Altoids in round tins

After Christmas there will be many larger decorative tins available for cheap. And some of them will contain fruitcakes hard enough for making bullets! :D :eek:
 
Don't remember what I paid for the monk's cloth, but a yard of it from a fabric store will last a guy for a really long time. As a lot of guys do, I used cleaning patches for a long time and they work well, I just found the monk's cloth to hold a spark a lot longer and with the deep weave of it you can really get a pretty large spot burning hot at one time and gives me a little longer time to get the tinder going. Not a problem with patches for char, just another alternative.
 
Upon returning home....

Pulled the tin out of the fireplace and darn if I can't unscrew it. Talk about having too many First World Problems. :o
 
Just for s's and g's I made a bunch of char cloth in a bush's bean can in the fireplace. I tried like crazy to find a piece of steel that would make sparks on flint, but I can't make enough sparks to light the cloth. I got an old flintlock lock that has some worn parts, and fixed it up to light char cloth. Works good, but, it sure is a lot easier to have a ferro rod and cotton balls or dryer lint. :D
 
I tried like crazy to find a piece of steel that would make sparks on flint, but I can't make enough sparks to light the cloth
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Try a piece of iron. The sparks come from pieces of metal being shaved off.
 
noelf.....I think what you are up against is mostly carbon content.
General purpose steels like angle iron won't have it.

See if you can get results with a chunk of old file.

You might grind some shape to it.Actually,heating,shaping,etc could be fun.

That frizzen on your flintlock had to be hardened and tempered to work well,also.

Its been a long time since I made a Siler flintlock.....was it a straw temper?

For char cloth,my old scoutmaster 50+ years ago preferred white dress shirts.(50 years ago,a white dress shirt was probably cotton and /or linen,and they got ironed.These days,beware polyester,etc.)

For me,its a Bic lighter,backed up by the character Rae Dawn Chong played in the movie "Quest for Fire".....a bit annoying,but she had redeeming qualities.
:-)
 
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You could put your caps in Tic Tac containers and shake them out as needed. They work well.
I got tired of accidently spilling mine every time while shooting and did this. And this would free your containers up for char cloth.
 
I've made a bunch of fire steels over the years to give out to other folks, boy scouts, etc.... No big deal to them. Basically what I usually do it take an old file, put it in a vise and whack it with a hammer. You go across the room and pick up the piece that broke off ( they are brittle and break pretty easy). I grind off the ends to make them round and grind off the serrations on the edges of the piece ( you want the striking area smooth). I heat the piece up until it's good and red, and drop it in cool water to make sure it's hardened up good. Never had one of these that wouldn't produce a good shower of sparks.
Placing a piece of char over the edge of a piece of flint, by striking right through the char I normally have a spark caught and working on the first strike.
I'm sure there are a lot of guys that do it other ways and they probably work just as good, but the files generally have a good carbon content and a guy can usually pick up a good sized one at flea markets/garage sales or wherever for under a buck.
 
See if you can get results with a chunk of old file.

You might grind some shape to it.Actually,heating,shaping,etc could be fun.

That frizzen on your flintlock had to be hardened and tempered to work well,also.

Its been a long time since I made a Siler flintlock.....was it a straw temper?
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I tried a file first, and good piece of flint that I had found. Barely sparked. Maybe it was a poor specimen of flint. The lock that I used came in a bag of parts I picked up at a gun show for $25. A complete D.G.W. pistol lock, missing the sear spring. I didn't harden the frizzen, so it must have been good to start with. A small english flint created a shower of sparks. I just set the char cloth on the pan under the closed frizzen (held it in place), pulled back the cock and let it go. Started the cloth after 2 strikes. Reminded me that I need to get a sear spring for that lock.
 
be careful some files today are made in china and aren,t worth a hoot. the old NICHOLSON ones work just fine. can be got at yard sales and flea markets for a quarter.
 
I like the idea of old Nicholson file blades that are worn. Cut them up and pack them in your kit.

I sent the (former pellet) tin of char cloth off to my uncle. He's smarter than I and can figure out how to remove the screw on lid.
 
I always sort of figured a file would work better for me and maybe have better carbon content if it was more brittle. I put one in a vise and give it a whack with a hammer....most break right off, but occasionally I've found one that tries to bend first. Maybe I'm all wet with this assumption, but the brittle ones sure make good sparkers.
 
So I was in San Francisco Chinatown

Actually North Beach, which is directly adjacent to Chinatown and visiting a Chinese herb store on Stockton Street between Vallejo and Green. I found tins of throat lonzenges that were $2.50 a tin for Nin Jiom (dunno what that means) that is made in Hong Kong. They had several flavors, but I bought Lemongrass and Apple-Longan (the latter is a Chinese fruit that is boiled down and drank as a cough syrup). They're the old fashion round tins but with a slight reinforced lip. It'll probably take me a long time to use that much, but it will probably be another year before I go to San Francisco again.
 
At least if you have a problem from the smoke while making char cloth in your tins, you will have something handy to sooth your throat.
I have made up a lot of tins over the years...burning off the paint in hot coals and then using a light abrasive to smooth out the surfaces. They look pretty cool that way and really don't seem to rust like I would think they would.
I think I've given away most of the tins I've collected over the years. I liked to have some larger ones to keep patches and similar shooting stuff organized in my shooting box.
 
Was in Branson, MO and went to Dick's Five and Dime (nothing was 5 and 10 cents) but I found Cavendish and Harvey Coffee Drops in a round tin for $2.99. It doesn't taste all that bad but when I finally examined the tin I found it was made in Germany, not England.
 
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