Are some Fire Steels better than others?

[The Lord Poncho]

The reason i ask this, is that i recently upgraded (or so i thought) from a small scout sized 'light my fire' fire steel, to a large 'army sized' steel.

This new steel is made by 'Mil Com' and truth be told, was just over half the cost of a similar sized offering from the likes of 'Light my Fire'.

After scraping off the usual black coating, there seems to be a noticeable lack of performance in comparison to my old steel. Scraping with the back of my knife produces plenty of metal shavings, but which often fail to ignite (same with the scrapper it came with, which i try not to use anyhow due to it scoring the steel). It seems the metal is somewhat softer.

Is this my imagination, or have others noticed differences in performance between brands?

 

[SimonM]

In short ...yes - all fire steels (ferro rods) are not created equal!

Simon

 

[FerlasDave]

Yep, I found this out when I bought a webtex firesteel. The sparks are not very easy to make at all without knocking your tinder all over the place when you strike.

 

[leon-1]

I've been playing with allsorts for a while, but I have to say that the light my fire ones do seem to be very good in comparison to others that I have used.

Some of the ones I bought from China are awful in comparison, they actually seem to be made from a harder compound, I have some smaller Austrian ones which are pretty good (comparable to the light my fire scout ones), I have a couple of fireball firesteels which are okay and recently I got some others to play with which I will give a go at the WG.

 

[JonathanD]

The very best ones IMHO are the Woodlore ones. Cheap too and with free P&P.

 

[Paul_B]

I lost my LMF one and bought a vango one. IMHO it was better than the LMF one. It certainly sent a shower of sparks out and lit my gas stove first strike and without me knocking it over like I usually do with firesteels. In my book if I use it without mishap then it is good. Better than the LMF anyway. The term cakchanded was invented for me. See can't even spell it right! bloody keyboard.

 

[ged]

As has been said, there are good ones and not so good ones.

I've always been impressed with the Blast Match which fairly reliably lights things like dry grass with one strike. The main problem that I have with it is figuring out how to open the case if it's a while since I've used it...

But most of the time I just use a gas lighter.

 

[Retired Member southey]

The on and only problem i've encounterd with the blast match is if my tinder is on hard surface, for some reason i just end up flinging the whole lot all over the place, whereas if it's on a soft surface i push the ferro against a stone it seem a lot more stable. strange. good kit though.

 

[BarryG]

Light-my-fire and Fireflash (from Woodlore) seem to be the best in my experience.

 

[The Lord Poncho]

I fear i have wasted my money instead of saving it then! Personal note to oneself for the future!

 

[oslodunc]

Got mine from firesteels satisfied with them.
The sparks burn quite long on them compared to the light my fire i have.

 

[Melonfish]

i upgraded from a mil com to a light my fire, i'll be honest what you describe with the mil com is quite accurate you tend to shave alot of metal off it before it sparks.
the LMF however sparks every single time.

 

[SimonM]

I fear i have wasted my money instead of saving it then! Personal note to oneself for the future!

I get all the Scouts from Tamarack Outdoors. They spark every time

http://www.tamarackgroup.co.uk/index.html

No link, just a happy, return customer.

Simon

 

[Retired Member southey]

I wonder if they would throw better(the poor ones) with a saw back scraper like the nato matchless fire kit ones, i know it's ment for scraping the hexy into a powder but it might increas the speed at which you remove the ferrocium, would that result in hotter swarf from the cheaper rods?

 

[colly]

the cheapest firesteel i bought came with a striker with a V in the end. it is about the best firesteel i have (and i have several in different kit) it gives better sparks than others much more expensive.

 

[Nonsuch]

Several of those on Ebay are rubbish, I got one with a fancy horn handle and the only use it has is being shaved down to a little pile of scrapings that can then be lit using....a LMF firesteel !

NS