Firesteel protection

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TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
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Vantaa, Finland
Various Fe-Ce and related alloys tend to corrode fairly easily. Besides the obvious plastic bags or small water proof containers has anyone tried other protection methods, like light painting, rubber tube, shrink wrap etc. Did anything work?
 
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Erbswurst

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Mar 5, 2018
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I didn't try it, but shrink wrap or especially shrink tube should work if you put it around in bone dry conditions.
The shrink tube presses out the air if it contracts.

If you have enough time you also could ask these Austrian guys here what they recommend. I guess they have the most experience in this case.

 

BigMonster

Full Member
Sep 6, 2011
1,322
220
Manchester
The only corrosion I have experienced was from sweat in my pocket and salt water. Normal water doesn't do anything short term. So all I do is keep my firesteel away from sweaty pockets in the summer. But if you want 100% buy Exotac nanostriker XL and be sorted for life :)
 
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TLM

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Nov 16, 2019
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I have a few with some suspicious coloring. So that Exotac is the Rolls Royce, what is the Lambo?
 

Erbswurst

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Mar 5, 2018
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I guess a Coghlans or UCO match case, plastic with rubber O-ring -- so far you can find a ferrocerium rod that fits in there.
 

MrEd

Life Member
Feb 18, 2010
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www.thetimechamber.co.uk
I didn't try it, but shrink wrap or especially shrink tube should work if you put it around in bone dry conditions.
The shrink tube presses out the air if it contracts.

If you have enough time you also could ask these Austrian guys here what they recommend. I guess they have the most experience in this case.


Shrink tube won’t stop water ingress unless you use glue lined stuff but then you won’t get it off your fire steel easily.

I have used plenty of shrink wrap making automotive looms over the years
 
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grizzlyj

Full Member
Nov 10, 2016
181
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NW UK
Having never noticed corrosion myself, is this a surface kind of thing that scrapes straight off, or will it be entirely eaten up in short order once it starts?
Wouldn't the exotac stuff be ally, so would just corrode shut if left in a moist salty pocket anyway?
 

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,130
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Vantaa, Finland
Looks like Cerium and other rare-earths would corrode first slightly protecting the Iron. So it might lose some of it's pyrophority before iron starts rusting.
 

billycoen

Settler
Jan 26, 2021
704
522
north wales
Salt water do the ferro rods no favours,and sweating does contain a miniscule amount of salt,don't think enough to wreck a ferro though.Also there doesn't seem to be an industry standard,so who knows what really goes into them,perhaps it's the cheap and cheerful ones that are corroding.
 

Kadushu

If Carlsberg made grumpy people...
Jul 29, 2014
873
948
Kent
Simplest thing would be a resealable bag with a sachet of silica gel.
 

MartiniDave

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 29, 2003
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Cambridgeshire
I pinched some particularly garish pink-ish nail varnish from my wife and used that. Helps spot it if I drop it on the ground - that and the blaze orange paradors loops I put on them too.
 

C_Claycomb

Moderator staff
Mod
Oct 6, 2003
7,394
2,412
Bedfordshire
They can need protecting, depending on the environment, how they are carried, or how they are stored and for how long. I have had rods corrode while sitting in a wooden drawer in my house. My friend who does jungle trips says that they all but dissolve in that environment, unless stored in a sealed container.

The corrosion isn't rust, it is pitting with a grey powder residue. They definitely corrode more than plain magnesium.

I see someone thinking that "cheap and cheerful" might be linked to corrosion. This isn't right. The reactive ones corrode. These are the ones that are easy to get a spark from. The ones that you can scrape and scrape and scrape with ever increasing pressure until you eventually coax out a massive hot spark (and scatter your tinder) are the ones that are less likely to corrode, and those tend to be the cheaper ones. Cheaper because they have less of the rarer, harder to work with, more reactive metals in the alloy.

I use clear nail varnish on mine between trips, but then I am not carrying mine all that often.
 

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