Square Ferro Rods?

[Bishop]

Youtube coughed up an interesting video today from way-back in 2013 for Square Ferro rods link
A bit of Googling later, still in the dark. They exist, some have tried them and the blanks are available yet strangely finding one on the likes of Ebay, Amazon, even Ali-express is proving fruitless.

It's got me curious. Is there some reason why they have not caught on?

 

[Hammock_man]

I once took a round one and filed it square..... well when I say filed it square I mean to say I tried to file it square.... well when I say filed it I mean I tried to file it... well when I say a lot of sparks I mean a real real ... real lot of sparks.......Then came the flames and ... well does anyone have a spare garden shed and a use for loads of flat straight charcoal ???

 

[Woody girl]

Oops! Shed load of trouble there. Have you thought of taking up art. I believe they use long straight bits of charcoal to draw with.

 

[bopdude]

If you don't mind ordering from overseas or have a muke.

https://firesteel.com/square-firesteel-3/

 

[C_Claycomb]

I can think of a number of reasons why they haven't "caught on". The biggest one is that round is easier to make and already has market share, so square would have to offer some significant benefit in use. I can't see any benefit in use. The chap in the video spends most of the time talking about how this square rod solves "this problem" but I had to play the video a couple of times while trying to work out what problem he was talking about. To save anyone else, he said that "some contestants on *tv survival show* have had trouble keeping up with their ferro rods". Which judging by the rest of what he said simply meant that they had a round rod with no handle or cord and it was easy to lose or have roll away.

Doesn't feel like this is a problem that demands that the rod shape be changed.

I also think than a square rod is going to be less effective at producing sparks than a round, for the same reason it is easier to take a big shaving off with a curved blade, or from a rounded stick than a planed surface, force concentrated in a smaller area.

Yeah, you could scrape on the corners, and then you would have an octagon, and then something with 16 sides, and that is essentially round again.

 

[Toddy]

Like making feather sticks I reckon; it always comes back to roundish.

 

[Jared]

Believe they come from JxMetals... they're on b2b alibaba but not on b2c aliexpress.

http://www.jxmetals.com/sdp/316680/...ium_Square_Rod_or_Ferrocerium_Square_bar.html

Edit; And the SAK firefly ones for replacing with toothpick... are squareish I guess
https://tortoisegear.com/product-category/all-products/firefly-fire-starters/