Survival Fire Starter – Magnesium Flint Rod Emergency Kit for Camping & Hiking

Build your tinder nest first, before you touch the rod. Hold the rod close to the tinder and scrape the striker down it firmly and fast, pushing the rod forward rather than flicking the striker, so you do not scatter what you are trying to light. Practise once at home. Doing it for the first time in the dark, in wind, is how people give up.

Dry grass, bark shavings, cotton wool, a smear of petroleum jelly on cotton, or a commercial firelighter. A ferro rod throws sparks, not flame, so it needs genuinely fine dry material to catch. Along the coast after rain, carry your own tinder rather than relying on finding it.

It is a better backup, not a better primary. A lighter is faster and easier every time it works. This is what you use when the lighter is empty, soaked or lost, and it will still be working years later.

Yes, and salt air does not affect it the way it affects a lighter mechanism. Rinse sand off the rod so the striker runs clean.

Almost nothing. Keep the striker from rusting and keep sand out. A ferro rod develops a dull oxide layer over time; scrape that off and the fresh metal underneath sparks as well as ever. Keep the wooden handle out of prolonged wet.