Posted: 1/21/2012 8:25:02 AM EDT
| Looking to buy a fire starter and was wondering which one is considered to be the best, throws off the most and hottest sparks? Exotac looks cool but the rod looks thin on it. |
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Quoted: FireSteel http://www.grannysstore.com/Wilderness_Survival/images/SwedishFireSteel.1.gif Working on proper fire prep makes the difference, good tender, kindling and having all your wood ready to go once youve got it all fired up. The plastic on my Scout fell apart and the rod fell out. That said, it is still likely one of the best out there. Doan Mfg Magnesium/ferro rod combo is solid. Beware of fakes. Lots of excellent choices here (no financial interest in site) |
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Just ordered one GobSpark Armageddon FireSteel and one GobSpark Ranger FireSteel. Thanks for the suggestions guys.  That looks like a good choice. I was going that route until I found a deal on the strikeforce. Let us know how you like it when it comes in. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Just ordered one GobSpark Armageddon FireSteel and one GobSpark Ranger FireSteel. Thanks for the suggestions guys. That looks like a good choice. I was going that route until I found a deal on the strikeforce. Let us know how you like it when it comes in. I have a couple of the Armageddons. I use the reamer on my SAK to strike them. They work very well. |
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Just ordered one GobSpark Armageddon FireSteel and one GobSpark Ranger FireSteel. Thanks for the suggestions guys. That looks like a good choice. I was going that route until I found a deal on the strikeforce. Let us know how you like it when it comes in. Yeah, I have several rods, but the Strike Force has been the most robust and reliable off-the-shelf models. I did make my own from some of the ferro rods from Going Gear. I used their small aluminum capsules, drilled a hole and used some JB Weld to attach the rod and seal them. They are awesome strikers...you can slowly shave off the rod like a magensium bar when adding to your tinder and when you strike hard, the sparks are motlen masses that continue to burn after they land. The capsule handle also holds about 2-3 cotton balls with vasleline for tinder. Really a simple project and much better fire steels with built in tinder. Here's a picture of one of my home-made firesteels: 
ROCK6 |
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Quoted: My SO just bought 2 from Harbor Fright... On sale, $2.79 http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_16350.jpg Might want to try it out. Been some reports that HF/ChiCom magnesium blocks aren't |
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I'm a big fan of the GobSpark Armageddon.
As for tinder, Wetfire is very popular. However, Weber makes sheets of 24 blocks of the same stuff to light briquets. Home Depot carries them for about $4. They must be carried in an airtight container. Each block will light several fires even in the rain and they weigh almost nothing. |
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Strike anywhere matches.
All those others are cool, fun things, but when my fingers are numb from the cold and its build a fire or die, give me a match over anything else. Before someone thinks you an idiot and posts, matches get wet, yes, we know and there are waterproof containers. We also know, any other fire making method, "Good luck throwing it to start a fire." 
If you are asking if my Zippo is out, my butane finally died, and all my matches have been used, what do I carry, that's a magnesium bar if for any other reason it comes with its own accelerant so I don't have to go foraging once again, wet and numb from cold. Can I do the old primitive methods? Of course, I was making fires with magnifying glass and flint I found in nature almost before I could walk. Its downright fabulous fun things to do while doing a nice luxury camp. Its just not my preferred methods in some sort of emergency or survival situation. Hell in a survival situation I'd give up my matches for a gallon of gas and a road flare.
