Flints turned to dust?

[woodchucker]

I have some old flints for a sparker..
Opened them up and they were dust.
are they a powder to begin with and the binder failed?

 

[Flyinfool]

The "flints" are made of iron, magnesium, and several rare earth metals. They will corrode to dust if exposed to moisture, moist salt air near the coast will accelerate this. They can actually turn to dust pretty fast under the right (or is it wrong?) conditions.

Keep them in a dry airtight container or coat them with oil or nail polish to keep the moisture away.

 

[Ken from ontario]

wow, I had never seen that happen to flits.

 

[Eddyde]

That explains why the flint is always used-up in my seldom used spark-lighter!

 

[stupoty]

I have some old flints for a sparker..
Opened them up and they were dust.
are they a powder to begin with and the binder failed?

View attachment 507355

I've got a load of old zippos to ebay , quite a few have had the flints turn into a grey dust.

Stu

 

[markba633csi]

Makes sense- magnesium is unlike aluminum in that it doesn't form a protective oxide coating- it just keeps corroding unless painted or otherwise protected from the air

 

[RaisedByWolves]

If you happen to catch them at the right time they will spark off in your striker, break off sparkling away and bounce under the bench ignighting everything in its path.

Fun times.

 

[ChazzC]

That's why (dust, not the conflagration) I now use a Piezo torch lighter:

 

[woodchucker]

that's why I haven't used my striker in a long time. My propane torches have them already. But I would like to get a oxy/propane setup. Having problems finding an oxygen concentrator though.