I took one side off and tried lighting it with a Bic. It does burn pretty readily, but it stinks with that typical burning plastic smell. I doubt you could get it to light with the sparker alone, but it will burn if you need it to.

Thanks for the comparo and the great pictures!

A good trick to improve the Spark Lite's grip is to put a chisel tip in your soldering iron, then CAREFULLY melt VERY SHALLOW horizontal grooves on the fore & aft grip surfaces. Use common sense and don't make the grooves too deep. It's not rocket surgery.

I did this on some 'Light My Fire' firesteels and strikers with the plastic grips and it works great; the improvement with wet/cold fingers is substantial. I will try to post a pic later.

As long as the stuff burns,that makes it duo-purpose,Thank You for that!

Paul, since you have already done us service by dismantling these and if you haven't tossed them already, I wonder if you could check one other thing for me?

I have drilled a hole through the end of a Spark-lite before to put on a key chain but I don't know how long the solid portion of the Spark-lite "handle" is. Can you check for me?
I'm looking for the dimension from where the spring butts up against solid plastic to the end.

Thanks much

jenks

Sure!

On the Spark-lite, the spring actually doesn't go very far in. Only about an inch (or 3cm), leaving the last 3/4" (or 2cm) solid. It has a plug in the base, but it's held in very securely. I cut the spark-lite into two pieces towards the bottom, and tried to knock the plug out of both sections with a punch, but it held secure. Putting a keychain hole into it should not be a problem.

On the Fire-Lite, the spring goes nearly all the way to the bottom and the bottom plug is significantly smaller; therefore I would not try to drill a keychain hole in it.

I've never seen the Fire Lite. Probably b/c no good outdoor shops near me that I know of.

One thing I really hate about the Spark lite (I carry the brass one) - the bloody wheel! I've played with it for a while and really torn my thumb up. It IS rather sharp. It's also just a touch short for my taste - maybe another 1/2 would be great to hold it better.

That being said I wonder if "1000 fires" should be replaced with "1000 sparks" or something similar. I mean, if you can't make a fire at all, this little guy won't magically do it.

The Spark-Lite is MADE in the USA, anybody want to guess where the Fire Lite is made?
The Spark-Lite has been standard military issue and included in many US military sutvival kits for several decades.
If I had to stake MY life on either of them, I will go with the orgional.
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