Best compact firesteel available in the U.K?

maximus otter

maximus otter

Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
4,187
I'm looking for a metal match/firesteel tool small enough to be included in a survival tin/knife accessory pouch, and available in the U.K., preferably from a major outlet, e.g. Cotswold Outdoors, Blacks etc.

Price not too important; efficiency and compactness are.

Thanks in advance,

maximus otter
 
fireA.jpg

Light my fire

Send Piet (Bagheera) an email and get a Swedish FireSteel or two. They are relatively cheap and top notch gear. They are compact but, not so small they are difficult to use.
 
Hi Sid,

Thanks for recommending me (us), at the moment we're out of Firesteels but there might be a batch coming soon as our scouts and neighbour scouting groups make extensive use of the Light-My-Fire Flintsteels.

Just as a tip, if you remove the plastic thumbpiece your Flintsteel actually is 1/4" longer and I have drilled a small hole through the end with a slow turning bench drill, KEEP flammables and nylon clothes away!!!! and use water to cool/keep surrounding of drill space wet ;).
It's like the fourth of July with miniature fireworks :D but once you are finished you can just fit a small split ring which offers good control.
These so modified Firesteels are easy to pack especially the smaller Scout model with a 1/4" diameter.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
Piet,
do you also carry those Imco windproof lighters? I've never owned one of my own but they seem very nice. I have never seen one in the States.
 
Hi Johnniet,

I'm just a scoutmaster in a scouting group and I don't carry any articles, our Scouting group sometimes has extra Firesteels and or Glowrings that we sell as a fundraiser.

I never heard of the IMCO lighter, I just carry a copy of the Blazer torch lighter that I bought at Globetrotter, a German big outdoor shop chain.
These babies burn hot and although not waterproof,they are cheap and have a very large fuell reservoir.

Just point me to a site that carries the Imco lighters so I can see what you mean.

Best Scouiting wishes from Holland,

bagheera
 
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These are available at almost every smoke shop here in NYC. I bought about 6 of them from a boutique shop called "Restoration Hardware" a while back during a closeout. They seem cool enough, but they hold much less fluid than Zippo's, the flints are hard to change, there's really no place to store extra flints, and if you keep one lit for a long time, the cap gets way too hot to touch, making it difficult to close.

IMO, the zippo is a much better deal. The only really cool thing about this lighter is the fact that the act of opening the cap of the lighter, lights it up.
 
A picture of the IMCO lighter is here:

http://www.globetrotter.de/de/shop/detail.php?&mod_nr=ic01001

I asked these guys about ordering from the US, but they misunderstood me: they think I am in Europe and want to buy American products from them!

If I can convince them, maybe I will order a Blazer too :)

[Yes, MM, those are the ones. I'll take your words to heart--but I'd still like to try one for a while. BTW does the fuel evaporate as quickly as in a Zippo? They are also supposed to have an "internal candle", which is maybe not so different from the Zippo's wick but may be higher precision.]
 
the fluid evaporates just as quickly... it's not the lighters themselves, but the fluid... the fact that you have more fluid in a zippo, the longer you will have fluid in your lighter.

I also stopped using lighter fluid a long time ago... I camp a lot, and I have those little "white gas" stoves. White gas is essentially gasoline without all the additives which are necessary for an engine to run smoothly. It's also called Camp gas, camp fuel, Napthalene or Naptha which is the major ingredient in lighter fluid (lighter fluid adds stuff to keep it from evaporating as fast). I use this in my lighter for three reasons... it burns cleaner, although it evaporates faster, and because I have a stove that runs on the stuff, I always have quite a bit of fuel for it. The last is that "camp fuel" costs me $3 us dollars per gallon as opposed to $20 per gallon of lighter fluid.
 
Hi Jonniet,

I have one one these IMCO's and it's at least 35 years old, I used to play James Bond with it because you can "open" it up so that it looked like a disguised pistol (well that's what I thought when I was about 10 years old anyhow)

Jonniet, Globetrotter does NOT send goods outside Europe so you won't be able to get the IMCO from them unless somebody orders one + another € 50 as they have a minimum order of about €53 if I'm correct.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
The metal is maybe half as thick as that of the zippo, and the construction is flimsy and delicate. I think it is made of aluminum as opposed to steel in zippos... This is one of the few times that an european made product is far surpassed by an american made product.

However, we must keep in mind that these products were designed back when the United States made the best stuff available. They're made the same way today, so there's no reason to think that anything has changed...

John, if you really must have one, send me an e-mail and I'll pick one up for you.
 
Thanks to all who replied.

Thanks particularly to donn: I've ordered one from Survival School at £8 delivered

maximus otter
 
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