What is the Best Firesteel? 

Fair point

Noice

That goes for anything. The best camera is the one you have when you need to take a picture. The best EDC tool is the one you have when you need to use it.

No shit sherlock

​@doubledrats235 so true. The best Axe is the only one with you. The best computer is the only one you have. The best wristwatch is the one on your wrist.

jelkel25 I designed my fire kit based on redundancy. I always have magnesium on my kit. For those who think all you need is a Bick lighter, Have you ever tried to light a cig lighter when is 30 below and windy?

F Furtado Yes, I have tried to light fires at 30/40 below. I learnt to have two Clippers in my pocket if there's going to be any sort of jazzy weather though you are correct, sometimes even that won't work. A few extra tricks in the fire kit usually helps, petroleum jelly, cotton balls, a small spray bottle of surgical spirit (Good rubbing alcohol), hexi blocks or yesterday's newspaper with a fire steel. I'd rather have the odd extra on me than find things getting desperate.

The tape is a great idea! I have never seen anyone use it for that purpose. Thanks for mentioning that.

Trouble with light my fire is they're kinda small and expensive

+BuckeyeBushcraft L. I AGREE 1000% Stephan !

Funny you mention, my son learned this lesson this week while camping. Great review and must practice in all different climate & wood types.

BuckeyeBushcraft L. Best comment!!! First time I tried to light a fire using a fire steel, I got lots of blisters on my hands ,but couldn't ignite the tinder..... actually I was using "dry" leaves, and grass, that I gathered from the ground, believing they were really dry and ready to use as a good tinder! Then, after watching some videos on RU-vid, I've learned how to collect dry tinder from the trees, pine needles, stuff hanging from the branches, barks, dried bamboo fibers, etc... No matter how good and fancy your equipment is, you gotta try it before going to the woods, and first of all, learn how to make your " dry tinder nest"!!! Good luck to all of you!

I work with a few guys and when I went camping with one of them he was surprised I always use a ferro rod, then we were talking about it at work one day and another coworker said 'i figured I'd learn how to use it when I have to" I laughed. Its really not hard to get a fire going with one if you know what you're doing. Only difference is prep to me. I usually use a 1/2" one since you can get a much bigger spark off the longer rod. but no difference with smallers. I found the biggest difference is what you use to strike. The strikers that come with are hard since its all in your fingers, if you use the spine of a knife you can use your whole hand so its easier. Either way after getting some shavings of tinder I can get a fire going after a few strikes. I always laugh when i see people holding a rod away and launching sparks at their tinder.

+BuckeyeBushcraft L. Amen. Practice is absolutely the key. So many people spend a great deal of money and time looking for the best fire starter out there trying to find a great knife that will be a great striker and a Ferro rod that will strike a ton of sparks and the best tinder that will take the spark and ignite and all of that is great BUT the BEST fire starter, The only fire starter you really need to invest in is YOU. The person. If you don't have the experience and the practice and the muscle memory down you will have a hell of a time getting the ferro, Tinder, Scraper to work. If you do have the practice and experience then you can take some of the crappiest equipment out there and still get it to work. Of course there are exception to that where you will find natural material may end up working better than the man made equipment but again that is only if you have invested in yourself enough to practice.

I do this, too. FAR better than included strikers and with greater options. I grind the spine and spine side edges to expose the steel and grind a point to the blade for gouging holes. Use the spine of the blade for striking. I cut them to be as long as possible for whatever they're carried in. Can also be used for sawing... :-)

jolly fresh harbor freight sells a magnesium striker like shown with a hacksaw blade striker. Not saying buy that one, but that’ll give you an idea of what they’re talking about

What I said

There is a good scientific reason why you and I feel hate/revulsion when hearing the high-pitched nails across a chalkboard sound. A long time ago our ancestors had a predator who made very close to that same sound before/as it attacked from the sky. Although I can't remember the name, scientists said it was a very large bird/vulture/condor-like thing. As I understand it one of our ancestors happened to have been born with a gene mutation that instinctively caused hate/revulsion to the disturbing sound. The next few generations of children also possessed the screech-hating gene. Most of those who survived to reproduce had the mutation as well.

I hope the next purchase is a fire extinguisher and a quality divorce attorney!

Yes buddy

***** I agree.

yep . almost didn't click when I saw it was 10 min but enjoyed the whole video .

You got a new subscriber. I will be checking out your videos for sure.

