my current striker collection

[Wave Man]

an update to my Bronze Fire Kit

 

[Wave Man]

I didn't buy these, another day at the forge, these three I made, two are destined as gifts (and are made from old files) and one (the big one) is mine and made from W2

 

[Wave Man]

I recently bought a traditional Viking striker, Bronze striker kit, by Jean the Hornmaster and doing some research into it I have found out some more info on it.

The bloke who did the casting did a copy of an original from an archaeology dig (Birka, Sweden?).

The bronze design represents Odin in the center and his two ravens, Huginn and Muninn whispering what is happening in the world of humans.

an original

mine

He did a brilliant job at reproducing the striker IMO.

Some of his other work.

 

[Wave Man]

my antler tine striker build, the starting concept

 

[Wave Man]

I got a few dollars for christmas, and decided to buy a striker, rounding out my Viking strikers

Jean The Hornmaster standard Viking striker

 

[Wave Man]

my striker collection, the first 26

 

[Wave Man]

second part, next 22

 

[Wave Man]

not wanting to waste anything when I snapped off the end of my first striker a while a go I kept it and today I decided to make a mini striker from it, cleaned it up on the grinder, as it was hardened it sparks as good as the striker it was taken from.

 

[Wave Man]

the third set, next 13

 

[Wave Man]

my first attempt at a non forge file striker build using antler, I like it turned out not to bad.

 

[Wave Man]

Been busy today, made another non-forge antler striker, a much bigger one this time, used a Nicholson file (Brazil) 6.3mm strike face thickness, 84.7mm striker length, again friction fitted. Last of these, the rest are going to be forged.
These a much better (IMHO) than just a file snapped off.

and the two together

 

[Wave Man]

striker collection, fourth part (finishes it off)

 

[Wave Man]

I didn't buy this one, a valued gift from a friend, C type hand forged in America

 

[Aussie123]

I didn't buy this one, a valued gift from a friend, C type hand forged in America

Those are the bust kind of strikers !

 

[Wave Man]

agreed mate, I value all my strikers but truly love the ones that my friends have given me.

 

[Wave Man]

the three antler strikers I am keeping

 

[Wave Man]

the four antler file strikers together

 

[Wave Man]

Craftomatik Viking era C type (large), trying to complete my Craftomatic striker collection

 

[Wave Man]

another successful day at the forge, all because of the generosity of a mate.
One double curl done and another bought striker that only sparked occasionally rehardened now sparks consistently.
I have found I can only do one striker in a session, that way I am not feeling rushed and can concentrate on the forging and mateship.
The double curl still doesn't look like the pic, and has some cracks in the strike face after the quench (despite me not working the metal too cold, and doing several normalizing cycles throughout the process) but it sparks like demon, and that's what I care about.
I'll do a spark test video tomorrow

 

[Wave Man]

two strikers turned up today, a Craftomatik Viking-era Bowtie and a Vladimir Kubkov #6e curly C type.