Pyroflint Super Alloy Firesteel Striker Review

[FGYT]

Cheers for the info mate, I trust they work well with pretty much all rods tho?

Cheers

Jon

yes they work superbly with any rod

 

[mountainm]

mine arrived today with a bulging packet of ranger steels. Very impressed with products, customer service and price. 3 thumbs up.

 

[Shark Tinderbox]

Thanks Jonathan D for the great review.
If you have questions about our PyroFlints™, I’ll be happy to answer them. One question I get ask a lot about is why we have two different types of ferrocerium rods, the Standard and the Durable. I’ll start by saying that there are a few misconceptions about ferrocerium rods:

1. Duncan, from Dorset Woodland Blades, is right when he says that just about every ferrocerium rod sold throughout the world originally came from China, even if they say that they come from Sweden, as in the very popular and well known branded ferrocerium rods, or Switzerland or somewhere else. China is the leading supplier of Mischmetal throughout the world, so even if the ferrocerium rods are extruded from factories outside of China, the Mischmetals formula is Chinese.
2. There are basically two types of ferrocerium rods that we stock Regular and Durable:
   1. REGULAR ferrocerium rods are the industry norm. On a upside: They have a high spark output producing more sparks than the Durable ferrocerium rods: Sparks are much easier to generate than from the Durable sort of ferrocerium rods i.e. there is less striking pressure required to generate the sparks. On the downside: They are a whole lot more brittle than the Durable ferrocerium rods: The sparks will burnout after they have travelled about a foot or so: You cannot, easily scrape the surface of a Standard ferrocerium rod to obtain a small pile of ferrocerium shavings or powder to use as a fire lighting boost, without accidentally causing a spark that will set the whole lot off sooner than you would wish: The Tinder variety that can successfully be used is a lot smaller than the Durable ferrocerium rods, and it need to be drier: Because they are the industry norm they are available to buy from just about everywhere: Standards have a propensity to corrode into a nasty black powder, dissolving away into nothing if they get damp, if placed in or around sea water the will be gone as fast as overnight.
   2. DURABLE ferrocerium rods, on the upside are: Much more resistant to corrosion, being able to withstand much damper and saltier environments than the Standard ferrocerium rods: They are much less brittle than the Standard type: When sparks are produced the burn for much longer, if struck from waist height the sparks will easily land on the floor and then continue to burn for a second or so: The extra burn time allows the Durable ferrocerium rods to be used to ignite a much wider number of Tinder types as with the Standard, as well as ignite Tinder that may be damper: Durable ferrocerium rods can be scraped to produce a small pile of shavings and powder, in a similar way to the Magnesium Fire Starters, and without accidentally igniting it before you are ready, this little pile of shavings can then be ignited in a single go, which is ideal if you need a lot of heat to both dry out a stubborn tinder and ignite it in one go (a friend of mine who is the top honcho instructor at RAF Lyneham, has one of our Durable PyroFlint™ - Priests because it has this ability to be shaved and ignited in one go). On the downside, however: Durable ferrocerium rods require more pressure to produce sparks and there are fewer sparks produced with each strike.

For a more in depth explanation about Standard and Durable ferrocerium rods take a gander at some of the articles I have written on my web site.
I would like to make an offer to all of the members of Bushcraft UK; if you want to place an order with us, give us a bell first on 01634 241 049, mention that you are a Bushcraft UK member and we will work out a good deal for you on your order. Please Note: We have reduced our P&P costs.

 

[shaggystu]

thanks for that ST, a very informative post and a great offer for all of us here at BCUK

cheers

stuart

 

[Turnip]

Mine's arrived! only had a quick play at dinner time but seems a great little bit of kit!

 

[Köld]

This might be old news to everyone but the firesteel from the makers of Morakniv(-ar) come bundled with super strikers.
http://www.moraofsweden.se/morakniv/fire-starter-50.0.191.2
USD16 from ragweedforge - about the same price as an LMF army 2.0 firesteel and one cent more than the firesteel-dot-com Gobspark (http://www.amazon.com/Gobspark-Firesteel-Super-Scraper-Lanyard/dp/B003PNMUWA).