Quality Flint and Hand Forged Steel Striker

First, I am NOT in any way getting paid for this review!From my perspective, this is perfect in every way. Great size. Looks ancient. Generates lots of sparks. Comes with good-sized quality flints. Half the price of most others!Not difficult at all to use but you will need some char cloth or other easy-to-light tinder. Tons of videos out there on how to use this but here is a quick start: Take a shard of flint with a sharp edge and place your char cloth on top, right to the edge. If you are right handed, hold the flint firmly in your left hand. Hold the fire steel as shown in the photo and strike the edge of flint quickly and with authority. The edge of the char cloth should light easily from the sparks. With a little practice, you should need no more than one or two strokes.Pleas note, the steel comes covered with oil. Thoroughly clean the striking surface before using. The oil will inhibit the sparking process.One last note: I like this so much I find myself carrying it around for a fidget toy. Feels great in the hand and is a good conversation piece. OK, maybe nerdy conversation... Just buy this. It will make you happy!

The two pieces of Flint I received are well angled, flat, and wide. Excellent for use with char cloth. The striker is properly sized and it's edge was also well finish. Cast sparks with ease. Well worth the money. Only concern is that the cloth bag is light for a constant user. I.e. lighting fires every day for a month or so. Could wear the threads free. That said I will buy agyas soon as they are back in stock.

I'm not an expert prepper or anything; I was just curious and intrigued by the low tech aspect of this.I have a couple of mischmetal rods that do a fantastic job of throwing white hot sparks, so flint and steel is just a belt and suspenders thing for me.I must admit it took several hundred attempts to become comfortable with this striker. I also compared its sparkability with other pieces of carbon steel: a metal file, a hammer head, a 150-year old axe head that was passed down from my great great grandfather.Of them all, this product and the old axe head threw the most sparks, and the readiest. (The mischmetal is many times easier to use... but you can't find mischmetal in a streambed).Some of my findings:- I hold the striker in my dominant hand, with the large forged loop around my middle finger. I find this makes it easy to put a little whip motion into my strike, while controlling the striking surface with my index finger and thumb. It seems the best sparks come from medium hard snaps of the wrist.- I also seem to get more sparks from the "middle" of the striker's length. That is, when the striker meets the flint, it's the middle of the striker that strikes first, with the top half of the striker following behind.- I don't find a lot of difference between thin pieces of flint vs. thicker stones. As long as there's an edge (e.g., a 90 degree corner edge between two faces) on the stone, I can usually get a spark a small shower of sparks in 1 to 3 strikes.- I watch the edge I'm going to strike, and I look for small promontories in the edge. I find that these smaller protuberances seem to produce sparks more often... They generally snap off after a strike or two (the ones I look for are 1/16th inch or smaller in diameter and maybe 1/8 or smaller in height above the edge. Again, try to hit them against the middle of the striker as you make your downward snapping stroke.- I develop a rhythm, similar to a blacksmith's rhythm when striking. I gently tap the spot I'm about to hit, then follow with a power blow to that same spot. If no sparks are thrown, I repeat... Maybe it's just me, but that seems to help my aim and for some reason I get a higher percentage of productive power blows that way.By the way, you can test the carbon content of a fire steel by holding it against a running grinder wheel. If it throws sparks, you've probably got a good steel. When I tested this striker on the grinder, it threw a nice consistent waterfall of sparks. They are fairly orange, not yellow or white, but plenty hot enough to catch on charcloth. (I've had more than one land on my skin, and even after the trip you can feel the heat.)I don't have enough experience to say whether these strikers are better or worse than other fire steels out there. But I can say I can definitely get sparks from them after only a few minutes practice, and nearly with every blow once I found the right technique.

Authentic and Great Looking forged steel striker. Included pieces of flint rock have very sharp edges.

I got the set with the 3 smaller pieces of flint. I think it would be easier to use with larger pieces of flint. This is the first time to use flint and steel and I was throwing sparks in seconds so I’m thrilled with my purchase. The steel is nicely made and quite substantial. I will either make or buy some char cloth and add this to my fire starting kit.The four stars for comfort was only because the smaller pieces of flint felt a bit fiddley but they still worked. I would definitely recommend this product!

My steel broke third time I used it . I was using the drag method so I wasn't hitting the stone the tail just broke off. Otherwise it worked fine

Put out good sparks.very happy with it.

Tried this steel with all 3 small pieces of flint it came with. I got very few sparks and broke a lot of the available edges. I tried 2 other steels from other makers and got good sparks easily with the same 3 flints. I also tried this steel with flint and chert from other kits. Same poor result. This is enough to show me that it's not me, it's not the flint, but the steel is subpar. It looks nice, so if that's what you want...Maybe a quality control issue?