Tj BTW, Since I brought it up. If I could have only one tool and one tool only on some survival situation, it would be carbon steel blade knife. Not only can a knife be used to make or acquire, given time, anything you need for survival, but you're never without a fire making method. Flint is a very common stone or I should say stones with flint (spark) characteristics. You just get in the habit for looking for those type things and stick a good one in your pocket if needed. This brings up another survival fire making method seldom if ever talked about on forums. We're so into gadgets. Although flint and steel even up through the early days of matches were common in history, by far the most reliable fire making method for wilderness survival, even our wagon train ancestors in the US, was the fire bucket. That is just like it sounds. When you break camp, you fill your bucket/can/pot, whatever with the hot coals from the fire before you put the fire out. You then carry that "fire bucket" to your next camp, on foot usually on the end of a long stick, on a wagon hanging from a stick. If you want to try this, just remember, your coals need air to breathe. A paint can, paint burned out, with holes poked in the bottom works very nice. Why would you do this? Simply put, our ancestors in the past found that easier and more reliable under adverse conditions than starting from scratch or having to carry enough dry kindling to get we wood going. It was like the preferred method during the Middle Ages in both Europe and Asia. As for gimicks, I have most of them from blastmatch to you name it. What's on my list of liked to have, going to make me one, is a Tinder box. Now those are slick things. Its a simple box, carbon steel striker, flint, and linen as the accelerant. Its what the match replaced but due to the lenen, very reliable compared to found accelerants such as nests etc. I think this would be fun to play with. |
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With all due respect to previous responses, I think that a one-handed fire-starter makes a lot of sense. For example, one hand/arm might be injured, or one might be using the off hand for a wind break or rain shield. Consider this review: http://www.equipped.org/firestrt.htm |
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Quoted: Whatever rod you get, you should have at least one of these: http://mwbreeze.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/bic-600.jpg Always have at least one, but after a night-long cold-soak, the flame is very weak. Keep such lighters near to your bod to warm 'em up. Dead cold, they are next to worthless. They are very weak in the wind; so much so that one has to take considerable measures. No offense to the poster, but I think that a lot of folks rely on these sort of lighters way out of proportion to the lighter's actual utility. Carried inside your outer garments in winter, these lighters will make a spark, and usually a flame unless it is very windy. Remember that these things were designed to light cigarettes in usually benign conditions, and were never intended to be a reliable survival tool. YMMV. |
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My SO just bought 2 from Harbor Fright... On sale, $2.79 http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_16350.jpg I hate to ruin your joy EXPY37 but they did not work for me.I just had a post about them last week . .What you need to do is test them and see for your self and report back
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My SO just bought 2 from Harbor Fright... On sale, $2.79 http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_16350.jpg I hate to ruin your joy EXPY37 but they did not work for me.I just had a post about them last week . .What you need to do is test them and see for your self and report back My Harbor Freight one worked, but barely. If you want a great firestarter that is also really cheap, go with this. It works as well as my Swedish Firesteel Army, from which it is copied from. Oh, I always have matches and a lighter to go with the steel if I can. I use the steel as a last resort. |
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My Harbor Freight one worked, but barely. If you want a great firestarter that is also really cheap, go with this. It works as well as my Swedish Firesteel Army, from which it is copied from. Oh, I always have matches and a lighter to go with the steel if I can. I use the steel as a last resort. +1 on that! |
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My SO just bought 2 from Harbor Fright... On sale, $2.79 http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_16350.jpg I hate to ruin your joy EXPY37 but they did not work for me.I just had a post about them last week . .What you need to do is test them and see for your self and report back My Harbor Freight one worked, but barely. If you want a great firestarter that is also really cheap, go with this. It works as well as my Swedish Firesteel Army, from which it is copied from. Oh, I always have matches and a lighter to go with the steel if I can. I use the steel as a last resort. A buddy and I tested his HF next to my Cabelas (not Cabelas brand but bought there, dont remember the manufacturer). Weighed out the magnesium on a digital scale and sparked them up. We timed, measured, got a heat reading from the flame. They were identical. One of the guys in that other post tried lighting the shavings with a lighter, so Im going to assume thats why it didn't work. More or less user error. A lighter does not burn hot enough to ignite the magnesium, so without the spark, your magnesium is useless. Expy you should still check to make sure, but Im willing to bet your a-ok. |
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Bought one of those Harbor Freight magnesium starters thinking the price was too good to be true. It was. The spark rod works fine, but the magnesium fizzles at best. Don't waste your money.
