Light My Fire Scout Fire Steel Vs Popular Auction Site Equivalent??

[AbermuleSkipper]

Hi,

I run a Scout troop and want to get the Scouts into practising with a firesteel, I can see that light my fire do a "Scout" fire steel but they are quite a bit more expensive than the popular auction site equivalent from parts of Asia.....

Are the light my fire ones easier to use, as in easier to get sparks from for little hands and not quite so much effort or are the auction site equivalent good enough and easy enough to use??

Hope this should spark some responses

Regards,

Dave.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Get the cheap ones mate. little or no difference in performance.

 

[AbermuleSkipper]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the quick response, I'll check over the auction site and see what's good value for money....

Light my fire ones can be 4 times the price of the alternatives, what justifies them this price hike, is it just the name?

 

[Beefy0978]

Fleabay for about £1.99 delivered work just fine. In actual fact they're a bit bigger and easier to hold. It's exactly what the local school use with 10 year olds if that helps.

 

[SimonM]

I have found that cheap ferro rods are often, but not always, cheap for a reason.

Some of them refuse to spark at all, others produce some sparks, others are so soft that they just "peel" instead of sparking.

These days, I only buy L M F "Army" fire steels...they are thicker and longer than the Scout model and always produce good quality sparks.

Have a word with the guys up at Tamarack, they give good discount to Scouts.

Simon

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

they will tell you their chemical composition is different and it probably is to an extent but they all light fires reliably. almost all of the steels are made by one Chinese manufacturer but they have a few variants.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

I have a couple of 'Light my fire' steels and there brill.
I bought some of the cheap ones from various places and there carp. Sometimes they refuse to spark and just end up with a pile of metal shavings.
Had my LMF scout now for 5years ish and still going strong.
Regardless of which you get make sure you have a good striker that is easy to hold and use.

My favorit from top to bottom. Somewhere i also have an Aurora but not keen on that either.
My steels pictured along side my favorit striker.

 

[AbermuleSkipper]

I am after some easy to use for kids of about 10...

Not sure if your allowed to but can you tell me what seller you got yours from?

Fleabay for about £1.99 delivered work just fine. In actual fact they're a bit bigger and easier to hold. It's exactly what the local school use with 10 year olds if that helps.

 

[AbermuleSkipper]

Thanks for the information.

I will also look up Tamarack

Cheers,

Dave.

I have found that cheap ferro rods are often, but not always, cheap for a reason.

Some of them refuse to spark at all, others produce some sparks, others are so soft that they just "peel" instead of sparking.

These days, I only buy L M F "Army" fire steels...they are thicker and longer than the Scout model and always produce good quality sparks.

Have a word with the guys up at Tamarack, they give good discount to Scouts.

Simon

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

the ones that dont spark well are generally magnesium rods with a small ferrocerium insert. these should be avoided

 

[AbermuleSkipper]

Do you have a preferred seller from Flebay?

the ones that dont spark well are generally magnesium rods with a small ferrocerium insert. these should be avoided

View attachment 13847

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

I tend to buy blanks and make my own but these will be fine

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-SWEDIS...Domain_3&var=550188565766&hash=item3a7acca8e1

it really is hard to go wrong. i would echo the advice about the striker being important. The green hacksaw blade ones need a little wearing in as they are powder coated. i make my own scrapers from scraper blades that i grind till they are blunt. they even come with a hole for your chord. i get two scrapers from each of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-x-4-I...852?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3368347ea4

my advice would be to start the kids off on cotton wool & vaseline till they have good technique as its quite forgiving then work on other stuff

 

[BBH-Skip]

The only fire steels I have used are the ones which come in the issue matchless fire tins (think they are made by BCB) as I can get them from work.

I haven't used anything else so can really offer advice except for saying my scouts can get a spark from them.

Mark

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[shortymcsteve]

Someone on the forum posted a link to these not long ago, i was thinking of buying the 2 pack. Not sure how good they are tho?
I bought a karrimor one from Sports Direct when they were going real cheap and it was pretty poor.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Someone on the forum posted a link to these not long ago, i was thinking of buying the 2 pack. Not sure how good they are tho?
I bought a karrimor one from Sports Direct when they were going real cheap and it was pretty poor.

yep i have personal experience with those ones and they are just fine. In my experience most of the time these things dont work its down to operator error or poor choice of striker.

 

[BBH-Skip]

How do you mount them in a handle? Or do you not, and just hold the rod?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

How do you mount them in a handle? Or do you not, and just hold the rod?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

you can use them just fine without a handle if they are long enough to hold properly. to fit a handle just drill and 2 part epoxy it in.

 

[BBH-Skip]

you can use them just fine without a handle if they are long enough to hold properly. to fit a handle just drill and 2 part epoxy it in.

Brilliant. Have been wondering for a while. Thanks for the tip

Mark

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2 - I need to get rid if thus stupid line!

 

[AbermuleSkipper]

Thanks for all the replies with this....

Give's me something to go on....

I think down to restrictive budget I will go with the fleabay equivalents....