[LaRemnant]

Oh my GOD! I just saw the fire steels sold on this site (Bunker/Armageddon). You could hit someone over the head with one of those! I am going to buy the pack of 5 with differing sizes. Oh my God those were the fattest sticks I ever seen!

Great gifts for a friend of mine fo sho.

[dsrthnd]

Received my firesteel yesterday and within 3 minutes had dryer lint blazing away....great tools and solves the problem of "what happens when my lighter runs dry/ my matches won't light"

[Seldomseen]

Ron-

I just received my Firesteel "5 Pack" and opened it here at work. WOW!! Major sparks the third time I tried it and every time afterwards!! What a great product!! Thanks.

Seldom

[plamarre]

I teach Hunter Education and Bowhunter Education as well as Snowmobile & ATV Safety for the State of Maine. I have been using the Firesteel (ARMY Model) for a couple of years now, with a good shower of sparks, you can ignite a tablespoon size pool of hand sanitizer. It burns very clean, the flame is nearly invisible due to the alcohol content. I have the kids in the class shave up some white birch bark into fine tinder, and let them take turns igniting small piles of tinder. One youngster that I take icefishing, wore his "fishing sounder" clipped to his jacket (like I do while fishing) to school. The teacher confiscated it thinking it was a roach clip, the third grader had more experience ice fishing than his teacher did

[Woodsman]

A easy way to remove the black coating is to use a piece of fine grit sandpaper. Wrap it around the fire steel and GENTLY & SLOWLY twist ( I had a piece of sandpaper catch on fire while I was doing this ). Takes the coating off real easy.

[Robert]

I just got my fire steels this past weekend.I read a post on how
I should pull the steel toward me, I tried that instead of pushing the striker down toward the tinder, right away I started to get more sparks. I'm new to this forum, I really enjoy reading all the good information.




i

[stairman]

Welcome aboard Robert!

[Leroy]

Just recived my firesteel from Ron, first try with some dryerlint and fire.
Great product, had my 7 year old boy give it a try and he as well got sparks and fire, be it about 20 pulls later, but he did it and started the lint on fire.
Leroy

[garret]

i used cotton balls soaked in wax (melted candle ends) they are bloody brilliant and burn for about 5-7 mins

[crazydave]

I got one of these years ago when I worked with the swedes and have been using the civvy versions for about 10 years now and have found that the lmf strikers kept changing but not for the better. the fact they have a handle I think works against them and were just an excuse to sell them shorter. I see a lot of bushcrafters with unevenly worn out steels. the trend for making loops in your sheath for them is asking for trouble when they start to wear away. ray mears apparently used to chuck them into the school kit and take a new one out all the time. and he used a proper one as he got them from the swedes before lmf became a trading entity.

the strikers I find work better with a flat sharp edge not a set of teeth, either grind them away or use the striker the other way round.

the two best strikers I've found are cheap steel rulers and the back of victorinox wood saw blade. you dont need any effort just a gentle strike.

something else that works is glass from a broken bottle or a fresh cut piece. I'd heard about it but didn't believe it till I tried it with a bit of broken mirror.

technique is as important as a lousy striker or using a knife spine (another trend) just shaves the flint with no spark and leaves a pile like a magnesium block.

I find that plenty of practise lighting everyday stoves like the gas or alcohol stoves give you an easy style. mors kochanski can even light a candle off one but I've yet to master that.