A thin layer of corrosion or the protective coating is part of the fun...

Impress your friends with a huge shower of sparks, then hand it over upside down so your friends try to make sparks on the protective coating or a corroded part of the steel... Scraping the fire steel is the simplest action imaginable, but your friend will not succeed until he scrapes all the way down to unprotected material or realizes he needs to flip it over.

OK, just a sample of my bad taste in practical jokes, but there is a educative purpose here too. First you make a fool out of your friend, then show him the conditions for the sparks to fly. That lesson will stick.

No Kidding!I live in an Extremely Dry area,Except for the fact I'm 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean,The air here is Salty for the most parts,& Smoggy for All the other parts,lol!My (Svenska) Firesteel fuzzed up on me,though I do work at The Beach,or 200 yds from the beach anyhow,& My keychain w/Firesteel,Used to hang on a caribiner on my belt loop.Leigh lives in The UK,& I'm sure his problem is Similar.

Is it possible to store a few tinder-quick's or some jut cord between the fire steel and the wall of the container?

No, you're not fitting much of anything in there.

The response I got from the company is that the majority of goods are made in china. I would be much happier about the price if it was at least American made but it is not. While a good design in theory it would take a good bit of impressing me to make me a buyer considering the secondary factors. All in all though still good to see some solid thought put into gear.

It looks gorgeous. The Atwood of sparkers. It could well be worth its weight in gold, if it's the one you have with you when you need it.

But it's maybe a bit fiddly. If your hands are cold or you are wearing gloves, it won't be easy to do all the unscrewing and rescrewing to get it into usable form.

First time seeing the Nano Striker. Really nice design!

Here is a another source for fire steel tubes. I am not associated with either of the companies. These steels are mischmetal.

firesteel.com has sizes from 3/16 to 3/8. The 1/2 steel is no longer available. I was able to chat with Ron and said he had one left which he sold to me. Not very practicable for a PSK because of size and weight so this for my small collection of fire making tools and not my PSK. Pictures and report to follow once I receive it.

https://firesteel.com/categories/FireSteel-Tubes/

goinggear.com sells the mischmetal steels in the raw. Roll your own with 1/2 x 12" mother of all fire steels! Does any know of a source for these aluminum tubes (or similar)?

http://goinggear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4

Thanks for the links. I see a couple of custom firesteel projects coming up...

My nanoSTRIKER is a perfect fit for my intended use; EDC/PSK and as back-up for other fire starters in my larger kits. It is also has the capacity to handle frequent use in a worst case scenario (i.e.: Long-term survival with nothing but my EDC). It is pricey but some things are worth the investment. In my opinion, the nanoSTRIKER is definitely one of those things.

On the topic of corrosion;
I have a Gerber Strike Force purchased back in '88 or so. I've used it a couple dozen times at most but it's spent decades bouncing around in various packs/car kits and storage units. There is severe corrosion and pitting along one side, although with its 1/2 inch diameter I'm not too worried about it failing. I really like the idea of shrink tubing to protect the ferro rods and I'll be putting that to use on all of mine.