Swedish Army Fire steels or others

P

Peter La

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Mar 26, 2005
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What do you think of the Swedish Army Fire steels? I am looking for the best firestarter that I can fit into a pouch. PRICE IS NO OBJECT, what is the best fire steel money can buy? My only limitations are it must not be huge (over 4 inches long), must be able to light about or more 100 fires, must produce a large spark, must be waterproof, and MUST be reiliable. (I would like if it had a built in striker) Next, where can I buy.

Thanks everyone

What is the best type of steel to have in a striker?

Again, thanks
 
The Swedish Army Fire steels is the only fire starting tool I carry. I'm pretty good with fire by friction as a back up.
 
Peter,
You can get thousands of strikes from an Army firesteel. As for a striker, I use the back of my S30V Linger Bushcrafter knife.
 
Yep, the firesteel is as good as they get and they come with a striker, as does the little Hotspark that the boys scouts use. I use the awl on my SAK, but like others have said, the back of a knife blade will strike a spark. That is, as long as it's squared to a sharp angle. The more of the rod you scrape off, the more sparks you will get. On the negative side, any ferro rod is going to turn to tarnish and turn to powder over time if there's enough moisture gets to them. Use clear fingernail polish to coat the rod itself to help protect it.

I second the suggestion of using a blastmatch. A ton of sparks and you can pretty much use the tool one handed.

No matter what you decide on using, get good tinder to go with it. Make sure it'll flame in wet weather, or the best firestarting tool in the world won't get you a fire going.
 
i have used the original metal match, the smaller hot spark rods, the gerber strilke force, and the swedish fire steel. they all work well, the bigger the ferro rod the more spark you get, the advantage of the gerber strikeforce is that it has a large rod with integral striker, and the handle carries some wetfire tinder. i have carried one for years, i think you would have to use it for many years to wear it out. but some folks carry a couple of the smaller rods so if they lose or break one then they have another. i guess the choice is up to you. there are lots of different types of ferro rods around, from the doan tool, which will give you fire to the blast match to the military matches. none of them are that expernsive get a couple of different kinds and try them out, see what fits your style.

alex
 
sithjedi333 said:
Check out the Blastmatch. It looks pretty good. You can find it at
www.survivalinc.com
Click to expand...

Blastmatches will break on you at the worst times... I've broken three in the past year. The first two were broken striker blades and the third was from a two foot drop onto a wooden floor were the retaining cap shattered. Get a "Strike Force" instead.
 
sithjedi333 said:
Check out the Blastmatch. It looks pretty good. You can find it at
www.survivalinc.com
Click to expand...
I second that....The blastmatch produces the biggest bunch of sparks I have ever seen!

I almost set a friends apartment afire with one by accident! I put a sheet of paper in a plate to protect the plate(which always worked before, to demo spark producers), and pushed the little thing into the plate....The paper BURST into flames and the hot air lifted the paper out of the plate and blew onto the shag carpet! Thankfully the carpet was already stained in the spot it landed! I have never seen anything like it! The only thing I have not been able to light with it was a teeshirt!
A nice thing about it is that you can use it one handed.

I was showing it to someone at night and pushed it on the ground and noticed that some of the sparks did not go out for 2 or 3 seconds!!!
 
MelancholyMutt said:
Blastmatches will break on you at the worst times... I've broken three in the past year. The first two were broken striker blades and the third was from a two foot drop onto a wooden floor were the retaining cap shattered. Get a "Strike Force" instead.
Click to expand...
But even if it breaks, that does not stop you from using it like a normal fire steel.
 
For the sake of redundancy, I always carry a combination of the following:

1) Bic Lighter
2) Homemade Waterproofed Matches, Candle, and Tinder
3) Either a Sparklite or a Swedish Fire Steel.

Why is the above relevant to this topic? Well......

I finally got around to trying the Fire Steel in January, on a camping trip. Prior to that I'd always relied on a Sparklite and either Sparklite's tinder or my own. With the Fire Steel, however, I discovered that it's easier to light natural tinders (dry moss, pulped bark, etc.) than with the Sparklite. It's hotter, it throws more sparks, and it's much SMALLER than the Blast Match and similar products.

I still keep the Sparklite in a couple of tiny mini-kits due to its small size (even when coupled with the compressed Sparklite tinder.) I think the Swedish Fire Steel's only disadvantage is the two hands required to operate it; could be difficult under some circumstances like injury, or if you're using one hand to dangle over a cliff while trying to light a fire ;) . BUT - for me, it's the best overall product of its type I've ever used and it's as bulletproof as it can be.

Get Some.
 
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