Not trying to hijack this thread, but years ago I read an article about colors. Guy took different colored cards into his darkroom, then had people come in, and he flashed light at the cards, different colors, different light intensity, different lengh of time for the light. The color the vast majority of people could pick out with the least amout of light? Blue. Baby blue in fact. So that was the color I painted my front sight (worked a lot of graveyard shifts back then)...

Absolutely. I have ferro rods that I have broken deliberately. One is designed to fit in a small PSK tin. Another I carry in a money belt. They are about an inch long; that's enough to make sparks and start a fire, at least under reasonable conditions. I appreciate that with cold hands it won't be as easy, but these are backups stored in places that a full-sized rod would not fit.

Just to let you know, I purchased the smallest version of the Firesteel and put it on my key ring (slightly smaller than my auto key). I added some plastic tubing (sourced from an aquarium shop) to fit over. I left a tiny bit at the end to make it easier to pull off when I want to use it.

I dispensed with the lanyard string and striker. My Spyderco Salt-1 knife works quite well to create sparks. Since the blade is H-1 steel, I tried the steel from the locking back. It works perfectly.

The following is a close up picture of my EDC keyring including Photon light and S4 Squirt minitool.

I EDC a hotspark on my aloz farmer lanyard. The back of the alox farmer saw blade works great. I actually use it with the saw in the closed position. No sense accidentally cutting myself. I haven't had to rely on this yet.

When going outdoors, I carry the larger Swedish firesteel in my pocket attached to a clip that is attached to my belt. The back of a Fallkniven F1 throws huge sparks.