The Metal Match that you displayed is cool and fun, but seems like the biggest toy of them all.

I thank you for the pics! I will post some pics of my stuff after some gear I ordered arrives. I see you have some mischmetal ferro rods from Firesteel.com. Those are my favorite.

When I talk about fire starters on a survival forum, I like to talk about products that will be reliable in extreme conditions. Realistically, there is likely to be at least one person to read this thread and actually need a fire starter for a life or death situation.

The following is my unsolicited opinion to be taken with a grain of salt. I don't have confidence in matches of any kind. I don't want them as part of my three essential fire starters, but matches are so common because everybody knows how to use matches, right? The piston devices that you displayed seem a little gimmicky and overpriced to me, in comparison to ferro rods. The Metal Match that you displayed is cool and fun, but seems like the biggest toy of them all. The Survival Spark (not shown) was appealing to me for awhile, but now that also seems gimmicky. Lighters like Bics and Zippo (not shown) are OK to carry along for starting fires in nice conditions, but they don't inspiring high confidence in the reliability department. Again, my mindset is extreme conditions.

Ferro rods, which I own and use, seem to be the best combination of ruggedness, reliability and versatility. Generally, for any situation, I have high confidence in carrying the following: 2 Peanut Lighters, 2 ferro rods, 2 scrapers and some pre-made tinder (e.g., cotton balls and petroleum jelly). I also have confidence in flares, but I realistically don't imagine me carrying flares on my person.

I don't have confidence in matches of any kind.

An example of my regular extreme condition is snowboarding off piste near the top of Whistler during January. I've read that a butane lighter is bad at high altitudes. I'll get one just to test it out, but I won't make it part of my big three...yet.

You could repack the wick in the striker of your "wet" match, you should find a metal tab that is removable to hold the new material. Twist up your own cotton yarn or try using cotton gauze or maybe even cotton butcher string.
Try a few different materials, it could be a survival need .

BTW
where did you get all the different fire pistons and how well do they actually work? I would not consider one as an actual survival
device but I'm still interested in the collector aspect.

Thanks

Chicago, please describe how you made the handle on that ferro rod you said you "normally carry". It looks simple, but I've never seen it before.

It looks like he stuck a wire terminal on the end.

Craig, I was curious about your pen piston, I had read they were hard to get an ember and difficult to clean. I was wondering what your. opinion on the pen piston and the viability of it. Oh. And I like your selection of knives, yard knives are very good. Thanks.

Exotac nanoSTRIKER - again, definitely gear bling. Also, cute but not something I would take with me into the wilderness.

Really? Why not?

Exotac products seem like they're rugged, but just too overpriced for the way I do things.

The rod is tiny and the striker is very small - a bit of a challenge to use (for me anyways) with gloves on. A Ranger or Armageddon tube (firesteel.com) gives me a better warm and fuzzy feeling.

ChicagoCraig, how are the ferro rods secured in the tubes? With some kind of bolt?

I don't know for sure but when I asked if the steel were replaceable the reply was yes and they are glued into the cap. To replace heat the cap up and the glue loosens its grip from the fire steel. The glue recommended to me to use for securing a replacement steel was gorilla glue.

I had a blastmatch, and if you use it enough, you will notice the striker tab gets pushed down more and more each time (after ALOT of use) and it becomes harder to close, and it eventually breaks off, which sucks!

Some of you may have seen this, but there's an interesting discussion about rods vs. Lighters on bugoutbagquest.

The link to the post is here - the discussion is in the comments below the main post.

http://bugoutbagquest.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-to-use-to-start-fire.html

I tend to agree with much of what Firesteel.com has said. However, my three means for fire making are two ferro rods and one lighter. I don't trust matches, and I trust a Bic lighter a little bit more than I trust matches. Ferro rods are the most rugged, even if not the easiest to use. For folks concerned about the weight of a ferro rod, come one now. All ferro rods are not the same. There are small ferro rods that have negligible weight such that its value far outweighs the weight cost.

For tinder, the heavyweight champion is cotton balls infused with Vaseline (Burt's Beeswax lip balm if not Vaseline). I'm not 100% sold on magnesium, but that's probably more of a personal thing. I need to practice more with magnesium to gain more confidence.

Just added a lighter to my tool collection. The manufacture claims a thirty minute continuos burn time from a full butane charge. I will most likely carry this with me.