I don't blame you Izzy, it's really not that big but it's prone to failures (unacceptable). I just like the UST rods they use over the Swedish rods, I have both but I don't know if it's a higher magnesium count in the steel or what, but I can really catch a lot of stuff on fire with a blast match than I could with my light my fire steel. I just gutted a blastmatch for the rod and use a hacksaw blade and it's rock solid and 2X the diameter of my light my fire steel. I'm definately a blast match steel rod believer.
The draw (According to what I asked the guys at CountyComm) to the FireSteel is the "tree ring" like design. Apparently it's steel, flint, steel, flint, steel, flint. I guess the aim is to be able to throw out scraps of steel that get ignited by the flint as you strike it. And as we all know most metals, alloys included, when in thin shavings or crushed up form, will burn. Hence why steel wool ignites.
I think all of the fire starting equipment out there that's ferro-rod/blast match and swedish firesteel all have an obvious added amount of magnesium to create more sparks. Anyone who has ever used pure flint knows it doesn't spark as much as the fire starting equipment on the market does.
I think even lighter flints are 20% magnesium or something along those lines.
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