Now THAT'S a Firesteel

I received a box with a couple of firesteels from GoingGear.com yesterday. These make the Light My Fire Army firesteel seem a bit...small.

From top to bottom:

1/2" thick X 6" long Grizzly
3/8" thick X 6" long Cougar
Light My Fire Army (3/8" thick X 3" long)
Light My Fire Army Blank which I've drilled and threaded with ball chain

Today we're going to take these new bruisers outside and compare them to the old standby LMF Army. I think we'll try a variety of tinders and a variety of strikers to see what the best combination might be.

I've had other firesteels that seemed to be made of a similar (but NOT the same) material. They used to sell a firesteel at Bass Pro Shops that just wasn't as good as the LMFs. It scraped easier but didn't spark as easily. I hope these monsters are the same material as the LMF firesteels.

Here's the thing. A while back I did a post called Firesteel Math where I determined the life span of an Army Model firesteel to be nearly 11 years. So, doubling the length of the 3/8" rod should double the available number of strikes. Does that mean the SMALLER of the two rods will last 22 years?!

Jake's grandkids will be using the Grizzly to start fires someday. LOL!

And on top of everything else, Going Gear sells a 1/2" thick X 12" firesteel appropriately named The Beast. Too bad they were sold out when I placed my order. I could use a big firesteel.

Thanks for reading,


B