Doan Magnesium Fire Starter

I know its some times hard to work with, i keep one on my person 24/7. But it can and will work well if you just keep working with it from day, to day. Your friend at the post Donald S.
 
Joezilla said:
I'm not a big fan of the Doan, but using it this way makes it a little less painful. It is one waterproof way to carry "tinder" I reckon.


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ha ha ha, the dull side is not ferrocium , its ferro-cerium :)
and then he says "so you're not shooting your pile all over kingdom come" :eek: :o
 
You probally all know this but when I go out I take my multi-tool and most of them have a nice file on them I take that to the corner of the fire starter and that makes it super quick.
 
Producing shavings isnt that hard - if you have the right equipment and technique
.

Here are 2 videos Ive made, not really good but you will take it:

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I've done it, it's not the easiest thing in the wind or wet, but it's not so bad in ideal conditions. However, I find it much more convenient to use a lighter or a match, something like that; I do keep one in my emergency kit, just in case my lighter craps out or my matches get wet so I'm not totally screwed.
 
i just got a doan too fill the $25 amazon free shipping

1) there is coating make sure you take if off before you need the rod

2) the mag is alloy no doubt too save money - i can tell it is aluminum and mag

i did get small fire on hardly wet card board but this WAS NOT MAG FIRE........ I EMAILED DOAN

if i do get an answer i update this
 
Stop at Lowe's or Home Depot and pick up one of the Corona carbide machete sharpeners. It's the berries for shaving the mag block and getting a big spark with no worries about dulling your knife.
 
When I first purchased a Doan's, I made the mistake of trying to "carve" magnesium shavings out of the bar in order to get the fire started. This required a ton of effort and was often a miserable failure when trying to make a fire. Someone on here linked to a video that showed you weren't supposed to carve or cut, you turn a right angle to the side of the bar and just scrape back and forth (I used a chunk of broken hacksaw attached to the keychain for my scraper). Instead of trying to use the saw edge against the bar (no go), I used the back edge of the saw at a right angle.

I sat the bar on a leaf to collect the shavings. Once I had a quarter sized pile of mag, I got my tinder ready around it and then threw some sparks. The resulting fire was hot enough to start even wet tinder and when combined with soft resinous woods like pine, it was really effective (even with wet wood).

The whole way I was scraping the bar made a huge difference in how effective it was and how much effort it required. As a result, I have upgraded the Doan's bar quite a bit in evaluating its utility.
 
I have been reading about these and bought a cheap one at Wally World and got a cheap china junk. Scrapings not very flammable. Living here in Corn field county Ill. I have to order a Doan.
I had read about cotton balls and tried the striker and ignited it first strike. Nice fire ball.
I also read putting some Vaseline on them makes a lot better fire. Oh it does and it burns many times longer than just a cotton balls. I guess, that a small craft type zip lock bag with air squeezed out will hold several fast fire starts.
Since we had a rain now is a good time to test the cotton balls,while I wait for a Doan.
PS I do like Fat Wood also.
 
I get my mag bars at a website that carries pretty much everything you'd want for your fire kit. Not sure if this is 'deal spotting' or not, but firesteel.com has mag bars that are the bomb.

I got firesteels (without handles, making my own ya know), mag bars, and a fatwood block and added some jute twine, pjcb, and char cloth to make fire kits for my get home bags (one for each car and the office).

When I first got the mag bars, I tried one out because as many have posted, some are total junk. These were not. They worked great and if you can keep out of the wind when scraping, should provide you with a nice, concrete burning pile in no time at all. That's right, it burns hot enough to melt through concrete (or an engine block if you want to do your own testing).
C
 
From my growing up days in the 60's. Magnesium burns really hot as stated by others previously. The story was that magnesium wheels would burn so hot once they got going (in a junkyard, for example) that CO2 extinguishers would not extinguish them. In other words a magnesium fire does not require O2--it can "steal" the oxygen from carbon dioxide! Any one else ever hear this? It's way to old to be an internet rumor!

Charles
 
Another option is to buy a magnesium anode rod from a plumbing supply store (for water heaters). It is about 20-25 bucks, around 3-4 feet long. You can hack saw it to your prefered length and drill it for paracord. Use a Speedy Sharp tool to peel the mag off and strike a fero rod for ignition. It all works like jack the bear and you will have enough custom sized pieces for all your packs, and then some.

O.C.D. ? :D
 
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