Gear Review - Light My Fire Swedish FireSteel

Well I never could get a fire lit with fire steel. And my record still stands at “0″. I tried using the Light My Fire Firesteel in two settings. First in a fire ring with dry leaves, pine needles, and dry grass. I struck it several times with no flame. Plenty of big dazzling sparks, but no flame.

The next setting I tried this in my blacktop driveway. I set up a few small rocks so that when I blew on the kindling it wouldn’t just blow away. Then I shredded small pieces of paper about the size of your pinky fingernail. I then tried lighting them, with no luck. I did get an orange ember color a few times and some smoke, but it wasn’t enough to produce a flame when I blew on it. I tried it dozens of times with no luck.

This product costs about $11 and is very small and weighs nothing. If you don’t have much luck with these type of things then I’m not sure this one will be your magic bullet. But, that doesn’t mean it won’t be useful for you. The Firesteel works well for lighting backpacking stoves, just strike when the fuel is turned on and viola! It is also a great backup should your matches get wet, or should your lighter run out of fuel or stop working. Another good use for this would be to keep some cottonballs rubbed down with vaseline in a zip lock. Striking the Firesteel on one of these would surely cause a ball of fire. I’ve used the cottonball trick a few times as a firestarter. I would highly recommend learning to use this tool for survival situations and I plan on practicing more so I get the hang of it.

Our member Nomad75 has had some luck with steel in the past, and I really love the concept of not needing to depend on matches or lighters. But for me personally, I think I’ll have to stick to them as my primary fire source. I just don’t have the touch.

Add comment July 20th, 2007