In addition, the flints used in the current mode of fire starters are highly susceptible to corrosion and/or deterioration from environmental factors, which limits their utility as a survival tool. Fire-starting rods are typically composed of a mixture of rare earth elements (e.g., cerium, lanthanum, praseodymium, and other elements from that family) in combination with iron and/or iron oxide. The elements normally used in the many different compositions of fire-starting flint rods have high standard reduction potentials and have a great tendency to give up their valence electrons. Also, several of these elements—cerium and lanthanum, for example—not only oxidize very easily but decompose in water (and corrode rapidly in warm water). Under conditions where an electrolyte or reagent is present (such as a salt water environment) a flint rod will completely disintegrate within 24 hours. There have been many occasions in which persons needing to use their fire starters have gone to retrieve it, but found only dust in their back packs where their fire starters had been stored. Also, the rods of many types of fire starters (such as the type that has a flint-steel rod mounted on a magnesium block) will react violently when immersed in salt water producing heat and hydrogen gas. This is hardly a desirable attribute, considering that a wet or marine environment is the very type of environment where a survival tool of this type may be needed, especially for emergency responders and military personnel. A fire starter using any type of flint-steel that is not completely sealed from the elements (especially water) is not a practical survival tool in the real world. While it would seem that the problem could be solved simply by making the tool in a fashion to seal up the vulnerable flint rod to protect it from moisture, this simple solution has to date, in fact, completely escaped the survival tool industry.