Flint and fire steels ?

[Marshal Deadwood]

How many of you do your persona far back ,,,or away from civilization that you do all ya necessary fire with flint and steel ? Make ya camp fire, lite punk to start ya smoke ? or anything else ya need fire for ?

When I was being 'hard core' 18th century, I had forsaken my bic and matchs to lite my daily smokes...ya get quite proficent when you do it 20 or 30 times a day....now I don't smoke,,,,

Just curious if you earlier personas carry fint and steel for pratical use ?

Marshal Deadwood

[Dr. Bob]

Howdy Marshal,

I have a fire kit and can get the char going eventually.  Mostly, at the pre ACW events that I go to, I use matches, out of sight of the rest of the folks.  I don't smoke much, only at events and mostly cigars, so I'm sneaky with my matches.   Since my persona for CAS is in 1877, I can use matches without worry.

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Mike....old habits are hard to break...we still start all our fires with flint and steel at the events we go to if we need a fire.

Bill

[Major 2]

Doc ..no need to be sneaky at ACW events

In 1669, phosphorous was discovered - phosphorous was soon used in match heads.

In 1680, an Irish physicist named Robert Boyle (Boyle's Law) coated a small piece of paper with phosphorous and coated a small piece of wood with sulfur. He then rubbed the wood across the paper and created a fire. However, there was no useable match created by Robert Boyle.

In 1827, John Walker, English chemist and apothecary, discovered that if he coated the end of a stick with certain chemicals and let them dry, he could start a fire by striking the stick anywhere. These were the first friction matches. The chemicals he used were antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch. Walker did not patent his "Congreves" as he called the matches.

One Samuel Jones saw Walker's "Congreves" and decided to market them, calling his matches "Lucifers" "Lucifers" became popular especially among smokers, but they had a bad burning odor.

In 1830, the French chemist, Charles Sauria, created a match made with white phosphorous. Sauria's matches had no odor, but they made people sick with a ailment dubbed "phossy jaw". White phosphorous is poisonous.

In 1855, safety matches were patented by Johan Edvard Lundstrom of Sweden. Lundstrom put red phosphorus on the sandpaper outside the box and the other ingredients on the match head, solving the problem of "phossy jaw" and creating a match that could only be safely lit off the prepared, special striking, surface.

In 1889, Joshua Pusey invented the matchbook, he called his matchbook matches "Flexibles". Pusey's patent was unsuccessfully challenged by the Diamond Match Company who had invented a similar matchbook (their striker was on the outside, Pusey's was on the inside). His patent was later purchased by the Diamond Match Company in 1896 for $4,000 and a job offer.

In 1910, the Diamond Match Company patented the first nonpoisonous match in the U.S., which used a safe chemical called sesquisulfide of phophorous....

OK ! I looked it up  for the exact dates , but I knew "Lucifers" were common during the late unplesentness (ACW)
The common small Diamond box matches ( 1 1/2" X 3/4" X 2" little wood box) with a "Lucifers" period label attached
is a very good replica of the 1850's style box...actually the box itself is still made the same way.

Just an aside sorry for the High-jack 

here is a site to download period labels 1970's- 1900  ( I have to find that 1850's "Lucifers" label I use to have )

http://www.matchbox-label.co.uk/matchboxes_wanted.asp

[Major 2]

Circa 1862


Circa 1875

[Lone Gunman]

I would be remiss here not to give a plug for NCOWS member (#174) Mike Ameling who sells his exceptional quality fire steels on ebay under the name of Line-Shack-Rider.  I am the proud owner of a couple of Mike's  hand forged steels and can attest that they produce better sparks than any other reproduction steel I've seen used. I'm sure he does other forge work but his fire steels are absolute works of art. They aren't always available, but if you keep searching on Line-Shack-Rider you'll eventually see all the various 100% authentic styles he produces ranging from the Roman Empire through 19th Century America.

And yes, I have used these to light the fire in the stove that heats my pyramid tent.  In fact, I can't think of anything I'm looking forward to doing more than that...since the heat index here has been over 100 degrees for the past couple of weeks; a 29 degree night would be fantastic.   

[James Hunt]

I hate to say this without a confirmed source but... I swear that I read in "Six Years with the Texas Rangers" by Gillette that he stated that he always carried a steel with him as a Texas Ranger in case he did not have matches (this would be late 1870's thru early 1880's). Unfortunately I have searched for that reference several times short of reading the book a second time and have not yet found it.

As someone who has taken a couple of books of matches into the woods while hunting and gone thru them all and failed to make fire on a rainy day (true story) - I could see why a frontiersman would maintain a steel on his person. I get a kick out of using my firesteal when doing the 18th century, although there have been people who surely must have suffered frost bite waiting for my success. It is a technique that requires the preparation of having good char. I am pretty good with charring cloth - but period use of cloth is hard to document, (why waste cloth when natural char was available) seems punk wood and other substances was a more common but I am not so good at charring that such that it catches a spark as easily as cloth. Wonder what Gillette used?