I came across this the other day. Does anyone have any experience with these? It looks like one of those things that could be a huge hit or a huge miss.

http://www.campingsurvival.com/aufistflstan.html
(There is a video with this one)

http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/FirestarterProducts.htm

Looks like a standard firesteel to me.

Hmm, very interesting! And the housing looks very professionally made. Just bought one of eBay here. Will report the results soon.

HackSaw. The secret is in the composite material - magnesium "impregnated" firesteel. So, after you strike the rod you have magnesium chunks burning at 5000C on your tinder (for a couple of seconds).

Wow Alex, you don't mess around. I'm anxiously awaiting your report.

I'm just clearly see the potential. If the rod is no good, I'll replace it with a regular firesteel By the way the larger composite rods are coming. It seems to me this composite should wear much quicker than firesteel one.

And thank you for the info!

I thought that's what a fire steel did in the first place. A ferrocium alloy rod burns at 3000 degrees C and magnesium burns at 2200 C...Either way hot enough to ignite something flammable. The real key will be to know how long the magnesium part burns for...I'll be curious to find out!

Wikipedia has it again...surprise surprise

The alloy used in a modern fire steel already contains Magnesium.

Funny this got posted!

I ordered one yesterday and did not even see this post.
I`ll report back too.

-Todd

If nothing else, the rod is well protected, and the striker is always handy...

Hmmm, make it a bit longer and you have a combination fire starter and kubaton. I like it.

-Blast