What brand of Firesteel do you like?

To the best of my understanding, there are only a few categories of them. At one point it was supposed that there were only two main manufacturing plants, but who knows?
Light my fire,
Cheap hard chinese ones that don't throw a lot of sparks
Good no-name ones that are pretty similar to LMF
Very hard misch-metal like ESEE use
and I suspect the gobspark might be its own beast. I've had good luck with blanks from china, I suspect they come from the same plant, the plastic handled ones were not as great.
 
[video=youtube;IVTRZ2LOCxw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVTRZ2LOCxw[/video]

[video=youtube;Erw8gTAMYoI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erw8gTAMYoI[/video]
 
firesteel.com generally rates pretty good. I've gotten going-gear ones, and I think they are pretty close, although someone can correct if I'm wrong.

as an aside, it seems that length is a bigger determiner of cost than diameter, so keep that in mind while makeing selections.
 
A lot of the knife makers here make fire steels and they are worth checking out. I have a few from Adam at AA Forge and I really like them. I also have two Exotac XLs that work really well.
 
the question is, what's the difference between the rods different manufacturers use?
 
Most if not all firesteels are manufactured by JX Metals in Shanghai, then branded and marked up (sometimes dramatically). You can safely shop by price alone. I tend to go for the 3/8" (10 mm) size with a pre-drilled lanyard hole.
 
I like the ones from firesteel.com. I can pick the diameter and the length I like and they're super hot they throw good Sparks and they drill hole in them. Plus I can then Mount whatever kind of handle I like.
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Don't know the exact difference other than the difference between mischmetal and the magnesium rods. The mischmetal rods I get from Goinggear will bring fire imminently to any dry tender. If the tender is a little damp or in very humid air you can scrap a small pile of savings off them and light the savings. They burn so hot they will dry the tender around them. Seems like I saw at one time the the mischmetal sparks burn at 1200 degrees.
 
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