I put my hands on a Primus Firesteel. It's a little metal alloy rod attached to a small cord along with a striking plate. I am able to strike the rod and generate a spark, but how am I supposed to light up tinder with this?
The sparks will light most tinder (lint, fluffed up cotton soaked in vasoline, fluffed up tinder quik, and natural tinder). You may have to get it close and spark it several times quickly to light it. Sparks alone don't seem very useful at first, but it's pretty ruggid and it sure beats rubbing sticks together <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
I saw on some websites that some fire steels require you to strike the thing and produce some tiny bits of metal that you light up with a spark afterwards.
Those are magnesium firestarters, which is basically a sparking rod like you've got, but it's attached to a block of magnesium. The magnesium acts as the tinder- you scrape off a small pile of magnesium, then use the sparking rod to light it.
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