<------- Just bought one of these... In case you are a

>>946082
I will never get this. I see this everywhere, my friends started using firesteels for lighting fires in their yards and when out in the forest.

Answer one simple question: Why not use a lighter or a pack of matches. This is a genuine question, I am not trying to be a dick or antyhing it just doesn't make sense to me. It is WAY less convenient, a blind man can see that.

>>946217
Using one of these is like buying carbon offsets, it literally saves the planet from dying

>>946217
i use them for fun. and because I want be prepared in case i have no other option.

>>946220
Both of those are retarded reasons but since you're too stupid to have a few lighters around I'll just let you continue having fun pretending to be survivor man.

>>946217

lighters can break and matches are finite and can be destroyed by submersion in water. A firesteel is always good to go and lasts forever.

It's like an axe versus a folding saw, ruggedness vs portability

>>946240
I've smoked for 8 years and have literally never broken a lighter. You can carry 2-4 lighters in the same weight as a fire steel and have an easier and more reliable method of starting a fire. Literally the only reason someone should choose a fire steel over a lighter or matches is that they enjoy the novelty.

>>946218
>drive truck to store
>get a coffee in a to-go cup on the way
>buy firesteel
>buy a bunch of synthetic clothing you'll only use a few times and throw away to be turned into microplastics in the ocean
>drive truck to "outdoors"
>put up your tent next to car
>chop down trees, light fire, disrupt carbon cycle, destroy environment
>eat food that was farmed in a way as if it wanted to maximize pesticide runoff and water contamination
>comes in bpa lined can made from metal that was mined via raping a mountain and destroying a water source
>throw away can so that it can contaminate the soil and/or ocean, even though you put it in a trash can
>even better, try to recycle it, where they just throw it away anyway because it's not recyclable or it is recycled in a way that used more resources than simply making a new one on the first place, either way fucking the earth
>shit out your canned food 50 feet from a stream, leave a pile of toilet paper and baby wipes on ground
>sleep in your tent, leave a few tent pegs behind the next morning
>drive your truck home
>10 gallons of gasoline for your short trip
>successful out trip
>literally saved the planet from dying today, thanks to my firesteel.
>can't believe that the assholes at the next camp were using a mini bic lighter
>it's like they just want to kill the planet while pretending they're outdoorsman
>what posers
>smug.jpg

I use them because of two reasons:
1 It is fun
2 because i want to and because i can

I dont care about other reasons and OF COURSE i carry a couple of lighters and matches, but i Will use my rod since i like it

>>946242

I've broken a couple but never in circumstances where it was a big deal. I use lighters, but eventually I'll carry a firesteel as a backup. More for fun than anything else.

They're durable and lightweight. Originally they got meme-y for two reasons. First as a bridge towards learning to start fires without any tools at all. Second because survival experts like Doug Ritter suggested them as a backup. His focus is aviation survival kits and he had legitimate reasons to think that a plane crash might damage some or all of your gear. Hence also his love and the eventual meme-dom of the "sharpened prybar" school of knife design.

They're still cool. Given the weight, why all the salt? /out/ is usually pro-axe, and that's a hell of a lot of weight and bulk that odds are you won't need or can handle with a saw. Or, you know, a camp stove.

Bitching about firesteels is really petty.

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>>946252
Fuck yeah, now that is a camping trip.

>>946217
Can you sharpen you're knife with a Bic?

But mostly is just for playing bushcrafter.

Because they are a nice accessory to add to a knife. Will I ever use it? Probably not but I could if I wanted to.

>>946217
It's a throwback to the old days when knowing how to throw a spark off of steel was a useful skill, since chert can be found everywhere and it was a reliable way of making fire when you forgot or ran out of matches. So basically, someone decided that they could make a bunch of money if they convinced fools to buy a specific tool to do something that they should only need to do if they don't have the proper tools on them in the first place.

Now, owning a good carbon-steel knife and knowing how to throw sparks off of that with chert (quartz/flint/anything hard) is a pretty good skill to have, since you can pretty much expect that if you don't have a knife on you, you're probably fucked anyway.

>>946217
Because it's a bit more fun and can be more challenging. Besides, what does it matter what a person uses to light their fire?

