Another Fire Steel Query

[M. Demetrius]

I'm about to start writing a photo essay that will contain a section on Flint and Steel Firemaking. I have a dozen pictures of "Roman Fire Steels", in several different shapes. However, not a single one of them has the provenance attached to it. I don't believe the [anonymous] auction site listings that show a rusty piece of steel, and claim it is "authentic Roman or Medieval". Gotta wonder about that.

The plan is to make as close a copy as I can to the original shape, and use that in the essay. I want to avoid saying, "...the Roman fire steels looked a lot like this one..." and calling it done. I'm sure that would work, but it's not quite right, you know?

Does anyone have a source URL for any 1st C BC/AD Roman Fire Steels? Even a photo with the museum address, so I can contact them for permission to use their photo would do just fine. I tried searching out the old threads on the topic here, and found some photos, but not enough documentation to source them, and Google just seems to give "reproduction of" listings.

Helps appreciated.

[Matt Lukes]

I just had a look at the BM site and no Roman ones are listed- just a couple of Anglo-Saxon pieces. You're definitely right about being wary of all the supposed Roman ones- no provenance isn't going to be of any use to your essay.

[Robert]

There is a Roman Firesteel in the documentation material Christian Koepfer sent me from Oberaden. It is about 8 cm long, 4 mm thick and has the ends thinned and bent back on itself to create a handhold. One end has a simple little scroll. Perhaps you can PM him to see if he has more data. It is shown on plate 21 nr 16. I even promised him to replicate it for his project. I have no reference of the book it's from. It's fairly straight forward forging, no problem to make at all, but go for a medium to high carbon steel or it won't spark.

[M. Demetrius]

Thanks,
They're easy enough to forge, from a spring or a file would be good, but what I wanted to do was make one that looks like whatever one I can document...I'll send a PM to Christian and see if I can get a copy.