Great idea, Brian. That is enough magnesium for a few years of fire, unless you live in a rain forrest. This is a lot better than a small ferro rod glued to a block of magnesium. I had one rod come off the magnesium block. Magnesium shavings definitely increase the effectiveness of a ferro rod.
Still my go to man for reviews. Never a dull moment with you. Thanks for the survival hack. Instead of buying magnesium shavings the rod would serve a better purpose to put in a survival kit or emergency kit. Ingenious my friend ingenious. SEMPER FI
With magnesium..the slitest breeze and pooof..its gone..better to make a depression in the ground to collect the scrapings and then ignite it..thanks for the channel!
That rod is about 1000% better than the mag bar. Of course, that huge ferro rod was also much better than the one glued on a mag bar. I think it would be good to actually have pre-made shavings in a pill bottle or such in a kit to save the aggravation of scraping in a REAL situation.
Like these? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NBCzR0FXhe0.htmlsi=hWz-oRqY7QcRvEJ_ Yes, they are quicker but a rod gives you a LOT more fires in a smaller package.
@SurvivalOnPurpose Yeah, these are great for two reasons, 1. already shaved, and 2. these shavings are larger than what you typically scrape yourself. Good product!
How has no one thought of this before? Wow, this is game changer for starting fire right the neck now. I have already ordered the two pack. Thanks for sharing this with us.
You can buy magnesium shavings in different quantities online. I like that they’re all ready to go, and you don’t need to take time to prep them with your cold, unresponsive hands in a dire situation. For the same reason I carry a small baggie of shavings and wood slivers which you don’t need to take time and prep and are ready to get your fire going. This magnesium rod shown in this very fine video certainly is an excellent option!
That's a bit bulky to be carrying around, though. It might be better to shave a bunch of filings off it and keep a pill bottle (or similar container) of those in you fire kit.
Here I was thinking it would be the primer fluid or plumber's glue. Set my pants leg on fire lighting a piece of rag soaked in priming fluid and arcing a spark with a screwdriver on a car battery. Great times the folly of youth.
While functional (obviously), the magnesium anode rods in water heaters are not pure magnesium, but a composite of magnesium, aluminum and zinc with a minimal (but never absent) mix of iron, nickle and copper. Magnesium rods/bars and even bags of chips for fire starting can be purchased for $10 (double your price, but still cheap) with 99.99% magnesium content. The higher magnesium content allows for hotter sparks with less material used, and less effort. I prefer the bars as I find them easier to store in a kit. So, while your method would be a good knowledge for emergency usage, I would not recommend it as a first off choice, by any means.
as an addition to a basic fire kit I have on a karabiner one if those Aluminum tubes yoy can get your thumb in stuffed with cotton wool balls soaked in melted Vaseline (sticky as heck but 'flame on!) attached to two smaller ones, one with commercial Magnesium powder, the other with crushed Hexamine, all three together Oh My
Never thought of putting a chunk of it in my pack, but I have several scrap pieces of magnesium in the garage left over from the Bugatti Aerolithe we built at the shop. There's a bit of shavings, too. Might as well make use of it! Thanks for the video! 👍
Here's an idea.... take a 3/8 or 1/2 in. Ferro rod and that anode and a 1 in copper pipe and solder them into the pipe. If it works, let's see a video.
Well, to be fair, these are made in a Chinese factory, where they probably buy magnesium by the ton and stamp them out by the thousands. They’re not paying federal income tax or Worker’s Comp. or liability insurance or Many of the other expenses, a small company has to pay here in the US
There is also a two pack of these with dimensions of 4.5” x 1/2”. Do you think the shorter but thicker version would be better for hiking, backpacking, get home bad use? Just thinking it matches closer to my ferro rod dimensions. Ohhhh…. I have seen this in other designs where you drill out the side of the mag rod and slide insert a narrower ferro rod. Glue it in place. Just didn’t think I would be able to DIY this until now. Thanks for the vid and the idea for my next little project.
Actually, I measured this one and it is 5/8" in diameter, not 1/2" like I said. So I like the longer rod so I have more to "get a holt of" but you can always cut these of and 4 if you buy the 2-pack like I did.
