I have often kept a Doans MFS rod in my wallet. I can throw more sparks with the larger rods like the Swedish Firesteel but I get plenty off the little Doans rods for lighting my tinder. Honestly though I do better with a sparklite. I can light almost any tinder (natural or man made) with the sparklite. There is some video of me doing so somewhere in an old thread. The reason why, though the spark lite throws fewer sparks, is because its easy to get the sparklite right up on top of the tinder and "aim" your sparks right where you want them. Ironically I still carry a ferro rod far more often than a sparklite though because I am weary of the plastic and seemingly flimsy construction of the sparklite, though I have never accidentally destroyed one.