Stretch,
Nice looking work.

Do you epoxy the rods into the handle?

Thanks David. Yes, Bob, I epoxy them with 60 minute (slow set) after cleaning the rod with denatured alcohol. I switched from 5 minute epoxy when a rod or two came loose, but I haven;t had a problem with slow set...yet.

Thanks for the additional tips everyone. The ferrocium.com operation seems to be located in my home state. It looks like they are a mom and pop that imported a few cases of rods. I sent them an email to check restock status.

The Camping Survival link is basically exactly what I am looking for, though $25 is sort of top end, not sure what their shipping cost is. This appears to be another Chinese import.

That's a nice DIY technique Stretch. It looks like the scout sized blanks are $30 per 10 at Ben's. I wonder where he gets them because he specifically mentions them not being Chinese "knock-offs". Can anyone confirm that the Light My Fire steels are made in the US or Sweden and not with metal rods that are Chinese in origin?

I am unfamiliar with the standard metal composition of established ferrocium rods but the ones I have seen coming from Chinese metal companies are high mischmetal, iron and magnesium just like they should be. I have seen blatant Hong Kong LMF knockoffs on Ebay but it's the handle and striker that look cheap, not the rod itself.

HERE are more.

Blanks... I'm liking the looks of these.

I wish I'd known about them sooner.

Thanks!

I got a 3/8" by 4" from BassPro, It had a plastic staghorn handole so total of 8", I cut down to a 1" handle, It cost $14.00, even came with a file like striker. Other wise do a search on e-bay and your find 1/4" rod for about $1.50 each.
Cheers

As in all things EBAY, got them for about $1.50 each, 4 x 0.25.

cheers

An original source is FireSteel.com

Hi guys,

I'm the owner of Going Gear and also the guy selling a bunch of firesteel blanks on ebay. I was poking through my referral logs, and saw this thread. I thought I'd say hi and answer any questions that you might have about my or anyone else's firesteels. I have owned and used most of the ones out there, so hopefully I'll be able to share some knowledge I've gained.