Best fire steel?

[Mikel_24]

I've noticed that there IS a difference in alloy. Some (from Ferrocerium.com) are more smooth and a bit softer, then the LMF steels.
...Soft firesteel= big curls of steel and harder to get a spark. But if they ignite, the curls do last longer when burning/glowing.
Hard firesteel= hard to scrape and hard to get good "thick" long lasting sparks...

Oh crap... The ones I bought from eBay seem to come from ferrocerium.com. I asked the guy I got them from if he had any more sizes and he told me that he didn't have any at the moment, but that he could get almost any size I wanted. So he must be getting them from ferrocerium.com or any other company who sells blanks.

I had a hard time drilling them but I was using a hand drill and my drillbits were not the best ever, so that is more of my fault than anything else. I noticed that when making a lot of force to scrape them (you know, put it in the ground, push hard with the scraper and do short powerfull strokes) I sometimes get big curls of metal that don't ignite. I don't get spark showers like the ones I have seen in some youtube videos. I have tried anything from the square faces from my Leatherman screwdrivers to the spine of my knives (F1 included) and of course the well known bimetal hacksaw blade. No way of getting huge showers.

I just bought two Barkies and both come with a firesteel loop. I think I am going to get some LMF Fire steels to fit them. They are sized for the ARMY model, right? I know LMF makes the little SCOUT model and the bigger ARMY. I just want to be double sure to be getting the right ones!

Mikel

 

[cz75b]

Mikel,

The BRKT sheaths are made for the LMF Army (thick) model.
The guy from ferrocerium.com also sells them on the bay. Don't remember his e-bay name anymore.
The firesteels from ferrocerium.com are great firesteels. I don't have any issues with them at all. I just prefer the LMF a bit more.... But there are other firesteels from other suppliers (e-bay) that are way too soft, and could be problematic in getting a sparkshower.
Scraping a few non burning curls just aids in a better ignition when they catch a spark in your tinder. Don't worry too much about the ferro.com steels. They ARE good.

CZ

 

[eomeo]

As has been mentioned, there are some really cheap firesteels that don't work so well. I have found that the cheaper ones are harder to "direct" the spark with. For me, they don't spark as easily and use more material per strike.

 

[MRpink]

I just got this firesteel ones from countycomm, they look very similar to the LMF ones. http://countycomm.com/FIRELIGHTSPECIAL.htm

They're on sale right now. I tested it out today and it gets a good long spark, but it's kind of soft, so after a few strikes, it started to develop heavy wear and deep grooves. This is my first time using any firesteel so I have nothing to compare it with.

 

[Khalnath]

I just got this firesteel ones from countycomm, they look very similar to the LMF ones. http://countycomm.com/FIRELIGHTSPECIAL.htm

They're on sale right now. I tested it out today and it gets a good long spark, but it's kind of soft, so after a few strikes, it started to develop heavy wear and deep grooves. This is my first time using any firesteel so I have nothing to compare it with.

That looks SO similar (right down to the identical striker and "made in Sweden"), that I strongly suspect they were made in the same factory. Primus also sells firesteels with the same form factors, also made in Sweden, but with a different striker.

 

[macgregor22]

I use the black light my fire army model, its bigger and thicker.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

I have quite a few sticks from Ferrocerium.com - those were FAT sparks - just use the blade portion of a hacksaw and you are fine.

TF

 

[jfmitch]

Like pretty much every single other 'deal' that SG has, they 'don't currently have those in stock'. I'm not sure they ever have anything in stock....

Tell me about it....I ordered these at the end of March, received an email last week saying that the ship date has been pushed back (again) to 5/30. Oh well, at least they went ahead and sent the Mora (my first one!).

 

[LeeCQC]

I've got the LMF army model with a oak handle. Pretty nice.

 

[eomeo]

That looks SO similar (right down to the identical striker and "made in Sweden"), that I strongly suspect they were made in the same factory. Primus also sells firesteels with the same form factors, also made in Sweden, but with a different striker.

They are the same, excepting colors. The Primus one is also basically the same firesteel, but as you noted, the striker is different.