Posted: 10/8/2014 8:01:46 PM EDT
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Guys-
Don't know if you guys have noticed or not, but the common magnesium fire starters on the market are becoming Chinese . These are the rectangular ones with a flint insert along one side and a hole with a ball-chain thru it). These fire starters were originally made for the military by the Doan Company, and were also sold under the Coghlan's brand as well as a few others who repackaged them under a different name. Well, as you'd expect, with interest in Survival at an all time high, the Chinese have gotten into the magnesium firestarter market...... and they are selling their product to the companies that used to sell the Doan firestarters under their own label. The Chinese firestarters have a harder alloy that is a little harder than the Doan units to get shavings off of. When ignited, the Doan shavings burn WHITE F*CKING HOT and burn completely out. The ChiCom firestarters, while they seem to catch the spark readily, don't flare up like the Doan shavings do. They kind of burn individually in a chain and leave red hot glowing metal that stays hot for quite a while. I do think both will start your fire, but you need more of the Chicom shavings to get an easy ignition. The easiest way to tell if the firestarter you are looking at is Chinese or not is if it is bead blasted. The American ones will have a cast/extruded finish with stamped information on the side, the Chinese ones will typically have a matte rough finish. The Chicom ones tend to have a really shitty piece of hacksaw blade on the lanyard that has so much hard paint on it that it isn't sharp enough to scrape the shavings off. FWIW, Cheaper than Diamonds has the original US Military firestarters available right now for $5.97 a pop, which isn't a bad price if shipping is reasonable. Locally, the Coghlan's sell for $7. http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/ZWA-745 Couple of notes about using magnesium firestarters: 1) The shavings are light, so find a way to shield them from the wind 2) have a stable surface to strike your flint at the shavings or you'll hit the shavings and spill them all over 3) Duct tape is a great surface to shave on because the shavings stick, and duct tape burns REALLY WELL. 4) You can make envelopes of duct tape to hold shavings for later use 5) The best shaver/striker you can get is a cheap hacksaw blade-the cheaper the better. Break on off as long as the magnesium and store it on the lanyard. 6) Store a pencil sharpener on the lanyard-dry sticks are everywhere and the sharpener will make great tinder out of them 7) You can cut bicycle innertubes into 1" squares, put a hole in the center, fray one edge, and store them on the lanyard as fuel-they are waterproof like the duct tape and burn long and hot 8) Most wooded areas have at least one pine tree-they all leak sap from somewhere, and that sap burns beautifully. Get while the Gettin's good guys, My guess is that these aren't being made here anymore. |
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IMO, a better alternative is a ferro rod and a small container of cotton balls with petroleum jelly worked into them. The PJ cotton balls catch a spark well once you tease out the fibers and burn long enough to get your kindling going. And the best striker, hands down, is the awl/reamer blade on some models of Swiss Army Knife, like the Pioneer. This isn't an all-in-one package like a mag bar, but it's much easier to use, in my experience. |
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Quoted:
http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server2900/474c8/products/63/images/302/firesteel-scraper__81981.1405353026.450.450.jpg?c=2 These things work well. What is that? |
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Quoted:
What is that? Quoted:
Quoted:
http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server2900/474c8/products/63/images/302/firesteel-scraper__81981.1405353026.450.450.jpg?c=2 These things work well. What is that? Usually some carbon steel file type material that's been squared and set in a plastic thumb handle, for easy striking of our ferro rods. Chris |
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Quoted: What is that? Quoted: Quoted: http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server2900/474c8/products/63/images/302/firesteel-scraper__81981.1405353026.450.450.jpg?c=2 These things work well. What is that? http://firesteel.com/firesteel-super-scraper |
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There was a similar thread about this a few months back, and it prompted me to check mine, and it was china junk. I sourced a genuine Doan from Amazon. Would never have thought twice about it if it weren't for threads like this.
Archived Thread ETA updated link, good videos and other info not already in this thread. |
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Quoted:
IMO, a better alternative is a ferro rod and a small container of cotton balls with petroleum jelly worked into them. The PJ cotton balls catch a spark well once you tease out the fibers and burn long enough to get your kindling going. And the best striker, hands down, is the awl/reamer blade on some models of Swiss Army Knife, like the Pioneer. This isn't an all-in-one package like a mag bar, but it's much easier to use, in my experience. +1 on the ferro rod. I would even take a single ferro rod and quality striker vs. a mag bar. I always carry a zippo but a ferro rod is my favorite fire starting method. A litlte practice goes along ways. |
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