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Ferrocerium

 
Ferrocerium

 
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Ferrocerium
 
 
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Ferrocerium is a man-made metallic material that has the ability to give off a large number of hot sparks when scraped against a rough surface (pyrophoricity
Pyrophoricity

A pyrophoric substance will ignite spontaneously; that is, its autoignition temperature is below room temperature. Examples are iron sulfide and many reactive metals including uranium, when powdered or sliced thinly....
), such as ridged steel. Because of this property it is used in many applications, such as clockwork
Clockwork

A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a device powered by the energy of a wound spring released through a series of gears....
 toy
Toy

A toy is an object used in Play . Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not unusual for adult humans and some non-Domesticationated animals to play with toys....
s, strikers for welding
Welding

Welding is a fabrication or sculpture process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence . This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes used in conjunction with heat, or by itself,...
 torches, so-called "flint-and-steel" fire-starters in emergency survival kits, and perhaps most commonly in lighters as the initial ignition source for the primary fuel.






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Spark From Lighter Flint
Ferrocerium is a man-made metallic material that has the ability to give off a large number of hot sparks when scraped against a rough surface (pyrophoricity
Pyrophoricity

A pyrophoric substance will ignite spontaneously; that is, its autoignition temperature is below room temperature. Examples are iron sulfide and many reactive metals including uranium, when powdered or sliced thinly....
), such as ridged steel. Because of this property it is used in many applications, such as clockwork
Clockwork

A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a device powered by the energy of a wound spring released through a series of gears....
 toy
Toy

A toy is an object used in Play . Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not unusual for adult humans and some non-Domesticationated animals to play with toys....
s, strikers for welding
Welding

Welding is a fabrication or sculpture process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence . This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes used in conjunction with heat, or by itself,...
 torches, so-called "flint-and-steel" fire-starters in emergency survival kits, and perhaps most commonly in lighters as the initial ignition source for the primary fuel. What is commonly called "flint
Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary rock cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as Nodule s and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones....
" in modern times is actually ferrocerium. Also known as Auermetall after its inventor Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach
Carl Auer von Welsbach

Carl Auer Freiherr von Welsbach was an Austrian scientist and inventor who had a talent for not only discovering advances, but turning them into commercially successful products....
, it is sold under such trade name
Trade name

A trade name, also known as a trading name or a business name, is the name which a business trades under for commercial purposes, although its registered, Legal name , used for contracts and other formal situations, may be another....
s as Blastmatch, Fire Steel, and Metal-Match.

While ferrocerium-and-steels function in a similar way to actual flint
Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary rock cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as Nodule s and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones....
-and-steel
Steel

Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.14% by weight , depending on grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten....
 in fire starting, ferrocerium actually takes on the role that steel played in traditional methods: When small shavings of it are removed quickly enough, the heat generated by friction is enough to ignite those shavings. The sparks generated are in fact tiny pieces of burning metal. In traditional flint-and-steel fire-starting systems, using actual flint, tiny shavings of the steel that are removed in the striking process, rather than the actual flint, are what burn. The origin of its easy sparking is cerium's low temperature pyrophoricity, its ignition temperature occurring between 150 and 180 degrees celsius
Celsius

Celsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death....
.

Since smaller scrapings become better sparks, the mechanical properties of rare earth metals must be adjusted to give a usable material; to that end, at least two strategies have been developed to make such alloys more brittle
Brittle

A material is brittle if it is liable to fracture when subjected to stress . That is, it has little tendency to deform before fracture. This fracture absorbs relatively little energy, even in materials of high Strength of materials, and usually makes a snapping sound....
:
  1. Oxide - most contemporary flints are hardened with 20% iron oxide
    Iron oxide

    Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Altogether, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides....
     and 2% magnesium oxide
    Magnesium oxide

    Magnesium oxide, or magnesia, is a white solid mineral that occurs naturally as periclase and is a source of magnesium . It has an empirical formula of ....
    .
  2. Intermetallic - in the Baron von Welsbach's original alloy
    Alloy

    An alloy is a partial or complete solid solution of one or more chemical element in a metallic matrix. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may be homogeneous in distribution depending on thermal history....
    , 30% iron
    Iron

    Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
     (ferrum) was added to purified cerium
    Cerium

    Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58....
    , hence the name "ferro-cerium". Iron reacts with rare earth metals to form hard intermetallic compounds similar to those in neodymium magnet
    Neodymium magnet

    A neodymium magnet or NIB magnet, a variety of rare-earth magnet, is a permanent magnet made of an alloy of neodymium, iron, and boron — Nd2Fe14B....
    s; such magnets are also known to generate sparks quite easily when broken.


There were actually three different Auermetalls developed: The first was just Iron and Cerium, the second also included Lanthanum to produce brighter sparks, and the third added other heavy metals.

A modern ferrocerium firesteel product is composed mostly of iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
, combined with an alloy
Alloy

An alloy is a partial or complete solid solution of one or more chemical element in a metallic matrix. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may be homogeneous in distribution depending on thermal history....
 of rare earth
Rare earth element

According to IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, namely scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanoids....
 metals called mischmetal
Mischmetal

Mischmetal is an alloy of rare earth elements in various naturally-occurring proportions. It is also called cerium mischmetal, rare earth mischmetal or misch metal....
 (containing approximately 50% cerium
Cerium

Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58....
, 45% lanthanum
Lanthanum

Lanthanum is a chemical element with the symbol La and atomic number 57.Lanthanum is a silvery white metallic element that belongs to group 3 of the periodic table and is a lanthanoid....
, and small amounts of neodymium
Neodymium

Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60....
 and praseodymium
Praseodymium

Praseodymium is a chemical element that has the symbol Pr and atomic number 59....
), plus a small amount of magnesium
Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, atomic weight 24.3050 and common oxidation number +2.Magnesium, an alkaline earth metal, is the ninth most abundance of the chemical elements in the universe by mass....
:

Iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
: 19%
Cerium
Cerium

Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58....
: 38%
Lanthanum
Lanthanum

Lanthanum is a chemical element with the symbol La and atomic number 57.Lanthanum is a silvery white metallic element that belongs to group 3 of the periodic table and is a lanthanoid....
: 22%
Neodymium
Neodymium

Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60....
: 4%
Praseodymium
Praseodymium

Praseodymium is a chemical element that has the symbol Pr and atomic number 59....
: 4%
Magnesium
Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, atomic weight 24.3050 and common oxidation number +2.Magnesium, an alkaline earth metal, is the ninth most abundance of the chemical elements in the universe by mass....
: 4%