Swedish Firesteel
Swedish FireSteel
Ever watch the reality game show Survivor? Every season the biggest obstacle for each tribe is starting a fire so that they can have clean water, cook food, and have some warmth during the cold nights. I purchased this flint stick thinking that when I go portaging I would be able to light a fire without a lighter or matches. Man was I wrong!
All you have to do is scrape the stainless steal against the flint and the sparks fly. It is very easy to use in that sense. But when I would put some paper, dried leaves, or wood shavings down the sparks would simply disappear before catching any of the material for a fire. That being said I am by no means a professional outdoorsman and I really didn’t know what I was doing other then to logically think the sparks would land on the leaves or wood and would create and amber. From there I could build around it, blow a little and the flames would come. Unfortunately nothing even close to that happened and my patience grew thin. I quickly grabbed the lighter and had a blazing fire going in minutes.
I would suggest that this is probably a nice little gift for a camping friend, but unless you really know what you are doing you will probably end up like me not having the patience for it and just use your favourite lighter or weather proof matches.
Hey Kimosabe!
U have to Twizzle da Swizzle Sticks Faster fo Shizzle!!!!
yeah i didn’t get the FireStarter Badge either when a Boy Scout!!
btw my Happy Hump Day was directed to yer Bikini Icon!!
Cheers! Billy ;))
Well, I guess if you only have that in the wild, you would do everything you can to make it work.
Nice tool though!
I just want one of these so I can start fires in my backyard.
Cool little gadget that.
I want one so I can start a fire in your backyard too!
Neat item. I love Survivor by the way. Also nice post on St. Patrick. Thanks for the comments on my site.
I agree with you. This would make a perfect gift. My first thought though is the entertainment value it would give the children. Could you imagine them making a fire with a flint. Sure to get a few laughs and surprised looking faces.
That would be very impressive if they made a fire with the flint stick. It’s all about patience and I have none.
Pyromaniac!
They used to make something like this with a magnesium bar that you scraped shavings off. Then you used a flint to light the shavings.
You could start your back yard on fire with that in the rain.
Something nice to put in my hunting kit and truck. you never know when you might need it. nice little gadget.
[…] more then 10 years now and have bought a number of camping “gadgets” over the years such as the Swedish Firesteel. But the best piece of equipment I ever purchased, aside from a tent, is my T-Fal Camping […]