Fire striker

A fire striker is a piece of carbon steel from which sparks are struck by the sharp edge of flint, chert or similar rock.

Before the advent of steel, a variety of iron pyrite or marcasite was used with flint and other stones to produce a high-temperature spark that could be used to create fire.

[5] From the Iron Age forward, until the invention of the friction match in the early 1800s by John Walker, the use of flint and steel was a common method of fire lighting.

Besides flint, other hard, non-porous rocks that can take a sharp edge can be used, such as chert, quartz, agate, jasper or chalcedony.

[2] The sharp edge of the flint is used to violently strike the fire steel at an acute angle in order to cleave or shave off small particles of metal.