Hi all,

After reading you guys, I decided to purchase a ferro rod as a fire starting device. I read about the Doan magnesium block and decided that is was a great idea to have the ferro rod and a fire starter attached together. So I bought the Coghlan's magnesium block fire starter (the only one I could find in the stores). After practicing on it for a while, I've got a bunch of questions.

- Is the rod diameter important? On this device the diameter is fairly small, but I still can get a good amount of spark (but I have nothing to compare it to).

- I made a striker with a hacksaw and it works fine. I read somewhere that you could grind and sharpen the back edge of that striker to get another backup "knife". I did that, but now I look at my ferro rod and I wonder if that cutting edge wares down the rod too fast. Is there a quality in ferro rod? Should I remove that cutting edge from the striker? Is my scratching technic wrong?

- Now for the magnesium block. The instructions says to scratch for the size of a quarter of magnesium shaving. So I set myself up to shave that amount of magnesium off the block... That is when I realised that my life depended on my belly button lint if I ever had to start a fire in a survival situation <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.
I was comfortably standing over my work table with a fixed blade knife, it took me 30 minutes to get that amount. If I ever was outdoor with the wind blowing kneeling over a piece of bark in cold weather condition, I never could have done it. Once in a while the knife would hit the table and my magnesium would go flying in the air, imagine in the outdoor in a non controlled or stable environment. So my question on the magnesium block is: Do you really use it? Is it worth it to carry it (because in this case, size really matters)?

My initial setup was having the ferro rod glued to the magnesium block with my striker linked to it. This way the whole fire making device is together. But now I've decided to make a modification.



Attached together now is the striker, the ferro rod (I unglued it from the magnesium block), a straw (the tall one) filled with 2-3 cotton ball and a small straw filled with magnesium shaving (I did not sweat for 30 minutes for nothing). Both straws end are sealed with hot glue. This set up is much lighter than the initial one and I've got some cotton ball with it, the magnesium is also ready for use if needed.

I think the magnesium block will stay at home and be used for refills, unless someone tells me that there are advantages to carry it.

Stefan