I just bought a little emergency tool with a flint on it and I was wondering how to use it. Could someone please check out the website and tell me if it will really work?

http://www.coghlans.com/home.html
go to "signalling devices"
THe thing I got is the orange 5-in-1 survival aid.

I've got that, I didn't like it.

It's not actually a flint, it's a ferrocerium rod, and rather a tiny one. What you do is hit it with a sharpened piece of hard steel, such as a knife. Try it with the back of your knife first, no sense dulling your knife if you don't have to. But you'll probably have to use the sharpened side. Some people carry a piece of hacksaw blade for this purpose. You should see a spark when you strike it. When you know you can produce a spark reliably, get some dry tinder, kindling, and the rest of your fuel, and try to aim the spark at the tinder. When it catches a spark it will ignite, then you can add more tinder and then kindling, and fuel when appropriate.

It's much easier with a bigger ferrocerium rod, like the one on the edge of the magnesium firestarter you can also get from coghlans.

I got a Coghlan orange match safe similar to the one you bought with the small ferrocerium rod. I managed easily to ignite a cotton ball by using the teeth of a hacksaw blade. I had to place it really close to the cotton ball and give a quick strike.

BTW according to my experience these orange match safes from Coghlan are not watertight unless you change the mediocre O-ring. Put a match in it and submerge it in a glass of water for 30 min and you'll see if your match is dry or not.

How exactly did you strike it?

Ferroceriums rod do work and they work quite well even. However, in general, the larger they are the more effective they are. That one is quite small and that may bring up some difficulties.

HappyCamper, I made a mpeg video for you. It's rather dark but hopefully it will give you an idea. You basically have to touch the cotton ball with the rod and apply a pressure with the teeth on the rod and then rub it quickly.

http://membres.lycos.fr/frankieboy/index.html
http://membres.lycos.fr/frankieboy/matchsafe.mpeg

Frankie

I got one that came in a cheapo nalgene bottle knockoff survival kit. I wasn't able to get the tiny rod to spark at all.

I don't know if it was the Coghlans or not, but it looks the same. The rod is glued onto the side though, instead of on the end like in the video in the reply below

The only thing nice I can say about any coghlans gear is that is cheap and found most any where. Other than that I concider it junk. While inexpensive it is far to costly. I would rather spend a bit more and get something that works when it is needed. While I can't say it is so of all their products. Everyone of them that I have seen or operated just wasn't worth the price, effort trying to use or the weight of carrying it.

Burncycle, I bought several match cases with a bar or flint on the side or end. I remember on one of them it wasn't a ferrocerium rod, it was actually made of the material you use to strike matches on. Red phosporus, I think. Can't strike a spark on it, but you can light safety matches on it.

I have encountered one good Coghlans product... their windproof/waterproof matches.

And their Magnesium fire starter... kinda hard to screw that up.

Their tinder kit/fire starter (the one that comes with the permanent match) is the best product I ever saw from coghlans. Their mag-bar fire starter is okay, but you have to pop the fero-rod off and re-epoxy it. The glue they use isn't that great and the rod sometimes falls off.

Thanks all of you for your replies, especially Frankie who was kind enough to make a video for me.