Swiss Safe 5-in-1 Magnesium Ferro Rod Fire Starter Survival Tool - Flint & Steel Striker, Compass, Paracord & Whistle - Emergency Kit for Backpacking, Camping, Hiking - All-Weather

Neat little compass, and a great spark starter. These things are camping essentials. Strikes fine, allegedly up to 16,000 strikes which seems lofty but like most of these things, if I start one or two crucial fires with it, it will all be worth it. Tested it outside on a small patch of dry wood shavings and while you need to get your technique down it shoots a fair amount of sparks. The whistle is a little underpowered but you never know how life saving it might be out in the woods.

The unit i bought sends out a shower of sparks. I got this for my emergency evacuation kit. I live in southern california and I try to be prepared to flee a hurry. It also is a great camping tool, what good are cooking and campfires without a spark?. Just keep in mind that they have a coating that you must scratch off. I bought this one because of the reviews.

It works well. Softer ferro rod. You can strike it with ease and the striker is nice and stiff ensuring positive strikes every time. Compass tells you NSEW but would be little hard to navigate but it works. Also one of the compasses had a bubble and the other did not. The whistles work but you have to really try to make them work. Lots of wind from the lungs. Glow in the dark was very nice as well. Didnt time the charge but good enough for me. Overall a good product. Only reason i did 4 stars was because the compass was ehhh....and the whistles i feel were not really needed. If they worked with ease and not so much breath then it wouldnt matter to me but i think that a small tinder compartment for a quick tab or cotton ball would be pretty cool. Food for thought. I would buy another pack of 2 for sure. Thank you Swiss Safe!

This was going to be a simple and short review. After seeing the number of reviews already done I would normally just skip it. How ever, there is so much mis-information, instructions and terminology I'm going to try. 1. The rods I received are not "magnesium" rods. They may have a little magnesium mixed in with the other minerals used in the Chinese factory which made them. The box indicates they were designed in the U.S. made in China. They seemed to have done a good job making mine. 2. My "Ferro" rods are what would fall into the "Hard" category as opposed to "Soft". Mine give off good sparks but not the longer burning sparks which result from a soft Ferro rod. This is because soft Ferro rods have more magnesium or other material which when scraped results in more material removed of longer burning material such as magnesium. The sparks given from rods I received are more akin to those of a steel chain dragged behind car. Lots of sparks which don't last long. Therefore, you can't scrape off any substantial material from the rods I received to use as an accelerant. I realize this is what instructions on the box and on Amazon tell to do. Perhaps the instructions were for other rods used in the past. I don't know. I do know you would have a real hard time scraping material off my two rods without generating a spark. If you did, I doubt there is enough constable materials to burn. This is one of the problems expressed by different reviews. 3. Many of the reviews were confusing to me. As you probably know there are products which a bar of solid magnesium sold with a Ferro rod. The rod is commonly attached to each other. The most common is a rectangular bar of magnesium with a small Ferro rod glued to the edge. The magnesium is sometimes in other shapes. If you have a soft Ferro rod or combination setup as above, the product instructions would work. 4. While the use of a Ferro cerium and striker may seem similar to "Flint &Steel", they are different. These are Ferro rods and not the tempered steel device used with a flint and steel set up. 5. The rods and striker I received worked fine for. I've tried them several times with different tinder. I would have preferred a soft composite but, as these are not my primary igniter I'm good with them. Nothing like a Bic. If they get wet, blow the water out. If it's really cold, keep them in a pocket against your body. You must practice in bad weather and situations to be competent with a Ferro rod. 6. I read questions about hanging these around your neck. Just remember that salty water such as perspiration will cause bare Ferro rods to rust. 7. I have some quesion about the 8 strand "Military Grade" lanyard but, not enough to cut it apart to see. 8. The little compass pointed North for me. As with most button compasses it has bubble. In this case a small one. Again, not my primary. 9. My whistles worked just fine. 10. Overall, I'm giving the muli+tool Ferro rods 4 stars and the instructions an F. Please excuse my mis-spelling.

Works as expected. The compass is tiny, but OK for basic survival purposes. Same for the whistle, better than nothing and if you're lost in the woods this may help you get found again (carries further than a shout and saves your energy). The glow in the dark whistle and lanyard is a good idea if you drop it in the dark (but must be charged in the light so not much good if you've kept it in a dark place). I can see this as quite useful, your fire making tool is not something you want to lose. The main thing of course is the magnesium fire starter and sparking tool. Easy to use, just shave off a small pile of magnesium with the included saw blade over your tinder and strike some sparks until it ignites. Simple. You get two units which is a good value. UPDATE, got a chance to really try it out. Using regular cotton wool from an aspirin bottle as tinder, feathered it out and with 5 minutes of practice I could light the tinder with a few strokes. Did not really need a lot of magnesium scrapings, just enough to lightly coat the tinder with scrapings ( more needed if damp conditions). There is a sawblade edge and a burred edge on the scraper. The burred edge gave me the quickest lights.

I'f I was packing for a zombie apocalypse these would absolutely be in my bag. I have a set of bugout bags for my family and these are in all of them, and I never go camping or hiking or trail riding or anything like that without one. This little piece could be the difference between you or your family surviving or not, and it's so small and convenient and cheap for what it could possibly do for you. I would not go cheap on anything I am relying my life on, so i tested these right when i got them and after testing i ordered more! They do exactly what they are built to do, for the price they are a great quality piece and feel solid and sturdy, compas works on all of mine, whistle works on them all, striker and scraper work as they're supposed to and you can definitely start a fire with them many many times. Tie them to your packs with the supplied paracord and hope you never need them, but know you are set if you ever do

Great for camping.

The striker it comes with makes sparks but they’re too small and don’t last long enough to light. I had to get a larger knife with a solid spine to make sparks last long enough to start a fire on a campout.

The striker is not a good fit. They have sharp edges and are just way too small to be of any use. I have to wrap them in cloth to make them work a bit