I had 2 original "Metal Matches" with the orange plastic end. One I used to make fires and light camp stoves, the other I kept as it was received. I left the used one in a drawer for several years and all that was left was grey dust and an orange piece of plastic. The second one, I put a heavy coat of clear laquer on, it is still intact after 30 years. I have never used it.
On my Firesteel I keep a piece of heat shrink tubing. Any strikes and I recoat it with clear laquer and put it back in the tube. As soon as feasible. It takes quite awhile before they corrode to dust.

In a few weeks, I'll be posting a series of videos to www.magfireusa.com that shows - exactly - what to do. My day job has been really hectic, and I've not has the time to do it.

Suffice it to say that man-made tinder trumps any natural tinder you find 80% of the time. Basically, you can mess around with shaving dry sticks and all that, and scratch and scratch to get a flame, or you can toss an oil-soaked cotton ball into a puddle, hit it with a spark and WHOOSH the flames start. Really. I just did a test on this very method yesterday - I dug a small hole, dumped in some water, three an oil soaked cotton ball into the little puddle and lit it with one spark of a Magfire.

If you don't have the advantage of man-made tinder, you need to have fine, dry "wispy" bits of dry stuff - grass is particularly good, but some shreds of dry bark and bits of tiny wood will be a start. You need to hold your striker edge pretty still and pull the firesteel back - this concentrates the spark in one general area. Press HARD on the striker - you want bits of metal flying off and sparking in your tinder pile.

The other advice you have here is good, I'll annouce the videos when I have them online.

Yeah, the included scrapers are a "backup" for a knife. Remember that the scrapers have a "hook" edge - you can feel it and that's the edge you should be using.
I've been talking to the guys in Finland about the scrapers, and they seem to feel that anyone carrying a Magfire will have a knife - and that the knife is a greatly preferred scraper. The back edge of a knife is a good choice as well.

Ah. Didn't know about the special edge. I'll try it.

In the mean time, mostly just to see how long it would take, I've been putting a knife edge on one of the included strikers. I'll post pics when I'm done, but already it works a lot better. Which isn't surprising, really, since it's becoming more like a knife.

I haven't done any formal testing yet, but so far I notice that the sparks seem to last longer. And they seem to be hotter. I can actually feel the heat as I scrape, which is something I haven't noticed with other fire steels. Again, could be just me, but I think I see a difference.

If you are filing an edge on the strikers, try filing a curved area. On my Swiss tool I've filed the inside curve of the bottle opener to work as a striker. It gets more surface area in contact with the fire steel.

Oooh. Good point. Thanks!

In fact, I guess a half circle cut out of the striker, then sharpened like a serrated edge would be best.

Edit:

Ya know... given that the preferred technique seems to be "hold the striker, move the steel", what do you all think of a striker designed specifically for this. I'm thinking a rectangluar piece with a hole near one end. The edges of the hole are sharpened, and the hole is, say, 2 or 3 inches from one end (to position the sparks over the tinder). There'd be just enough metal above the hole to use to hold the striker. To use, simply position the striker, insert the steel, push down and pull back.

I havent exactly got the best technique, I haven't done much of holding the striker and moving the steel. I started the by holding the fire steel and moving the striker towards the tinder. I haven't spread my tinder out by hitting it by accident yet but I have been close, so holding the striker makes a lot of sense.
Having the curve in the striker (or a V type groove) seems like a good way of keeping everything aimed as well as getting more surface area creating the sparks. I'm not really a fan of using the serrated edge, I am more likely to use that to make tinder scrapings. I prefer either the straight or curved edge for sparking even if it does need a little more pressure.
My EDC is always a Multi tool as the striker and a small fire steel with magnesium on my keyring. (a bit smaller and easier to carry than the Magfires)
My Magfires and some other firesteels are stashed in various grab bags and kits that I use.

I have recently got a couple of these fire starters to play with but I havent had a serious play yet. They are called "The Aussie Survival Tool" The wooden handle is designed to be tinder as well as the magnesium. Its an oily type of wood. (somehow I seemed to have built a small collection of firestarters)
www.the-firestarter.com

If I may add to that...

With some natural tinder it helps to get a knife and scrape it up, so you have either a fine powder or thin strands. Basically you want to get it finely divided so it gets hot before it conducts the heat of the spark away. A lump of wood, even most sawdust, is too big to heat up with a spark. If it doesn't get very hot it won't light.

I agree artificial tinder is best. On the other hand, you can only carry a finite amount so it becomes a bit like carrying a lighter with a finite amount of fuel, or a finite number of matches. A ferro rod is most important as a way to start an almost unlimited number of fires. So it's worth learning how to use "found" tinder - plants, or, in an urban environment, paper and cardboard - to get the most from it.

Bee,

Great question! My 11 year old twins have been working on this skill. Even with fluffed up cotton balls they have trouble getting the cotton ball to light. The first problem they have is getting a good spark. As has been mentioned; either the scrapper is dull or they are not scrapping at a good angle to make sparks. Once they get a good scrapper and technique going their next problem is not getting the sparks close enough to the cotton ball. As has been mentioned you have to hold the scrapper and pull the ferro rod toward you. When you get ready to make the spark the scrapper has to be within ½ inch of the tinder. My boys have worn out a few BS Hot Spark ferro rods working on this skill.

As a side note:
I went camping with my oldest son last weekend in northern Arizona. It was down to 32 in the morning. There was dew on the pine needles and leaves in the morning when I got up and wanted to make a fire. There was no dry natural tinder. But there was a pine tree stump near by. It was a natural stump that had split in an uneven way leaving fingers of fat wood sticking up. I was able to kick off some fat wood sticks. I took one and scrapped the side with a knife to make a half dollar size pile of pitch wood shavings. There was a small log in the fire pit. I placed a pitch wood stick against the log, sticking up. Then I put the pile of pitch wood shavings at the bottom of the pitch wood stick. Then I placed some more sticks against the log to form an A around the pitch wood stick. I was able to then use my County Comm Metal Match to make sparks to light the pile of pitch shavings. I use the back edge of the saw on my Leatherman Charge Ti as the scrapper. The fire from that set the pitch stick on fire. The fire from the pitch stick caught the other sticks on fire and I had a sustainable fire going with little effort; a kick, some scrapping and sparking. I did not use any natural fluffy tinder. Such things would have been wet. Northern Arizona does have what some people call “fire weed” that will catch a spark, if it is dry. For one handed use: stick the knife in the ground and scrape the fat wood and ferro rod against the knife blade.

I finally figured out that the most important thing is to have appropriate tinder.

I took some dryer lint and sent a spark with my fire steel... WOOPH! It lit up instantly and kept burning for a little while, probably enough to light up small branches in a wilderness situation.

Like someone said previously in the thread, it might not be as efficient as a lighter but it's still better than making a fire bow (friction). <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thank you (and everyone else) for your replies. Always feels good to start some interesting threads with lots of useful replies. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />