In past efforts I had acquired an iron pyrite nugget that was the right size (large enough to hold by hand) and texture where the non-crystal area is the best area to strike in order to create sparks. Historically horse hoof fungus that contains a layer known as amadou has been used for tinder but I had rummaged through some of my firecraft materials and came across some excellent inonotus obliques fungus or chaga as my tinder. The soft punky areas of chaga works the best for catching sparks.

I used my knife to rub an edge of the chaga in order to make powder which created more surface area for catching the weak sparks that iron pyrite produces. Unlike ferrocerium rods where a single strike produces a shower of hot sparks, the rapid succession of striking the pyrite using the flint produces the best results for the weaker sparks to succeed.

Once a spark is caught in the tinder you can bolster it with the surrounding material followed by a gentle breath to help it grow. Once the coal is established it can be transferred into a bird’s nest of tinder (in my case jute fiber) and coaxed into a flame.

I occasionally walk creeks with the purpose of searching for artifacts and relics. The geology in my area includes a lot of sedimentary stone that flakes apart and with the fire-roll method I began to collect flat rocks that might be suitable for use.

Most of the rocks that I found had some imperfections like bumps, split levels, or curved surfaces but I was finally able to find some that were quite flat. I began to examine the compatibility of the stone surfaces and found a pair that seemed to fit well together. I used the larger stone for the bottom and the smaller stone to be hand held.

I began to process the stones to better match surfaces by rubbing the top stone over the bottom stone much like a sanding block over wood. That action created some dust that I blew off and then prepared a tinder toll to test. The first try did not succeed because the two surfaces where still a little rough and I had to discover the best zones on the rocks to work on. after preparing a second tinder roll I had success!

In a previous post a comment was made that the person had seen a video of someone making fire using rocks and wondered if it was a hoax. I’m here to say that rubbing two rocks together can make fire-by-friction and it was a delight to achieve!