Firesteel recommendations

[SVRider]

Ferrocerium is best, imo.

That AMK one handed starter was designed by Oak Norton years ago and is known as a spark-lite. It was later included by Doug Ritter in his survival for sale through AMK. AMK has now gone off and started making them, cutting out Doug Ritter, it appears.

I have two Brass Spark-lites. They are pretty sweet, but sadly not available.

John McCann of survivalresources.com is a personal friend of Oak's and carries the Sparklite along with the tinderquik, which is superior to vaseline impregnated cottonballs and is waterproof and does not need a special container for storage

I'm sure you noticed on the website you mentioned (survival resources), they make an anodized aluminum version. No, not brass, but should be more durable than the plastic handled ones.

Actually, reading the history, I realize the ones I have are actually plastic SparkLites, (the plastic kit with the tinder-quik). It was a nice read actually.....

[V8toytruck]

For their size/weight performance, I have gone over to these:

http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/product.php?product=141&catname=Fire&prodname=SOL%20Fire%20Lite%E2%84%A2%20with%20Tinder-Quik%E2%84%A2

Throws about as good a spark as my BlastMatch, is easier to operate one handed, and includes a few tinder bundles in something smaller/lighter than pretty much everything I have seen.

The one handed operation made me think a lot. If one arm was injured, I could easily start a fire with this. Try to use the others one-handed. Most I have tried are a bit difficult to keep on top of the tinder bundle without throwing pieces everywhere when you try to strike them.

From the video's I've seen this thing puts out about as much spark as a regular bic lighter? When I see the blast match videos it showers it with sparks.

[Alan Halcon]

SVRider, yes they do carry aluminum ones.

The brass ones I have were some of the originals. Included in the bottom is a screw where extra flint heads reside. This was the original design, but was too costly for the military to purchase in bulk, so the decision was made to go plastic.

Sparklites are pretty cool, but like with many lighters, can be difficult to handle, because of their small size, when your hands lack fine motor skills due to the cold.

Alan