NEW Rods

Lot of sparks for the strike !!!!

Came with a great striker, Easier than using a knife edge. I was impressed by the big hot sparks, a couple of strikes and I had a fire going. The handle makes it easy to hold. Better than others I have owned.

Ok so I've had one of those really cheap and garbage ferro rods before, this isn't one of those.What you get - It's a nice thick ferro rod with a solid handle, the striker also has a decent handle and is easy to hold.Useage - Once you scrape off the black paint (every Ferro rod comes with paint on it for safety during shipping) you get a really nice Ferro rod that will throw an awesome shower of sparks while using the included striker. This thing is actually a good size, it's gonna last a long time even with regular use.If you're somewhat new to using a Ferro rod, like myself, make sure you really work over your tinder before attempting to start the fire. Small wood shavings are not fine enough, you want to add some fluff to your tinder bundle, and this needs to be so fine it feels like feathers. Scrape with the back of your knife or use the striker for the Ferro rod and scrape as much fluff off of a split piece of wood as you can. It's gonna take some time, just be patient. Also once you do start striking, make a lot of sparks. Movies and TV shows make things look really easy, it's not gonna be easy. Fire takes patience and work. It requires a process. You need to hone that process down to an art.

Easy to hold,easy to use..the handle slides off easy and is not wood. I think its plastic or composite. I dripped a couple drops of gorilla glue in the handle so it wouldn't come off.

works decent and nice and light, wish it was a real wood handle but it clearly says plastic handle so I can't complain

Works as described

Practice makes perfect, but I started 3 fires in 3 attempts. Granted, that was in dry weather and I know how to build a bird nest. Nonetheless, I love it. Used it 5 or 6 times and already established a 1/8 inch flat grade which causes me slight concern. However, I expect as that broadens to 3/8 or 1/4 inches it will be throwing a ton more material into my nest. I actually do think this is going to get better and better.Personally, I am sending them to all my kids and buying one more for me. At my age, diapers will wind up being a bigger issue before this wears out.

Used this just 2 days ago to start bonfire. Plenty of spark and worked very well. Scrapper is very functional as well. Using it saves stains on my knife blade. I would recommend purchase.