Aurora Fire Starter from Solo Scientific?

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

Gold Member
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Dec 22, 2007
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19,049
Anyone else played around with one of these? If so what are your thoughts?

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I've had one for about a year now, & well, I was really disappointed. My mischmetals work much better, & are a LOT lighter.
 
Reviews have been mixed, at best. Several videos on the net via Google of Aurora Fire starter Review
 
Bowman1911 said:
I've had one for about a year now, & well, I was really disappointed. My mischmetals work much better, & are a LOT lighter.
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Exact same experience here...gave it away a while ago right here on bladeforums on my 1000th post. Was well made, though...bombproof, but way too heavy.
 
Glad I read this. I was looking at these recently :eek:

Guess I'll get another firesteel from gg.
 
I was just curious if it was just me or maybe I got a bad one...a person can make or get a bad one of anything I think. I couldn't get anywhere near the sparks from mine that I see the person getting in their video so I kept trying. Then I thought maybe it was a bad edge on the striker and so tried another striker and still really nothing impressive even using the spine of my SAK saw which throws awesome sparks from every other rod I have. I love the idea, I think the concept is a sound one. I love how they gave it a large enough handle to hold even wearing gloves and the knurling is really well done. I think I am going to get rid of this rod and replace it with one from going gear and see how it goes from there. I can modify the striker and if worse comes to worse even make a new one. It just seems really sad to me that someone would put so much work into making something then use a crappy rod.
 
mine wouldnt throw any spark at all, i tried fast, slow, lite, hard, nothing ever. i just threw it away
 
Since it seems it's not just me maybe we should start a feedback thread? It is sad that they put so much into a product that looks good but doesn't seem to work for anyone, but maybe we can do a favor for the rest of the community?
 
Found it works best, when using like a Doan mag block. Shave off some, and then scrape hard to ignite the pile. Agreed, that it does not shower sparks as I thought it would, but still keep it in a kit. One observation is that the sparks you get, do have a considerably longer burn time than a regular ferro.. I view it more as a consolidated Doan, that is guaranteed to have a spark as long as a mag bar.
 
I think it sucks that with all the time and work they put into this thing they just couldn't go ahead and nail the product they were going for. I think they missed opportunities to make a really good product, mainly by using a decent quality rod. But also the striker could have been improved as well. It could have a beveled edge for a more acute striking edge and instead of being dull-ly squared, and instead of being made directional (hole off-center and longer on one side than the other) it could have been made centered and reversible.

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So far I'd much rather have any other fire steel I have, sealed or not, in the woods; an ESEE, an Exotac, an LMF, a strikeforce, Going Gear, Primus, Hot Sparks, any of these. But as for sealed units I think, and yes this is just an opinion, the Exotac nano XL is easily ten times the fire starting system of the Aurora and easily worth the $11.00 price increase versus the Aurora (price difference as seen by viewing both company's websites). The rods are similar in size, both housings have good knurling and good machining. The Aurora is a little big for key chain carry for me personally, but I thought it would be great with heavier gloves...but not if I can not get it to throw sparks. I've been carrying nano strikers since they came out a couple of years ago and I have yet to have one fail to throw sparks. I've been playing with the Aurora for nearly six months and have yet to get it to throw enough sparks hot enough to ignite anything harder to light than dryer lint.

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Really glad to hear the new ESEE fire kits are shipping, as I'll definitely be putting this Aurora in the box with other failed products and replacing it with an ESEE advanced kit asap, I have bought a half dozen of the earlier models I have no doubts that the new ones will perform equally as well.


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I have the regular exotac and can't get it to spark either. I've gone back to using an LMF scout on my keychain. I wanted something fancier and waterproof but now I'm thinking I don't need fancy and have yet to need them to be waterproof. My buddy took a dunk in the ocean with his scout. He pulled it out of his pocket a few hours later and it was speckled with rust. Still worked perfectly though.
 
Shotgun said:
I have the regular exotac and can't get it to spark either. I've gone back to using an LMF scout on my keychain. I wanted something fancier and waterproof but now I'm thinking I don't need fancy and have yet to need them to be waterproof. My buddy took a dunk in the ocean with his scout. He pulled it out of his pocket a few hours later and it was speckled with rust. Still worked perfectly though.
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Can't get the rod to spark at all or with the on-board striker?
 
mistwalker said:
Can't get the rod to spark at all or with the on-board striker?
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I can get it to spark with both the striker it comes with and with other strikers. It's just a very weak spark. Heavy pressure, light pressure, fast, slow...anything I tried produced very minimal sparks. It's now a backup in my car.
 
I had it for a little bit with mixed results but after I lost the carbide striker it went into the trash there are far better options out there for cheaper the videos on there sight make it look great but you find most company sights fix the reviews and if there are videos they make there products look like the best thing since sliced bread
 
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