I am a firm believer in dropping ten bucks on a few bic lighters and stashing them throughout my gear with a piece of a common candle. Light the candle and drip a few drops of wax on your tinder and it does a GREAT job of getting you where you need to go. Easy to carry, and both components of this kit are multi-taskers. |
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This is what I use, have got a different colour one for a backup, and a different colour one again for a extra backup.
Actually, I have about seven BIC lighters, all of which I picked up from various places whether they fell out of peoples pockets, etc. Quoted:
Whatever rod you get, you should have at least one of these: http://mwbreeze.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/bic-600.jpg |
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My SO just bought 2 from Harbor Fright... On sale, $2.79 http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_16350.jpg Might want to try it out. Been some reports that HF/ChiCom magnesium blocks aren't I'd suggest returning them if that's the case. Don't put up with the Chinese stuff when it's crap. I bought a H-F heat gun a couple weeks ago and when I took it outa the box, the handle was broke off where it attaches to the body of the gun. So we took it back to exchange it, had the new one at the cash reg and in an abundance of caution I reached in to the box and slightly twisted the handle and with a loud crunching noise IT broke off -too.
The look on the cashier's face was priceless. So I got another one took it up there and reached in [no I kidin abt the thrid one...] 
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My SO just bought 2 from Harbor Fright... On sale, $2.79 http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_16350.jpg I hate to ruin your joy EXPY37 but they did not work for me.I just had a post about them last week . .What you need to do is test them and see for your self and report back Just saw this, I'll ask my SO where she put them and verify. Tonight if I remember to do it... |
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My SO just bought 2 from Harbor Fright... On sale, $2.79 http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_16350.jpg I hate to ruin your joy EXPY37 but they did not work for me.I just had a post about them last week . .What you need to do is test them and see for your self and report back Just saw this, I'll ask my SO where she put them and verify. Tonight if I remember to do it... Let use know if it works or not .I bought 4 of them and they all did not work .I will take them back as soon as I find the receipt 
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Some results...
Evaluated Coglans and Harbor Fright magnesium fire starters as well as a magnesium piece I bought on ebay ––as sources of Mg shavings. Tests were done on clean sheets of paper on an Al plate. Ambient temp is abt 60F. First, using the piece of hacksaw blade that comes w/ the H-F, I like the H-F ferrocerium striker better than the Coghlans because it seems the sparks hit the surface more intensely. The Coghlans seem to 'explode' close to the friction and leave less sparks at the shavings. It would be nice if others evaluated this. The shavings from the Mg bar and the H-F block seemed not to ignite easily immediately after shaving them. The Coghlans seemed to ignite OK after shaving them. I noticed that if I waited a few minutes, the Mg bar and the H-F shaving then ignited more easily. So I shaved from the bar and the H-F block, waited 20 minutes and both piles of shaving struck off OK. Note: you can sorta tell if you're igniting Mg because there are good quantities of willowy ash 'floaters' that leave the pile of shavings and rise up in quantity [when ignited on a paper surface]. I ignited one pile directly off the Al plate ––with difficulty, and didn't see as many floaters. The floaters resemble those from a rich acetylene flame except most are whitish in color instead of black. They are long, up to a couple inches and float up 8 feet or so in these still and cool air condx. I'm theorizing whatever alloy  the bar and the H-F block are made from, it oxidizes by resting in air the few minutes before striking, and the oxidized Mg is more easy to ignite.
There also seemed to be a difference in the appearance of the Coghlan's shavings. I didn't look at them under magnification. My guess is the Coghlans' magnesium is a more pure material than a commercial alloy in the bar and Chinese material. |
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Also did an experiment for the pyro bugs here.
I found a bit of potassium permanganate and mixed it with the Mg shavings. Upon striking it, there was a bright flash. Then I couldn't hear anything and my ears were ringing! 
