My three firestarter reviews...

Another option instead of carrying magnesium dust around is to break off a 4" (or so) length of hacksaw blade, wrap some tape around the end without the hole in it, and put the ball chain from the magblock through the hole in the blade. Then when you go to use it, you can use the toothy edge to scrape off as much magnesium as you want, then use the back side of the blade to scrape the flint. Or, if you want a LOT of sparks, you can use the toothy side for sparking... but it wears the flint out faster.

$.02CDN
 
I used a SparkLite all last summer on camping trips with the supplied tinder and vaseline cottonballs. Worked like a charm every time.

coyotesniper69, I recently ordered a few BSA Hot Sparks from scoutstuff.org. The do have them in stock as of this past week. I decided to add them to the order while ordering a $12.44 21" Sven Saw. Yeow! What a deal!

and +1 for FoxholeAtheist's hacksaw blade idea. That what I do with my mag blocks.
 
I bought one of these last year and have taken it on every camping trip since then. It does put off great sparks that can light even damp tinder, but does anyone that has used one of these found anything less cumbersome?
 
I received my BSA Hot-Spark today. First off, I'm with Wildewinds, and second the fact that the metal scraper that comes with the Hot-Spark is junk. I tried and tried and tried, and I could not get a spark with the supplied scraper.

I did get the Hot-Spark to throw a spark when scraped with my carbon steel Mora Clipper. But using the knife was a bit awkward.

For the win: A high carbon steel hacksaw blade piece. I removed the blade from the saw, and threw BIG sparks on the first try. Super easy sparks.
 
Skunk,

Is this what you meant?
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If so, how big are they? I can see some advantages to a short, thick ferro bar being drug down the length of a metal file.

-- FLIX
 
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