Fire steel?

W

WillieD

Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
267
Looking for a good fire steel. I guess Firesteel.com gets the nod, right? Buy what model? The Ranger is cheap, but I'm thinking too small. Any opinions? Would mostly be pocket/backpack carried. Thanks
 
hard to beat the light my fire swedish army steel. I;ve been using them for years, and they are easy to find for under 20 bucks
 
Aurora firestarter since the sparks it throws are the best hands down.

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or

BlastMatch Fire Starter since you can operate with one hand (and use your otherhand to block wind, keep your tinder together, or whatever)
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I prefer the Light My Fire ones way more than misch metal ones. I'd go with an LMF Army model.
 
ive got a north 49 brand one, its 3 inches by a quarter inch diameter, it fits my needs and only costs around 15 dollars
 
Light My Fire and Primus's firesteels have served me well. The ESEE Firekit (regular one, NOT misch-metal) isnt bad either, though it dosent throw sparks as good as the 2 others.
 
LMF.....hands down my favorite. Im no good with the misch ones, and I havent met a tinder I couldnt get lit with it. I use the LMF 3/8 Army model. I get the blank rods from bensbackwoods for 10 bucks.....Ive used the Aurora, Goinggear, ESEE, and firesteel.com ones.
 
I prefer LMF over others as well. Less effort to get sparks, easier to control.
 
LMF is what I prefer, they also seem to last longer.

I go through that misc metel type like a beaver
 
The mischmetal steels are harder to use but throw some good fire balls. If you have the right tinder the LMF ones work great. Comes down to skills/experience either way.


I buy blanks and add my own handles.
 
PropThePolecat said:
Light My Fire and Primus's firesteels have served me well. The ESEE Firekit (regular one, NOT misch-metal) isnt bad either, though it dosent throw sparks as good as the 2 others.
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I don't know which ESEE one I have(got it not too long ago, couple months or so), but the rod in it is the worst firesteel i've ever used. Way harder to spark than a misch metal, and throws less and weaker sparks than an LMF. I like the idea of the capsul/compass thing though, so I might swap the rod out for an LMF army one.
 
Cannot beat the goinggear ones in my opinion. By far the best firesteels I have ever used.
 
Firesteel.com GobSpark Armageddon FireSteel is my recommendation. I have the Aurora, Light My Fire, Mini Match, Doan, Tool Logic, Spark Lites...not a fan of the push types though.
 
Too many opinions in this thread, which makes it impossible for anyone to make an informed purchasing decision. Perhaps some BF types should get together some weekend with representative samples of the major firesteel products, and do some tests to see what works the best. Maybe there could even be teams (2 people and up) for the different environments in North America: north woods, southern swamps, high mountains, central plains, and deserts. Do be sure to include the Pacific northwest rainforests. Extra credit if we can find a team to take on central and south American jungles. We should probably also include Hawaii, and of course Alaskan arctic dwellers. Wow, we're going to need a lot of testers.

Actually, one weekend wouldn't do it, would it? There needs to be at least four weekends, one for each season.

Each team should publish their results, including what natural tinders worked best for their local ecosystems. If natural tinders couldn't be found, then describe what emergency tinders were used.

How's that for a challenge? :D
 
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