The Fire Starter at Russell's For Men is described as having a magnesium rod, but no artificial flint as such.

Would the included steel striker make sparks against such a rod? I thought magnesium had to be shaved off, gathered into a small pile, then lit with a spark or a match.

that thing is a ferosium rod. Wenn you slowly scrape ferosium you can use it as the magnisium part of a MFS. Just scrape faster after you scraped enough, to light it.

That's the standard issue Kershaw ferrocerium rod. No magnesium in it at all. It is misrepresented in the ad.

It is misrepresented all over the place, it seems. I did a search for "Kershaw Fire Starter" in Froogle and the phrase "Magnesium steel shaft" shows up quite frequently. I did not know there was such a thing as "magnesium steel." I think the marketing department messed up.

You can indeed carefully shave bits of it off and ignite it.

I used to think that WAS the magnesium fire starters people were talking about, I remember taking a LONG time to get even a little pile....

Then I discovered the actual magnesium firestarters and I'm like "doh!"

They're mistaken, that's the "flint" rod, there's no magnesium bar there (at least in their picture), and kind of pricey at that!

Pricey? Not necessarily. The Kershaw is Swedish made by Light-My-Fire - it's their Scout Model. It puts out more sparks than this ...


(Shown is a USGI Doan Tool being scraped by an AG Russell Field Knife)

M

Survival Sheath(http://www.survivalsheath.com/fire/index.htm) offers the smaller Kershaw model, as well as a larger Firesteel for $14.95. I think I'm going to replace that huge Ultimate Survival Strike Force with something a little more compact. I was using the Strike Force in Smoky Mountains National Park one time and the bar fell right out of the plastic housing! When I got back to "syphilization", I called the company and made them replace it for me.

Yeah, I'm thinking about buying one of those "military matches" that they have on that website and replacing the ferrocerium rod in my kit with it. It offers both magnesium and the ferrocerium striker, yet It's not as bulky as the full sized square magnesium firestarters with flint in the side, so I think it'll be an improvement.

If you can't start a fire with what you've got pictured in the photo, you'd better give up. I've never gotten (or needed) that much spark off a Doan, but it's nice to know it's possible if I want to work that hard.


Troy

Huh? No offense, I just don't understand your response, Troy.

That wasn't hard work, just one simple draw of the MFS as the sun was going down. The only hard part was timing the camera to catch the action.

Want to see mega sparks? Try a Swedish Military FireSteel using an Opinel spine or hacksaw blade spine at dusk ... looks like a 4th of July celebration ...

M

I have a couple FireSteels on order as well as the Metal Matches I mentioned in the other thread. I'm eager to compare them. I have a variety of smaller, thinner ferrocerium rodsalready and I'm actually looking foreward to comparing all of them.

Here are a few I've tried.

(Left to Right)
Metal Match, FireSteel "Army" Model, USGI DOAN, Military Match II.

The usual spark I get off a Doan starter is about 3 or 4 times what you'd see from a bic with the guard removed, and your picture looked like a small WP burning off, to say the least, I was impressed with the picture <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

Troy

Troy,

As you may be able to tell by the pic, the knife stays stationary and the ferro rod gets drawn back to create the spark. It concentrates the spark better that way. If you're still getting light sparking activity, try some other striker materials. Some of the best, IMHO:

Opinel knife spine,
Victorinox Soldier's awl,
Hacksaw / jigsaw blade spine,
BRKT Mikro spine,
Carbon Steel Erikkson Mora #1260 spine.

The AG Russell Field Knife i used in the pic is a little pricey to be using for a striker. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Good luck!

M <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

THAT explains it... I hold the bar/flint still and close to my tinder, and scrape it with a section of hack-saw blade, toward the tinder, not as big a spark shower, but it still gets the job done, but thanks for the explanation <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

Troy

Looks a lot like the Boy Scouts of America Hot Spark Fire Starter but for 5 times the price.

http://www.scoutstuff.org/
At search option enter HOT SPARK FIRE STARTER or
use the part number WW01167 $2.35

I can't remeber who asked me about my Metal Matches but I receives them last week and they were coated. That's a pretty thick coating too ... I was surprised.