Ferro Cerium Firesteel Flint Rod

C Craft

Well-Known Member
Can anyone tell me about the "Ferro Cerium Firesteel Flint Rod"?? Is this something that is easily broken??

I am thinking of building a few knives and including a Firesteel in its own pocket on the case. That way if you got the knife you got the ability to start a fire, anytime, anyplace!!
I don't know a lot about them but I do consider that fire is one of the best assets if not the best, when in the field!!


I know years ago I broke thru the ice on a river back home. Once ashore the first thing I did was start a fire and build a temporary wind break. Then I shucked the wet clothes and began to dry out me and the clothes I had on. If it hadn't been for the ability to start a fire that day, well lets say it might have been a real bad day!!

So what can you tell me about the firesteels are they durable??
 
They can be broken but I wouldn't say that they're super brittle or easy to break. They're quite durable, especially in 1/4"-3/8" diameter. They'd be plenty tough for what you're talking about.

I would include a striker with it or leave a really sharp corner on the spine of your blade. The cutting edge is not what you want to be using to start fires, save for an all out, real last ditch emergency. It will damage the cutting edge.

I round my spines on my knives so leaving a sharp corner on the spine is counterproductive to my custom touches on my blades. Maybe figure out a cool way to incorporate a designated striking area in the tang or handle? That'd be cool.
 
I have a couple ferro-rod fire starters and they work well for me. The material itself is pretty tough; I haven't broken one yet but all of the ones I use are at least 1/4 inch dia. A good sized one will last for thousands of strikes. If your planning to buy a rod and make a handle for it I would suggest hunting up a decent sized one in both length and diameter. After using a few of the "compact" ones that the rod part is only 2 inches long or so I really found it useful to have the rod longer. I bought a few of these from the Boss that worked well, and he seems to have a lot of them on closeout right now. Hopefully he will keep some on the shelves in the future as its really a pain to source quality rods.
 
For my personal fire system I keep a Gobspark Armageddon fire steel and a Palm Scraper (sold at firesteel.com) in the pouch on my Spec-Ops sheath where I carry my bushcraft knife. I also have a Doan Mach. & Equip. Co. magnesium bar in the pouch. The Doan bar has a small ferro rod attached to it but it is prone to fall off and can't really be counted on for a lot of uses. In dry conditions the fire steel is all I need to start tinder. In wet conditions I scrape off about a quarter sized pile of magnesium and spark it. It burns so hot that even damp tinder will ignite. For sheath making I attach a 3/8" x 2 1/2" ferro rod by making a snug fitting loop of leather that I cement/sew into the side of my sheaths. I do the same with Kydex using a Kydex loop. I use a piece of 1/8" bungee cord for the lanyard which allows me to wrap the lanyard over the loop and back under the ferro rod to hold it securely. To make the leather sheath not have a bump in the stitching I skive the ends of the loop fairly thin and also skive a small depression in the welt.
 
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Denny would love to see some pics of one of your sheaths to see exactly what you are speaking of! I get the idea but a picture sometimes is better than a thousand words!!
 
I'll do my best but I'm not very good at taking or posting pictures. I'll PM you if I can get someone to help me post. Thanks for asking.
 
I have broken 2. Both were 3/16" x 4". But they were dropped on concrete floors. Other than a drop on a hard surface I don't think they will break.
 
I haven't broke one from dropping or using. But, I have a couple break or chip a chunk off the end when drilling holes in them for lanyards. If you need a hole, try not to get right at the end of it and go slow with the drilling. When drilling, I keep my bit really oily and run a stream of compressed air the whole time to keep the sparks down.
 
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