I took some pics of the fero rod, but unfortunately I did not first look at the details of this board to find out that you must have personal webspace to host the pics on. Unfortunately, I do not.

I'm sure the firesteel will work. I just received it today and will try it out soon. However, being a newbie I wasn't sure if the "official FireSteel" brand was superior to others. So I paid over twice as much as for a different model at another dealer, thinking the extra money might buy me a better quality firesteel given that this one was advertised as the "Swedish army model". But now I don't know if (1) there really is any difference, and (2) if I was ripped off.

[EDIT]
After writing the paragraph below, I heard back from the dealer. They plan to send me the good paracord to replace the fiber-core stuff. So my faith in the dealer has been restored and I no longer am concerned about the firesteel - which I never really had much of a reason to suspect, except in concert with the paracord issue. Thanks to all who helped by responding.
[/EDIT]

I feel I was ripped off on the paracord. I received the fiber-core cheap stuff instead of what I paid extra for, and was advertised thusly:

[EDIT]
... truncated remainder of original comments about ordering 550 vs. delivery of cheaper stuff ...
[/EDIT]