A flint is a simple, little piece of special stone that makes a spark when struck or rubbed with an abrasive, hard substance like metal, rock or another piece of flint. Shaped into a small cylinder that fits into the flint tube of your lighter, the flint generates the spark that ignites the stream of butane gas or lighter fluid-soaked wick. The action of moving your thumb across the striker wheel or depressing a thumbpiece (older lighters) causes a “flint wheel” or “spark wheel” (used interchangeably) to rub its little metal cuts against the flint to generate heat and the spark. Each strike rubs away a tiny piece of the flint, which is why after a few hundred strikes, the flint needs to be replaced.

So how do you replace a flint? Here are some very short videos on how to do so on the most common flint-striker lighters available today.

The first is the Alfred Dunhill Unique lighter and the flint is replaced the same way for the similar IM Corona lighters.

The next video is the Alfred Dunhill Rollagas style of lighter.

The final video is for the S.T. Dupont Line 2 lighter, which is very similar to most S.T. Dupont lighters that use flint ignition.

And there you have it. Three short videos for replacing a flint in the most common styles of lighters that use flint ignitions. Many of the “jet flame” lighters that are popular today are ignited by an electric sparking unit and do not use flints, but the old tried and true reliability of the flint ignitors have been around for 100+ years and will continue to be used in high-end lighters for many years to come.