firesteel

M

murderedsongbird

Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
272
hey guys. i was wondering if anyone could recommend a good firesteel to compliment the compact scout by stomper i am ordering?
 
LMF Army model, you can get em at bensbackwoods.com

I am really liking the Misch metal firesteels right now. You can get those on RAT cutlery website.
 
If your gonna use the back of the JK knife to strike it, go with a regular firesteel like the lmf.

The misch rods are my favorite but a bit tricky to get a spark from with the back of a knife.
 
I had a small piece of antler lying around, and I thought I'd use it as a handle for a firesteel.

I ordered some rods from FireSteel.com to use for this project. Before assembly I decide to see how these rods sparked. They are terrible. :thumbdn:

The problem was poor sparking. I used several different strikers: the factory supplied striker, piece of hack saw blade, couple knife spines (1095, ATS-34, Vic stainless, and S3V), and even the edge of the awl on my SAK.

After many, many attempts I was able to start a fire using some tissue as tinder. By way of comparison, using a Light My Fire steel, I was able to light some tissue in 3 strikes. The pic shows the amount of wear required to light one (1) fire.

431965500_dsyxu-L.jpg


When it did produce sparks they were very hot but few in number.

It is possible that the FireSteel fero-rods have been good performers in the past and they are just having a quality control issue. I'd be interested to hear if other people have had better luck with FireSteel rods. For now, I will not trust my fun and survival to a FireSteel rod. :grumpy:

Anyone have recommendations for fero-rod blanks that work?
 
I have one of those steels that has a bar of magnesium glued to it. It throws sparks well enough. Ive always easily started a fire with natural tender. But Ill be darned if I can scrape a pile of magnesium shavings off of it .
 
I own and have used Strike Force Fire Starter and it works really well. I have seen the Blast Match Fire Starter on youtube and it seems to work pretty well too but i haven't used it first hand.
 
I'm partial to Light My Fire brands. I only tried two different brands and LMF worked better. I often thought about the scout size vs. the army sized ones. I kind of like the smaller scout ones better. I'm thinking about getting 10 scout blanks and stashing them around different parts of my kit rather than fewer army sized ones. Its a cost/quantity issue.
 
Hit up fellow forumite "countryboycansurvive". He makes custom firesteels with very attractive wooden ends for $25. He just made one for me with an African Rosewood end. I love it. He's a gent to work with to and gets you your firesteel very quickly.
He let me pick from quite a number of exotic woods.
 
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I have two of the Strike Force firesteels. While they aren't masde to fit in a loop on a sheath they do throw a tremendous amount of sparks. I also have a RAT firekit on order which use the mischmetal which throws globs of molten metal helping to insure a fire.
 
eccvets said:
I own and have used Strike Force Fire Starter and it works really well. I have seen the Blast Match Fire Starter on youtube and it seems to work pretty well too but i haven't used it first hand.
Click to expand...

I have one of these in black and it works very well. I also have two of the LMF models and have had no problems with those either.
 
I would highly recomend the large model of PRIMUS ;)
It's really good and lasts for long time ;)
 
I have bought bare rods from two sources, several sizes, none work as well as LMF Army model. Blast match works well though.
 
I bought a 4" rod from Exploration Products. It's a pretty big rod (not something I'd carry around in my front pocket), but it lays down a lot of sparks. I carry it in my "man purse" everywhere I go.

http://www.epcamps.com/4in_Flint.html

I also EDC Boy Scout "Hot Sparks" on all my key chains.

fire_steels.jpg
 
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I recommend any of the LMF rods. The BSA Hotsparks work very well also.
Scott
 
Sounds and looks to me like you have a misch metal rod. While they are a little more difficult to strike (have to use a very sharp edge like a knife), the misch metal we use will light fires that standard ferro won't. In fact, I don't even carry tinder any more with these new rods. I can light many things from the wilds that I normally couldn't light with standard ferro. They throw globules of molten metal.

Rotte said:
I had a small piece of antler lying around, and I thought I'd use it as a handle for a firesteel.

I ordered some rods from FireSteel.com to use for this project. Before assembly I decide to see how these rods sparked. They are terrible. :thumbdn:

The problem was poor sparking. I used several different strikers: the factory supplied striker, piece of hack saw blade, couple knife spines (1095, ATS-34, Vic stainless, and S3V), and even the edge of the awl on my SAK.

After many, many attempts I was able to start a fire using some tissue as tinder. By way of comparison, using a Light My Fire steel, I was able to light some tissue in 3 strikes. The pic shows the amount of wear required to light one (1) fire.

431965500_dsyxu-L.jpg


When it did produce sparks they were very hot but few in number.

It is possible that the FireSteel fero-rods have been good performers in the past and they are just having a quality control issue. I'd be interested to hear if other people have had better luck with FireSteel rods. For now, I will not trust my fun and survival to a FireSteel rod. :grumpy:

Anyone have recommendations for fero-rod blanks that work?
Click to expand...
 
There are two types of Ferro rod out there - the harder black kind that LMF uses - and a more gray and silver kind. The black is far superior in my opinion.

TF
 
I guess it's just a matter of opinion and where/how they're being used and with what types of tinders. From my experience, the black rods require better tinder even though the rod will strike and throw showers of sparks every time. The softer rods are harder to strike but will light just about anything that will burn and can be carried as a stand-alone starter without tinder with guaranteed results.
 
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