DIY tactical flint

High-quality and good tactical flint in an online store is not cheap, not to mention ordinary stores - eyes are forehead from their requests. After all, in fact, what is a tactical flint?
This is a ferrocerium rod, approximately 5 × 50 mm. and a metal bulb wrapped in a cord with a screw-tight waterproof lid. The price of the same, only the "bare" ferrocerium rod is 20-25 times lower.
What logic they are motivated there is incomprehensible, but the fact remains. Such a thing as a tactical flint can very help out on a hiking trip, and should be in the backpack of every outdoor enthusiast. For example, if matches become unusable, or a lighter - the flint will always work, and with it you can always get a fire to dry and cook hot food. Tactical flint comes in many forms. Some models have an aluminum flask with a thread and a ferro-cerium rod inside.
Others have a stainless steel flask with a cord of a certain length wound around it, which you may sometimes need. There are also simple, tourist flints that do not have any bulb, but have only a plastic holder, and there is even easier - a bare rod with a hole for the lace.
Why the flint in an aluminum flask is called "Tactical", I personally do not know, although there is a hunch that it is included in the equipment of soldiers of the armed forces of some country. Some manufacturers of a tactical type of flint make in the kit an even small sealed capsule for tinder (impregnated with a combustible composition of fleece, dry thin shavings or a piece of burnt cloth). However, I believe that this is superfluous - if you have even the slightest skills in producing fire in this way, then finding a tinder in the forest to make a fire with a flint will not be difficult. Even in wet weather, as well as in winter. Well, whoever does not have such skills, you can assemble a separate small container with kindling, which will be attached to the flint. All we need from the store is just a small ferro-cerium rod and a brass sleeve. This can be purchased at any store selling goods for outdoor activities and in stores for hunters and fishers.

Will need

• Ferrocerium rod 6.5x60 mm. (plus or minus 1.5mm)
• A metal tube, with an inner diameter under the ferro-cerium rod.
• Spare parts from the old chandelier. Namely; hollow threads and nuts to them. And you can also any caps to them having the same thread.
• Brass sleeve from a hunting cartridge of 32 caliber.
• Any cord, or not a thick rope, for wrapping the case.
• A small piece of good, hardened steel, for a chair (you can use a piece of metal sheet).
• Second glue and soda.

Tool required for work:

• Emery machine.
• File.
• Scissors.
• Stationery knife.

Making flint

If you have in your bins an old, unnecessary chandelier, sconce or some lamp that has not yet been thrown away, then this circumstance will greatly facilitate the work. I have such spare parts from various kinds of electrical appliances folded in a separate box, so I assembled the flint literally in 20 minutes. As a constructor.
The only parts that had to be cut on an emery machine were a steel strip for a chair and a brass sleeve for its holder. Well, even trim some parts ... So, first you need to choose the basis; a metal tube into which a ferro-cerium rod will fit.
The length of the tube must be selected from the calculation of the length of the ferro-cerium rod and the length of the steel chair combined. It is desirable that the tube has threads at both ends, on which we wind wide decorative washers with internal thread.
We fix it all with a second glue with soda, namely; we coat the joints with glue, and sprinkle with soda.
This will be enough so that they do not move or unwind. The foundation is ready. Now let's take care of the core. You will need a centimeter tube with an external thread and a nut to it.
We wrap a thin nut on the thread, exactly in the middle, and drip a drop of glue to fix it. It turns out like this:
Next, we insert into the tube, with a screwed-in nut, a ferrocerium rod, and fix it as evenly as possible with glue and soda.
It turns out that we can hide the flint in the tube by screwing it in, and if necessary, unscrew it, and screw it into the handle with the other end to use.
Now we decorate the tube-body. To do this, just gently wrap it with a beautiful cord.
In addition, in addition to the decorative function, the cord can also be suitable for other purposes, for example, to tie a pair of crossbeams for shelter. Now let's take a seat. To do this, cut a strip of good, hardened steel, about 5 × 40 mm, on an emery. Next, take another centimeter segment of a tube with an external thread. Using glue and soda, we set the chair in this tube.
We mark the brass sleeve in half, and cut it according to the mark.
By the way, you can buy such a sleeve without a war capsule without any permission, in any hunting store. The lower part will be the holder of the chair. We wind the washer on the thread with the chair, which will fit into the sleeve.
The washer should be screwed only at the beginning of the thread so that part of the thread at the seat (2-3 mm) is free. We fix with glue. Insert the threaded washer into the sleeve and, again, glue it. Here is the result:
Now we put together the flint together, screwing all the parts into each other.
For greater convenience, you can stick in a place where there should be a capsule, a metal eye, for a ring to cling, for example, to the keys.
That's done.
Such a flint will help out when matches or a lighter become unusable. It will never get wet and damp, it does not care for the cold and the wind. All that is needed is to remove the birch tree, thin as a plastic bag, from the birch trunk for kindling, which hangs freely on the trunk - just reach out and take it. Also, lichens and mosses hanging on branches are well ignited. You can pick with a knife a parasite mushroom growing on a birch; it is always dry inside, and smolders very well, it is worth it to get the slightest spark.
It will not be difficult to tear a piece of bark from a dried, inanimate birch ... The only thing is that in the frost it will take a little longer to carve a spark to set fire to birch bark; about one and a half to two minutes (this can be seen in the video), because the birch bark is cold and slightly moist after rainy autumn. But, nevertheless, it will light up.
Yes, and one more thing: if desired, you can also hang a kindling container for this flint. Once upon a time I soldered a small capsule with a thread and a sealant from a brass tube, so it would be useful to me for this purpose if I needed it.
Well, for those who need it, you can pick up any sealed small capsule into which a block of cotton wool soaked in a combustible compound will fit in and attach it to the flint.