow and not build it. I brought a fan. When you have hearth just start hitting hot Iron with a rock and see what happends. The more you practice the more you learn to see in videos of others. Finding the land is the tricky part but I guess that works different were you are than me.
@@gustavthane2233 I guess its as simple as that haha, this is very helpful thank you. I hope you keep on making these videos, best of luck.
Did you harden the steel?
Yes I did, but I forgot to record it. I wrote about the hardening method in the description, it is a bit special.
@@gustavthane2233 in farsi its called ,,atashzane,,. In translation the name means something that creats fire upon strike .
@@shahriariran44 Awesome name, atashzane. Ok, so strike is the thing. Not the stone either than, now we have three logics.
@@gustavthane2233 Yes. And aincient in aincient persia they used iner layer of Oak bark as tinder and the stone and the steel design was diffrent I saw one when I was visiting the iranian nomads with my father I was very young I don't recollect exactly but the steel was two part Spring like a little stone was inside it like when you strike a lighter they held the Oak bark beside it and every time they pressed it would make a little spark over the bark and created amber.
@@shahriariran44 That is interesting. Here in Sweden the outer bark of elderberry is used.