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best fire starter

49K views 28 replies 29 participants last post by  poorman75 
#1 ·
I'm sure there is many different ideas out there but would like a few that I could purchase for a reasonable price. looking for the steel rod type.
thanks
RR2
 
#7 ·
Like some others said: firesteel.com. I've used them for a couple of Year's and am more impressed all the time. The upside to all fire steels is that they are durable and make a lot of fire. The downside is that your fire "preparation" skills need to be good - even better than when you have a match. I'm at the point now where I can light a fire with sparks and just natural materials in most conditions.
 
#8 ·
Fire steels, mischmetal or ferrocerrium rods, are available from Harbor Freight for cheap, also from Sportsman's Guide and Cheaper than Dirt. KameApart and FalApart have them too, but charge more.Then there's always eBay and Amazon.
I prefer the firesteels sold at Boy Scout shops, but they all work fine.
It don't matter where you get them, really, they're all basically the same thing.
Magnesium bars with sparker rods attached are available also, from most of the same places. The Doan's mag bars, as issued in the military, seem to have a higher percentage of magnesium than the cheaper bars. I have both, and do notice a difference, I prefer the Doan's.

Having a firesteel and/or mag bar is only part of the process to fire, though. I like to keep some cotton balls that have been soaked in melted was, 50/50 mix of beeswax and paraffin, to help get things going. It's cleaner than petroleum jelly on cb's, and lights easily and burns a long time. The firesteel will get the wcb going which gives sustained flame for twigs and other tinder, the "tindle" or tinder bundle, and leads on to bigger stuff.
Hope that helps.
 
#11 ·
+1 on the BIC LIGHTER

They are cheap, reliable and don't require me having to screw around with special kindling that will take a spark. Handful of dry sticks -- good to go. Plus, I can buy a whole bag full of Bic lighters for the price of a good firesteel.

Using a firesteel is a good skill to have, and everyone should have a firesteel (or similar) as a backup, but when I go camping/backpacking, I bring a couple bics.
 
#14 ·
Don't throw out the BIC until you salvage the flint.. Put one in a pair of vise grips and
a file( leatherman) and you get a great spark. I have a 35mm film container full of em
The small bags of Frito Lays corn chips are excellent firestarters, as well as a extra
munchy in the knapsack
 
#12 ·
Here is a tip everyone may know but, some may not. You can take an old pill bottle, put a fairly good glob of vaseline in it and then put either cotton balls or dryer vent lint (use cotton balls if you are repulsed by the smell of burning hair) on top of it and you will have a way to start a fire in a driving rain. Pull out the cotton or lint and pinch off a small piece of it and push it down into vaseline and get it good and gooy. Then pull the cotton or lint apart and work the vaseline into it really well. It doesn't take much more than a spark to ignite it if you pull the gob apart and spread it out. The vaseline will keep it burning for quiet a while and give any wet or green tinder time to dry out and burn. I have actually used this method in a life saving situation for a friend. I had never witnessed hyperthermia first hand until my friend got it. It was in the low to mid 30's with rain a snow mixed and we were hunting and soaked to the bone. We were working our way to our dogs and he starts talking and before long his words are making no sense and he's saying stuff that was totally off the wall. He only mentioned about being cold once and that was just "da*n I'm cold". Once I figured out what was going on I found a big fir tree and even thou every limb on it (small dead under side usually makes great tender) was soaked I had a roaring fire in 5 minutes. I then took the hot rocks closest to the fire and wrapped them in my 2 wet shirts and made him hold them under this armpits. Had I not had my "premade tender" goo there is no telling what might have happened so keep some "goo" with your fire starter kit no matter what you use as a starter.

I also second the bic lighter. Even when out of fuel they throw a good spark that can ignite a well thought out and prepared tender bundle.
 
#18 ·
I would also recommend Gerber Bear Grylls fire starter. Although I would usually sway away from endorsed products they have a lot of good reviews for this product.

Light My Fire is a great brand also. It's small and compact which some might find this one to be better than the Gerber. It really depends on your preference and what you like about it.

I found this article which talks more about the best fire starters:
http://deviceraters.com/top-3-fire-starters/
 
#19 ·
I carry the old reliable zippo. extra flints under the felt pad, can use it to generate sparks, can punch a small hole in "someone's" gas tank and re-fill. Use them in Viet Nam, would put a wire hanger on them and dip them in the gas tank.

Just be sure that you don't keep the flints under the pad if your using gas. It causes the flints do dissolve. Tuck them somplace else and gas works fine. Again, even without any fuel, I still have a sparker. Can also with it's reflective surface be used to signal...good lite multi functional tool.
 
#21 ·
Couple of those $1.99 each flint and steel scraper fire starter thinggys? Toss in an altoids or skoal tin of vasaline and cotton balls, if you want to get fancy add a little rubbing alcohol to that mix.... oh and some sawdust.

It'll jumpstart a magnesium block program in the rain. Then again.. if I had to decide, I'd take a mag block and a striker setup. If I were allowed one. I've toyed with all of the above.

My fire kit consists of a pepper container with alcohol laden Vaseline covered cotten, and a flint and steel.

Well... choice one is a zippo with some spare flints and a rosenthol bottle.

:upsidedown:
 
#22 ·
firesteel

I have tried a great many in the last 30 years. But I recently got three items from FireSteel.com that blow's everything else away. First was there Firesteel, it is the best I have ever used. I throw's alot of spark's a long ways and don't have to struggle. The Second, was there MagBar. I started using magbar in the 80's in the marine corps and tried a whol bunch in the last 20 years, but there magbar's are the best I have tried, why? Well, they are built like the old military one's, plenty of true magnesium, that shaves clean and takes spark quick and bright (even after I put water on it). The last thing I took notice of and love is what they call a "toggle". It is a small magbar, with hole's so use as zipper or keeper with ferorod on it. For me if all else fail's I have this on my wool zipper pull and will never loose it. Again, don't through money away, firesteel.com is the best I have seen and tried and I am bet my life on it.
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
I know the OP requested a steel rod type, but I love a good old stormproof lighter. In a survival situation it might not be ideal, because it might be difficult to come across butane, but a tank lasts ages (a mate smokes a pack a day and carries it with him all the time and claims that he only has to refill every 3 months.)

Taking that into account, with a can of butane (300g) in your pack, it would last you years. Albeit, it would add a bit of weight.

Something to think about maybe just keeping one for circumstances when other lighters/ flints won't do the trick in extreme conditions.

It costs 50 odd dollars and might mean the difference between getting hypothermia and not.
 
#28 ·
Whatever the spark source you use, it's not really complete unless you have the cotton/dryer lint and petroleum jelly to go with it.

I've used many of the primitive methods and they are all difficult to impossible to accomplish is high winds or rain. The jelly and cotton tinder makes it work anywhere, anytime.
 
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