I purchased one of these recently:
http://lightmyfireusa.com/firesteelknife.html
It's a folding knife with a fire steel housed in the handle. Thought you might like my humble opinion of the thing:
The first thing I noticed was the light weight and rather cheap feel. the plastic handle feels rather flimsy and can be bent and twisted to some extent with the fingers.
The blade seems to be fair quality, with a nice smooth single handed opening movement. After 5 minutes whittling, the edge seemed to retain it's edge well. The folding lock seems to jam slightly after hard use though and requires a heavy thumb pressure to release.
The fire steel is well fixed into the handle with a tight fitting rubber O-ring. You can even wrap some cotton wool tinder around the steel within the water proof compartment. The fire steel strikes a good flash of sparks on the back of the blade.
The clip on the handle makes it rather uncomfortable for any prolonged use.
In summary, the knife is OK for a backup tool in a survival kit perhaps, but not for any serious use. For the price, I was disappointed. At around £30, you are paying for the novelty rather than the quality. It should be around the £20 mark max.
http://lightmyfireusa.com/firesteelknife.html
It's a folding knife with a fire steel housed in the handle. Thought you might like my humble opinion of the thing:
The first thing I noticed was the light weight and rather cheap feel. the plastic handle feels rather flimsy and can be bent and twisted to some extent with the fingers.
The blade seems to be fair quality, with a nice smooth single handed opening movement. After 5 minutes whittling, the edge seemed to retain it's edge well. The folding lock seems to jam slightly after hard use though and requires a heavy thumb pressure to release.
The fire steel is well fixed into the handle with a tight fitting rubber O-ring. You can even wrap some cotton wool tinder around the steel within the water proof compartment. The fire steel strikes a good flash of sparks on the back of the blade.
The clip on the handle makes it rather uncomfortable for any prolonged use.
In summary, the knife is OK for a backup tool in a survival kit perhaps, but not for any serious use. For the price, I was disappointed. At around £30, you are paying for the novelty rather than the quality. It should be around the £20 mark max.