I'm kidding, there was just a bright flash, ––-and then the rafters started falling all around me and the place went up in a puff of smoke! I'm lucky to be alive! I DO NOT recommend that brainwashed Libtard envirowacko weenies [you know who you are] duplicate my experiment because they might get a wiff of something smelly and go running to their socialist MAMA. 
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| The GobSpark Armageddon FireSteel and the GobSpark Ranger FireSteel both throw off a generous amount of sparks that last and I am very happy with my purchase. I looked at the blast match and other similar fire starters, but worried that the plastic housing could break somehow rendering the tool useless. I figured using a firesteel and scraper is fool proof with no chance of breaking. |
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I have used the Mg bar made by Doan, and issued to the Mil. It works as advertised. Interesting test of the HF unit, and the Coughlan's item. Was the Coughlan's item markes with Doan as Mfr? At any rate, if one intends to use these things, best make SURE you have arranged things so that the smallest gust of wind does not blow away your super-lightweight pile of Mg shavings. BTDT. As with most things, preparation is everything. PPPPPP. |
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The GobSpark Armageddon FireSteel and the GobSpark Ranger FireSteel both throw off a generous amount of sparks that last and I am very happy with my purchase. I looked at the blast match and other similar fire starters, but worried that the plastic housing could break somehow rendering the tool useless. I figured using a firesteel and scraper is fool proof with no chance of breaking. If the plastic breaks, you still have a perfectly functional firesteel. |
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First you have to ask yourself do you want a Light My Fire style ferro rod or do you want to use a mischmetal rod? They both achieve the same things, but one offers significantly easier to control sparks (LMF ferro rods) verus the harder to strike mischmetal rods but you can shower sparks from waist high down the the ground.
I personally started with a mischmetal rod ( i didn't realize there were any differences) and shortly switched over to an LMF type ferro rod. For me, the lmf rods are so much easier to use than mischmetal rods. Sure I can't shower my toes with sparks from waist high but who the hell needs too? The best way to start your tinder is with a a nice well aimed concentrated spark. The LMF style rods let you do that. I suggest you try both styles and see which you like better. As far as who makes the best LMF style ferro rod or the best mischmetal rod, it depends. There's alot of evidence that's proving that basically all mischmetal rod blanks are created from the same factory in china regardless if it's an exotac, esee or firesteel.com, goinggears etc etc. They perform they same. So don't buy into the hype. And on the other hand it seems most LMF style rods are coming from Austria. You can go on ebay and buy the same rods in bulk. Buy a couple of cheaper ones, take them for a test drive and see if they are what you're looking for. Then you always buy the bigger counter part if you choose. |
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My Harbor Freight one worked, but barely. If you want a great firestarter that is also really cheap, go with this. It works as well as my Swedish Firesteel Army, from which it is copied from. Oh, I always have matches and a lighter to go with the steel if I can. I use the steel as a last resort. +1 on that! +2 That is one of the cheapest I've found at $5 each and my favorite overall so far. It works as well as the more expensive fire starters I have and did I mention it is cheap. I have found that the key to good sparks is a solid square edge on the striker. That seems to be more important than which rod to buy. Whatever you use, practice with it BEFORE you need it in an emergency. Building a fire is a skill that you can continue improving. Practice, practice, practice! For $5 each, you can wear out quite a few of those rods learning how to start a fire from a spark!
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I have used the Mg bar made by Doan, and issued to the Mil. It works as advertised. Interesting test of the HF unit, and the Coughlan's item. Was the Coughlan's item markes with Doan as Mfr? At any rate, if one intends to use these things, best make SURE you have arranged things so that the smallest gust of wind does not blow away your super-lightweight pile of Mg shavings. BTDT. As with most things, preparation is everything. PPPPPP. Didn't see any markings except Coghlan. |
| I was out in the woods today for a short hike to test some BOB gear and tried out the Coghlan's flint striker again. It easily lit up a few lemon sized balls of grass with little effort. My brother in law had never used a flint striker before and he lit a ball of grass in just a few seconds. I see no need to spend over $10 for one of these things. |