Vent: Bought a $50 'survival' fire starter kit and it was worse than my bic lighter in the rain last weekend

I was up near Lake Tahoe doing some car camping and figured I'd finally use that fancy ferro rod and magnesium block I got online. Figured it would be great for wet conditions. Nope. Took me 20 minutes to get a single spark that actually caught. Meanwhile my buddy pulled out a cheap plastic bic and had a fire going in 2 minutes. I got scammed hard. Anyone else have a piece of gear that totally failed when you actually needed it?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_singh1mo agoProlific Poster

Did you try scraping the magnesium into a little pile first before you hit it with the ferro rod? That's the whole trick with those blocks, you gotta make a small pile of shavings or the spark just flies off into nothing. I made that same mistake my first time, stood there for like half an hour getting nothing until someone showed me the right way. What brand was the kit by the way, was it one of those no name ones off Amazon or something more legit?

elizabethpalmer1mo ago

@abby_singh Oh totally, I spent a good twenty minutes just scraping off shavings and watching them fly away like little useless glitter. Turns out I was basically just making sparks for NO reason. The kit was actually one of those no name Amazon specials, but now I kinda think maybe it was a skill issue more than the kit's fault. At least I got a fire going eventually, even if my pride was a little toasted too.