Agree 100%. The Doan magnesium fire starters are US forces issued and are very high quality and work very well. There are also heaps of cheap, crap chinese imports that barely work, if at all. It's probably this that puts people off the magnesium blocks. Buy quality, buy once.

Zen Viking I bought a DOAN simply because many people said they were crap; tried it out; easy fire first time. Now I carry it, and another large rod of magnesium, with a regular ferro rod. Magnesium is one great way to start a fire in unfavourable conditions. The small rod on the DOAN block is only to light the magnesium, not to light tinder and thus some falsely believe it is an insufficient tool. I don’t rely on one item or one method to get something done.

Just a friendly fyi. Magnesium doesn't burn unless its small shavings. Literally, doesn't burn at all. Some odd chemistry behind it. However, those small shavings do burn HOT.

@@geefreck magnesium has to be small enough to allow oxidation to occur from oxygen in the air. It needs the heat for the activation energy and infinite as well but a solid piece of magnesium shouldn't burn. Also, I've read that a decent amount of those cheap Mg blocks are actually aluminum or alloys and therefore wouldn't work the same.

I have tested the Doan, Coghlan's, and Chinese blocks. Doan are the best. Coghlan's work. RUN AWAY FROM THE CHINA CRAP!!! Only the fire steel is good on the Chinese versions.

Really appreciate that Kathy

If you have skill you don't need overkill when making fires, taking down criminals, or shooting deer.

BlackScoutSurvival That makes zero sense. The military uses weapons that kill 1,000 times over. They have plenty of skill. But everyone use what you want.

+Orang Pendek makes complete sense. If you have skills you would understand

BlackScoutSurvival Okay.

+BlackScoutSurvival I'm not trying to be confrontational but didn't you say the opposite in your building a fire kit video??

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kIwn5VkWkdw.html Watch this video

If you don't have jeans on you could use belly button fluff and fluff from between the toes. Imagine their faces if you busted that one out. Sorry. I couldn't help myself

OMG … Now that cracked me up … true LOL

No bullshit

I'm not trying to insut but I believe a fire starter rod is pointless in a keychain. Better off carrying a lighter in a urban environment These magnesium rods are better suited for wilderness

@@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess I'm in the woods a lot. I travel in wild places a lot. I use the ferro rod I described for virtually all my fires. I'm also in cold weather often, where bic lighters have under performed for me. While I carry a bic lighter in my pack (mostly for lighting my canister stove), I don't trust them as much as a zippo fuel lighter (peanut lighter) or my Ferro rod (which always works, and seeing as how it's on my key chain is always with me). As far as urban environments, I have very little experience with those.

@@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot, I have to ask you a couple of questions that are just nagging at me. First question, why would a person design a fire lighting system for an urban environment? They're in an urban environment. Second question, what is different about the two environments (wilderness and urban) that you would say a Ferro rod is apropriate for one, but "useless" for the other? Don't Ferro rods work in all conditions, never run out of fuel unexpectedly, strike with any hard sharp object, don't blow out with a stray gust of wind, don't require you to hold a valve open to keep them lit, and can easily be used with gloves on, whether your in the country or the city?

S

Maurice419 why not have both? I have a lot of redundancy on my fire kit. Flint and steel, fire steel, storm proof matches, sulfur based home made matches (Vicking matches), different kinds of kindling, Bic lighters, slow burning black powder, etc. The survival situations where you need to start a fire to stay alive are diverse. Have options.

F Furtado I think the point was just one for long term. Thanks

Making a line to increase burn time, outstanding! Thank you for that but of knowledge, simple but efficient

Scott Hill, do their rods work well with high carbon knives? Thank you!

Yes. High Carbon or Stainless, it doesn't matter. As long as there's a sharp 90 degree spine on the knife.

Scott Hill Thank you! =D

LOL, me too. Just ordered two Gobsparks, :-)

Agreed

Outdoor Archives aaaaaa

UST makes the Strike Force too. Same rod but has a long striker. If it breaks, it's still useable. Also has a place to keep tinder.

I love my blastmatch. I've started a huge amount of fires with it, and it usually lights dry fibrous and/or resin baring plant matter in one go. Yes you pretty much need a hard surface, but that's easy to find pretty much anywhere. I have lit thermite with it from a distance just using my finger, but that's generally not on hand anywhere. Lmbo

Blastmatch is great insurance

No. That wasn’t in this video I’ll try

Jay Ruggiero it’s actually the steel that gets scraped. Flint/quarts are two very hard rocks and can scrape off pieces of steel from even the hardest steels. Drive it into char cloth or a dry chaga mushroom, then build the fire.