Ah. Didn't know about the special edge. I'll try it.

In the mean time, mostly just to see how long it would take, I've been putting a knife edge on one of the included strikers. I'll post pics when I'm done, but already it works a lot better. Which isn't surprising, really, since it's becoming more like a knife.

I haven't done any formal testing yet, but so far I notice that the sparks seem to last longer. And they seem to be hotter. I can actually feel the heat as I scrape, which is something I haven't noticed with other fire steels. Again, could be just me, but I think I see a difference.