I'm not a chemist, nor do I attempt to pretend to be one. But to answer your question with a best guess, I'd have to say the flint burns. It's actually more of a sparkler effect; but only lasting for less than a half second. Works best when you remove the flame guard, so you can get the "sparkly dust" <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> closer to your tender when you throw the spark/dust combo.

I discovered this many moons ago when I was a smoker. While watching TV, I would rotate the striking wheel of my bic for a few minutes and when it came to light one up, I noticed this. I'm not saying that this method turns your ordinary Bic into a Blastmatch, but if you could gain let's say a 5x amount of sparks it could possibly be the difference between frostbite or a cool night under the stars, providing the conditions are right.


--Chris