Flint, Tinder and Kindling

Flint, Tinder and Kindling

In our store you can buy flint for the purpose of building a fire and we offer delivery throughout the world.

Flint is a natural mineral, composed primarily of silica (SiO2) and often coated with oxides of iron and manganese, which can give it a range of colors from brown to black. Flint tends to break into fragments with sharp, cutting edges, hence its use in ancient times for the purpose of toolmaking (including knives, axes, arrowheads and so on).

Flint possesses a high degree of hardness and thus it can strike sparks from other minerals as well as from metals. Thanks to this property, people have found many important uses for it since antiquity. People first used flint to make fires, and later began to make firearms like flintlock rifles.

With the advent of the Iron Age, it became widespread for people to make fire using sparks produced by striking flint with iron. Iron firesteels (steel strikers) became the primary objects used to strike stone flints.

For centuries, right up to the middle of the 20th century, flint was used as a means of making fire virtually everywhere. Even up to this point, flint remained the most widespread and most reliable way of making fire. It was possible to buy flint for the purpose of fire lighting almost everywhere, from country fairs and street stalls to pharmacies and general stores.

The first matches appeared at the beginning of the 19th century, and by 1830 they were already being produced in several European countries. Matches began to gradually replace the trusty flint and steel in homes everywhere. These days, there are very few people who can even imagine what a piece of flint looks like. Many people have never even held one in their hands and the opportunity to buy it is nowadays practically non-existent.

So, where can you buy flint today? Nowadays, flint tends to be sold as stone souvenirs for tourists at reenactment fairs and festivals. You can also buy flint from those blacksmiths who still make flints and steels.