VaughnT:
I agree with everything you said. Most factory knives do not have the hardness needed to produce a spark with true flint (not Ferrocerium). And I guess that's what most folks carry so it may even be accurate to rule out knives as flint strikers as you implied in your original post. With that said, I have run into more than a few knives that would do it without a problem. Of course I have to scuff up the spine to test it so I have quite a few new knives laying around with ugly spines
BTW: nice friction set you have there. Fire making, especially primitive, is a passion of mine. I use to play around with a hand drill a lot but haven't done it in a while so I would have to "wear" my hands back into it.
Anyway, I didn't mean to sound rude in my previous post, I was just trying to make the point that there are knives that will function as steels. Back when my good friend and knife maker Rob Simonich was alive, he and I played around with a few designs specifically for this purpose.
Best regards,
Jeff