I looked at the Sparklites (or equivelant) available on the Triple Aught Design website (i.e. the one in OD green and the orange one) and I'm almost certain they are plastic (not the metal ones). Can anyone confirm they only have plastic Sparklites?

I'm a newbie and do not understand something about lighter terminology. Very knowledgable persons on this website will state that they get "hundreds of sparks" out of their Sparklites? When they say sparks, do they mean strikes? I ask because I get many dozens, if not hundreds "sparks" each time I strike the sparklite.

My last question deals with the shelf life of the lighter flints. I remember having problems many years ago with a couple lighters where the flints broke up over time, and acutally ruined the lighters by causing the striker to bind. I remember being told then that lighter flints (such as Zippo and Ronson) go bad over time in that they break up. I just noticed on the Zippo website that they now expressly give a lifetime guarantee on their flints (which I thought could mean that at least Zippo has fixed the problem). Has anyone had a problem with flints going bad in their Sparklites? If so is there a shelf life to the Sparklites?