>>946544
>since chert can be found everywhere
Is that why there was a flint trade in the stone age where there were huge mines of flint and they traded it around the world? Because chert and flint is everywhere?

>>946554
You're referring to tool-making flint. Cherts in general make up 60% of Earth surface. You have a better chance of picking up a random rock and being able to throw sparks with it than you do flipping a coin and having it come up 'heads'.

>>946544

And knowing how to get a fire going with a firesteel gives you many of the skills you'll need to start a fire without even that.

>>946217
>Learning skills is bad
A lighter or match takes no skill to use. Learning to do new things can be fun.
I've honestly never used a firesteel, but would love to learn how to. After I master that I plan to try my hand at friction fires. Absolutely I will have a backup of matches/lighter just in case I utterly fail at it.

>>946240
> A firesteel is always good to go and lasts forever.

Yeah apart from it corrodes when wet, or you burn it in the fire by accident.

And also you know, doesn't last for ever either.

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>>946234

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>>946242
leghter = lemeted fuel
leghter = teny ass flent
leghter = wont werk while wet or derty
leghter = cant reach tender so easy leke a flent will do, burns your fengers

>>946594
can affirm, went on a 7 day trip with one of the small orange tipped one from "the camping company" in a rainforest by the end of it it was almost half way gone. thickness was about a pencil to start and about 2 inches long

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>>946594
>or you burn it in the fire by accident.

>>946217
I carry one as a backup because they work when wet. But I'm not a moron, I reach for a lighter or matches firsts.

>>946277
You are an idiot.

>>946586
>love to learn how

Basically, it's like masterbation.

Except sparks come out of your dick.

And your dick is like steel.

And your cum starts fires, so... cool.

>>947807
>Except

>>947809
>implying

>>947805
Didn't even read the post, just his name, gave away that he was an idiot.

>>946217
I enjoy using mine. I think it's fun to use the sparks and nurse a fire from a small amount of tinder. I'll use a lighter when I'd rather do other things. But I enjoy the challenge.

>>947852
If you enjoy a challenge, why not try something difficult like friction fire or chert/steel? Ferrocerium was specifically designed to make starting a fire as simple as possible, the only thing easier would be adding a fuel source to it such as butane.

Besides, ferrocerium rusts really quickly and even burns in open flame. If you used a real steel you wouldn't risk losing it to the elements like that.

>>946559
tips for finding in my area, wise anon?

>>947929
>or stones . duh .
fun>difficulty

>>947936
Anything translucent or with smooth fractures is probably a chert. Just break it open and strike the edge of a carbon steel item with the edge of the chert in the same way you would strike a ferro rod with steel. You will need a good tinder source, the best in my opinion is char, which can be made from anything organic with just an altoids tin.

>>948250
All I'm saying is that if I had to, I could make fire from nothing but a rock and a railroad spike or a frying pan or a saw or a rusty pistol or a piece of steel cable or practically anything else that you could find just lying around, while other people might have a little difficulty trying to find ferrocerium randomly discarded.

Why is it that the people that get up on their high horses because they use ferro rods instead of lighters are the same assholes that suddenly get defensive about learning to throw sparks with steel?

>>947929
Because I enjoy the ferro rod. I don't mind the idea of doing that, but doing it that way is fun to me.

>>946277
>Mors Kochanski's Bushcraft
a firesteel is basically a rod of sparks, that is all, finding quartz or anything you can rub some steel/iron on to spark is harder/but not necessarily cheaper
A ferro rod is basically a friction/spark rod you have to start hot/short lived fire matches on. Doesn't hurt/ not bad for the environment fire starters.

Ferro rods are good in that there is MORE firestarter you can use/operate than in a small bic lighter. ALternately a small bic lighter SHOULD BE ALL THAT YOU WILL NEED. IF you dont have medical problems, a small tinder/ smoke box should be all you need to start/maintain a fire. Grow a shit ton of trees, LITERALLY EVERY YEAR. Grow up and invest in solar cells, batteries, water tower, gravity wells, and solar oven tech. That shit pays for itself above 20 degrees of the equator immediately.

>>947929

Because it's a step along the way to learning those. Once you've mastered going from spark and tinder to fire, you can work on learning to start with cooler sparks and embers from natural sources.

Steels used to be memegear, and that was foolish, but now the reaction against them is just as stupid.