**Product Review: Magnesium Fire starter**

[Rockcrawlintoy]

OK well i went and got a magnesium fire starter from walmart. It was 5.99 so i decided to give it a whirl. I got home and was trying to get the thing to work, it took a few tries to get the hang of it but I couldn't get a fire going. Today i had a lot of time on my hands so i decided to take a walk and get some fuel for my fire.
I found some grass that was pretty dry. Around here we have had some snow and temps in the low 20s and high teens. I was worried about the tinder being too wet but it was suprisinly dry. i also found some cat tails that had been broken off for a while and i grabbed them as well.


Next I took the grass and in small bunches I rolled the grass between my open palms. This helped break up the grass so it is easier to ignite. I did this several times until I got a nice little bed for the magnesium to sit in.


Next I got a nice amount of magnesium chips into the bed that I made. If you hold the knife blade at a 90* angle and run it up and down it makes nice chips. I put a decent amount of chips into the bed.


Finally I used the striking side of the magnesium strip and made some sparks. It was the third strike when I made fire.


I let the fire burn for about 2 minutes. I didn't have any wood since there aren't much trees around my house but i am confident that I am able to start a fire with a magnesium strip and a knife.

Pros of mag strip: Cheap, burns hot enough to ignite damp tinder easy to use.
Cons: sucks ass to use in the wind. I am confident I can start a fire with it in the wind it just takes longer and I would recommend making a lot of chips.

Drew

[silly58willy]

Originally Posted by Rockcrawlintoy

OK well i went and got a magnesium fire starter from walmart. It was 5.99 so i decided to give it a whirl. I got home and was trying to get the thing to work, it took a few tries to get the hang of it but I couldn't get a fire going. Today i had a lot of time on my hands so i decided to take a walk and get some fuel for my fire.
I found some grass that was pretty dry. Around here we have had some snow and temps in the low 20s and high teens. I was worried about the tinder being too wet but it was suprisinly dry. i also found some cat tails that had been broken off for a while and i grabbed them as well.


Next I took the grass and in small bunches I rolled the grass between my open palms. This helped break up the grass so it is easier to ignite. I did this several times until I got a nice little bed for the magnesium to sit in.


Next I got a nice amount of magnesium chips into the bed that I made. If you hold the knife blade at a 90* angle and run it up and down it makes nice chips. I put a decent amount of chips into the bed.


Finally I used the striking side of the magnesium strip and made some sparks. It was the third strike when I made fire.


I let the fire burn for about 2 minutes. I didn't have any wood since there aren't much trees around my house but i am confident that I am able to start a fire with a magnesium strip and a knife.

Pros of mag strip: Cheap, burns hot enough to ignite damp tinder easy to use.
Cons: sucks ass to use in the wind. I am confident I can start a fire with it in the wind it just takes longer and I would recommend making a lot of chips.

Drew

very nice.... your result is ten times better then mine when i tired. but then again i didnt use the samw stuff you did...anyways props

[Rockcrawlintoy]

i just roamed around the bike path behind my house and found some stuff that i thought would work. BTW this was the first fire i made without a match or anything like that

Drew

[ToddW]

Magnesium is a very hard thing to start a fire with in the wind and cold during a survival situation. Even if you build a little wind screen your hands could still be freezing, and with that it's really hard to scrape magnesium.

You did a great job!

For me, Magnesium is NOT my first line for starting fires but it does serve the purpose (Especially for wet/damp tender since magnesium burns so hot)

[Rockcrawlintoy]

Originally Posted by ToddW

Magnesium is a very hard thing to start a fire with in the wind and cold during a survival situation. Even if you build a little wind screen your hands could still be freezing, and with that it's really hard to scrape magnesium.

You did a great job!

For me, Magnesium is NOT my first line for starting fires but it does serve the purpose (Especially for wet/damp tender since magnesium burns so hot)

it was cold. it was in the mid to low 30s when i was doin this. my hands were cold but the stress wasnt there like it would be with a real survival situation. again i think a lot of practice will make it second nature.

DRew