I ended up with one green one but it's almost a neon green. Should be pretty visible as well.

PSA.

I like the Spark-lite. Have for years. A couple years ago I switched over the the Ultimate Survival Sparkie b/c it provided more spark as its basically a one handed ferro rod.

The only complaint I had for time I carried it was the rod deployed all the time in my EDC bag. (It is spring loaded into the handle and a simple pinch at the base activates.) Otherwise it did a great job of starting dozens of impromptu fires.

Earlier this year, the 'striker' started to skip along the ferro rod causing a progressively worse percentage of spark per use, apparently I was smoothing out the the rod and as the 'striker' is set in place, its become harder to maintain enough contact for ignition.

I have since removed the Sparkie and put the Spark-Lite back in the pack as one of my redundant fire starting methods.

As Izzy stated he liked the sparklite for packing as do I.I had read somewhere (can't remember where though)was designed to take up the same space as four wooden matches.The sparklite can then be kept in a water proof match safe.You know those orange or olive green plastic ones.A sparklite and afew tinder quicks with some fish hooks and line in a match safe was many a soldiers last ditch kit.When it was invented it was during Viet Nam and this was high speed low drag stuff then....

BOATMAN
John

I was at the sporting goods store today, and noticed they had Fire Lites, so I figured I would grab one and compare it with a Spark Lite.

The Fire Lite cost me $10, the Spark Lite I took out of one of my spare DR Pocket Survival Packs (though they typically go for around $8). Both were brand new, unused.

First thing I did was try striking each of them. While I don't have any way to truly measure their performance difference, visibly it didn't seem like one put out a better spark than the other. Then I put them next to each other:




The Fire Lite is a tiny bit larger in every dimension, but it also has rubber applied to each side, which I found made it a little easier to hold onto.

Next, I grabbed my trusty leatherman and broke each of them apart (there goes $20 ):




The Spark Lite has one long ferro-rod, while the Fire Lite has three smaller ferro-rods. When I put them side by side, I noticed that the Fire-Lite's combined ferro-rods were a little longer than the spark-likes single rod. While that means it technically has the potential for more fires, I really doubt it's a huge difference. They're close enough that it's really splitting hairs.

Which would I buy? Well the Spark Lite costs around $8 and you typically get 8 little tinders with it. The Fire Lite costs around $10, and you only get 4 little tinders with it. Therefore, I feel the Spark-Lite is likely the better deal. Otherwise, I didn't notice anything about either that makes me feel one is significantly superior to the other. In fact, I replaced my Spark-Lite with another Fire-Lite that I bought with this one, just because it was available.

Paul, thank you for sacrificing the sparkers and sharing it with us. It's good to know how things are put together.

JI, what characteristics about these two models has your interest... the size... one handed spark capability...
something else?

If it's size only, you can get a ferro rod and striker combo with about the same size package and get a lot more spark per strike.

With the UST Blastmatch, you get an enormous amount of spark with one hand. The rod rotates in the casing so you don't wear out one area.

I've got a few of the TAD Survival Sparks and like them for what they are, I also have several BlastMatch firestarters and others. Just wondered why you are limiting choice.

Including what's in the PSP, I bought three Spark-Lites over the years. I lost one when I dropped it in the fire. I know it is advertised to start 1,000 fires. I recently saw this new product which looks a lot like the Spark-Lite but it is advertised to start 5,000 fires. I wondered why there was such a huge difference between two similar looking products.


By the way, the TAD Survival Spark looks interesting but I can't find much information on their web site.

Edit: I found the information on the TAD Survival Spark I was looking for. In case you are interested, I wondered how the flint could be changed and where to find replacements.

Paul, you did not have to spend money to do so but your post is very informative. Thankyou.

Jeanette Isabelle

No big deal, the money is well worth it for the knowledge gained.

I'll say thanks also. Posts like Paul810's are why the forums are a great resource. Now I don't have to go spend ~$20US to find that out.

I don't have any experience with the AMK product, but I will say that bigger is not always worse for PSK supplies. Small packs easier, but can be harder to manipulate, especially with cold, numb hands. I've had my hands get so cold that I couldn't squeeze the brake levers on a mountain bike, and that takes a lot less dexterity than turning a tiny metal wheel on a piece of plastic. I'm not sure that the added size, makes that much difference here but it is something to think about.

Now if we can just talk Paul810 into soaking his hands in ice water for several minutes and comparing the two products...

I'm wondering whether the rubber strips on the Fire Lite are extractable for tinder purposes.I wrap a few rubberbands around my Spark-Lites as my hands are a tad large,& the rubberbands make xlnt tinder making the Spark-Lite, duo-purpose!I also Thank You for the breakdown of info,Regardless!

As Anyone who owns a zippo would say to this, There is a major issue I have with haven't the multiple smaller "flints". When a zippos Flint is "finished" it still has the potential to make quite the few sparks, The only issue is it becomes small and jams/spits out From the zippo. This means your loosing A decent amount of sparks per individual flint when it pops out around the end of its life. This is just my observations hopefully Im not to wrong lol.