Hi yall
what is the best fire? Is it A bic lighter or is it flint and steel maby matches who knows. what do yall think I am just asking yall to help me
Teen suriver

for easy use a BIC, reliable and cheap. but you can run out of fuel one or the other way.
for reliabilitie flint( fersocium ) and steel, if you know were to find tinders.
if you arent that good in finding tinder a MFS or FIRESTEEL ( you can scrape that one to )

Most of us carry several means of starting a fire. I like matches, Bic lighters, and a Windmill lighter, plus firestarter - many people favor lint or cotton balls w/vaseline or something similar. My kit weighs just a little over an ounce - easy weight to carry given how critical fire can be.

Depending on the situation, you might not light many fires, especially if you are staying in one place. Using mostly pine wood fuel, I could easily stoke up last night's fire in the morning without using any matches - this is even easier if you are burning hardwoods. The most important factor is practice and experience, gained before you really, absolutely must ignite a fire.

Bearing in mind that this was in response to an apparently newbie post, maybe someone should explain the acronyms:

MFS = Magnesium block with Flint Striker (I presume)

FIRESTEEL, I think, is a brand-name - you can do a search for it on the web. I personally haven't been all that impressed with them - I can start a fire more easily with the FeCe component of my Mag Flint Block that cost half as much, not to mention the BlastMatch. I personally have found the FIRESTEELs I've used to be overpriced and relatively ineffective. Am I doing something wrong?

Look around this site and forum enough and you'll see a common theme; The best anything (kit, knife, firestarter, etc) is the one that you will have with you when you need it. Just about every one has a couple bic lighters stashed in various places, try to get the clear ones so you can see how much fuel you have in it. In the non-lighter category I like the Spark lite, it's small, cheap and about as simple as you can get. My EDC includes a zippo and some matches all the time, and the spark lite is in my back pack kit, which I have with me just about all the time, but it can still get separated.

Hope this helps.

Chris.

i holland a swedich firesteel and a MFS cost almost the same, so i tend to go for the firesteel. i have heard great stuff about the blastmatch, but for me that is imposible to get ( you don't have to give me a URL or something, think i got a way to lay mine hands on one <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> just got to wait 4-5 months ).
i find firesteel pretty effective, make sure you strike it with the right side of the striker. one side of the striker is round off the other is sharp. if you can't light it with the sparks alone ( no tinder or whatever ) you can scrape the rod with your knife/the scraper, same as striking it but slower so you won't get sparks. and than just use it like a MFS.

Thats exactly what I posted once ( about the firesteels ), but bageera, who sells them told me the technique, and now I find I can get much more sparks from it. Bageera explained that on one side of the metal striker there is a bur which if you strike with, you get a huge shower of sparks. Alternativly you can use a piece of hacksaw blade, but the flint won't last as long. I use the scout firesteel which is smaller and quite a lot cheaper. You can get many more strikes out of it that a mag flint block.
I hope this is helpful

Once you try the strike force you will never want any other flint product.

The blast match is good, but i found it flimsy and broke it.

The only dray back to the strike force is its size. It was not meant for an altoids SK.

It is my primary fire starter once the bic lighters and matches run out.

Mike

you can also use the back off your knife to strike the rod ( mine primary technique ). if you want the sparks more consitrated use the flint striker combo reversed, instead of holding the rod still and strike it with the striker, leave the striker still and move the rod. It's a bit harder, but it works !