Ferrocerium Rods can be used as fire starters in scouting and camping, sparking entertainment, clockwork toys, strikers for welding torches, and much more. They are the best compact fire starters which can be easily used. It's dependability made it a favorite of survival experts hunters, fishermen and campers. Ferrocerium rods works equally well when wet or dry. Swedish Fire Steel has even found its way into cabins and backyards as a fool-proof way to light stoves and gas-barbecues.
You can get a bare rod or ferrocerium blanks and roll some tape on as a handle, that will give you twice as much ferro to work with and may save a little room as well. You simply pull your knife blade or striker slowly and firmly down the length of the ferrocerium rod, and sparks easily ignite a stove, barbecue, paper, dry grass bark, or tinder. This iron rod is water resistant, and its 3000° C spark works well even when conditions are wet, cold, and less than optimal. This ferro cerium flint fire starter is a favorite of survival experts, hunters, fishermen, backpackers, campers and boy scouts. Also the ferrocerium rod can be inserted into one side of Magnesium block to build a Magnesium Ferrocerium Firestarter.
Ferrocerium rod is made from Iron, Magnesium and mostly of an alloy of rare earth metals called mischmetal with an excellent pyrophoric percentage : 98%min.
The required chemical composition:
Mischmetal(rare earth metal) : 75%
Iron 18.1-19.3%
Magnesium 3-4%
Rare earth metal distribution :
Cerium 49-51%
Lanthanum 26-34%
Neodymium 0-10%
Praseodymium 4-7%
Pyrophoric percentage : 98%
Hardness : 70-90 HV
Dimension : 2.3mm up to 25.4mm Diameter x 5mm up to 1000mm Length.
We have just begun importing these ferrocerium (usually pronounced ferro-see-um) fire starting rods and are very excited about them. Our first order just arrived and it is a huge bunch of ferrocerium fire starting rods. I checked them out and they are all very high quality, consistent in size, dimensions, quality and smoothness. I also just pulled out one of the ½” x 3” ferrocerium fire starting rods to test for myself. I am very impressed. I have seen some fire starting rods that just don’t produce the amount and type of sparks that I like. These ferrocerium fire starting rods do. The sparks from these ferrocerium fire starting rods are great! I scraped this ½” x 3” rod several times and each time it produced a large spray of sparks. Even better, these ferrocerium fire starting rods have a good amount of magnesium (not as much as our Aurora Magnesium Fire starter though) in them also and therefore many of the sparks continue to smolder and burn for a while thereby giving you a better chance of getting your tinder lit and the fire going.
Keep in mind that we carry so many different sizes of these ferrocerium fire starting rods because each size has its own purpose. For example, I carry one of the smallest ferrocerium fire starting rods in my wallet and barely even know it’s there, but I always have it with me. However, the fatter the ferrocerium fire starting rods is, the more surface area it has to scrape and therefore the more (larger spray) sparks you get. Of course the more sparks you get, the better chance you have of getting the fire going. On the other hand, With a big bulky ferrocerium fire starting rod you’re less likely to have it on you all the time and maybe not when you need it. Plus, sometimes the key to survival and preparedness is redundancy. Having more than one option is always a plus. These ferrocerium fire starting rods really don’t stand our well on the ground for example. Let’s say you’re in the woods and you foolishly set down your 4” long x ½” ferrocerium fire starting rod. There’s a good chance you won’t find it. It’s nice to have a backup(s). Also, when you get one of the larger ferrocerium fire starting rods you might want to put something bright like tape or nail polish on one end so it does stand out.
I also just went out to the warehouse and tried a couple things with the new ferrocerium fire starting rods. When you just hold the fire rod and strike it, it almost feels like it will slip out of your hand. They’re not at all slippery or oily, it’s just the feel of the metal rod. So I decided to add a little duct tape to give me something to grip. It definitely helped. Then I tried a couple different bright materials for lanyards and duct taped them on. We had some of the orange/yellow lanyards you see here in the warehouse so I grabbed one. It worked the best. Others slipped out when I clamped it in the vice and pulled.
Click Photo to Enlarge
I let some of the lanyard extend beyond the rod and folded it back a couple times inside the duct tape as I wrapped it. This should hold pretty well. Although, now I wish I would have grabbed a 4-5” long ferrocerium fire starting rod instead of the 3”. But that’s ok. I can still get quite a large spray of sparks from the ferrocerium fire starting rod when I scrape it.
Tom Sciacca
President
JHL Supply / CampingSurvival.com
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I compared these NEW ferrocerium rods against the Flint Steel Bars we’ve been carrying for years plus the Blastmatch and this. They are different. These new ones seem to have a higher concentration (like the Aurora link above) of magnesium than the Blast Match and our old ones. What this means is that it is slightly easier to get sparks from our old ones than the new ones, however the new ones sparks burn longer and smolder for a while. I like that. It’s not like you can’t get sparks or it’s hard on the new ones. If you have any clue how to do it (it’s pretty easy. I just use the back of the saw blade on my leatherman multitool to scrape the rods and they throw sparks. You need to have some dry tinder to catch the spark to start your fire), you can’t go wrong even with cold hands, plus they keep burning. Could make the difference in a survival situation. It is all a matter of opinion. I figure that I will give you the info and you can decide which ones you want. Or, buy both and do the test yourself.
Tom Sciacca
President
JHL Supply / CampingSurvival.com
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SHIPPING TIMES:
Most, but not all orders leave our warehouse within 1-7 business days. Allow time from the day we ship for UPS or the USPS to deliver it to you from Upstate NY. Please call for rush orders before 2:00 Eastern time. That means that some items, to some locations could take two weeks or more. Remember, we're a 50 year old family run business, so feel free to call us for a rush. We can get most of our items out the same day and use next day air and get it to you tomorrow, but you need to call before 2:00 Eastern time.
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