In ancient times, people made fire, quickly striking two stones against each other - in fact, this was the first flint. The modern flint is a compact, stylish and fairly easy to use device that sometimes helps to survive in very difficult conditions.
Device
Flintily consists of three parts: armchairs, tinder and flint.
Flint - a natural mineral called pyrite is used, which is called a “stone carving a fire” for its ability to give sparks when struck by a metal object.
Armchair - is a file with a surface consisting of many small notches. It is the blow of the armchair to the flint that causes a sheaf of sparks from which fire flares up.
Tinder is a flammable material, most often natural - moss, tree bark, but there may also be plant cellulose, cotton wool, etc. It must be dry.
How to use a flint?
Using a modern flint is unlikely to cause anyone any difficulty, since using it is no more difficult than using a regular lighter. The most difficult moment in the operation of the device is the correct selection of the tinder.
How to make a tinder?
Most often, a piece of cotton wool is used as a tinder. Its disadvantage is that cotton wool flashes instantly, but also burns out just as quickly. Experienced tourists use a slightly charred piece of cotton cloth for tinder. To do this, before extinguishing the previous bonfire, a piece of fabric is lightly scorched so that it turns black and wrapped in polyethylene. This fabric is then used as tinder.
If you decide to use cotton wool for ignition, then roll it into small balls and dip it into molten paraffin - it will protect them from moisture. Any flammable liquid can be injected into each ball with a syringe, after which you won’t even think about how to use the flint - such a tinder will catch fire from the smallest spark.
But how to use the new flint? Is it ready to use right away or is it necessary to carry out some preliminary preparation?
The walls of the new silicon are covered with a special protective film that protects it from corrosion, so you must carefully scrape this layer before use. If, on the contrary, you do not plan to use a flint 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, the price varies, but the device is almost the same. The only difference is which chips were used to decorate it. Even a flint bought at the lowest price is likely to serve you faithfully. But if you want to fully experience what it means to survive in extreme conditions or if you are keen on designing various devices, then you can make a flint with your own hands.
There are many ways to make flint at home. Here is some of them:
- Saw the screwdriver into two parts, and in one of them make a cut, in which put the silicon (it is sold in many stores). Fix silicon with super glue. Flintily ready - process it with sandpaper and for ease of use attach a wooden handle to it.
- Cut the pencil in half and place silicon from the lighter inside. Then reassemble it and sharpen it.
- Take magnesium, choosing a piece in which one side will be soft and the other will contain silicon. Such a flint is quite simple to use - on the soft side, magnesium shavings are cut, and a spark is cut out on the other side, which ignites this shavings.
How to use a self-made flint? The principle of operation for them is the same as for store ones - you need to extract a spark. The difference is that you need to make, perhaps, a little more effort, so to speak, to adapt to a homemade flint.
Magnesium devices are good in that they can light a fire in almost any weather. If you have no difficulties with ordinary silicon flint in dry, calm weather, then with magnesium, the question of how to light a fire without matches in the rain or in a strong wind will disappear by itself. To do this is much simpler than the usual ways - with a lighter or matches. The thing will only be whether you have enough dry tinder.
Today, thinking about what tricks our ancestors had to take in order to make fire, we don’t even suspect that in the future our descendants will be equally interested in considering the modern flint for us and regret how much time and effort we spent on a bonfire. And this is good - because it all gives an impetus to new achievements in the future.