Customer Reviews

Coghlan's Magnesium Fire Starter

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a great, very inexpensive, extremely light weight, tried and true fire starting tool for emergencies. I have about five of them in total taking up permanent residence in my parka, hiking Backpack, emergency kits, and gun bag. This way I never forget to take one with me.

Helpful hints:
* The packaging says to make a pile about this size of a quarter for best results. This is very accurate however the pile should be at least 1/8 of an inch deep (eyeball it).
* Be extremely careful when using a knife as a shaver/striker. I found the tool pretty effective without having to bear down on it very hard.
* Use a straight, smooth, fluid motion both for shaving the magnesium off and striking the flint. DO NOT chop at the magnesium or the flint. I watched in dismay as a friend made a mess of his by chopping at it recently so I thought I would include this. The chopping motion is dangerous (when using a knife), ruins the tool, and does not yield NEARLY the same results as using a smooth motion.
* If you have to use your knife, use the back side of your knife or the base of the blade if it is squared off and not sharp. Most fixed blade knifes are squared at the base. If your blade does not lock or is not fixed, USE THE BLADE. Do not try to use the back of the knife if the blade is not fixed or does not lock. It will most likely close on your fingers/hand causing injury if you try to use the back of a non-locking blade.
* Don't just buy this tool and not test it out. Spend 15 minutes playing with the tool and starting a fire (in a safe and controlled environment) BEFORE you actually need it in an emergency situation. Trust me, this tool will last you a LONG time. You are not wasting it.

Cons:
* The product does not come with any kind of striker/shaver attached. This tool could really benifit from a small piece of metal to use as a striker and to shave magnesium off.
* Shaving magnesium off and striking the flint with your knife will dull the blade pretty quickly.

Coghlan's magnesium fire starter (Coghlan's #7870) is a great product, but it is difficult to use if you follow most instructions for its use, including the manufacturer's instructions, and it will quickly dull your knife.

I wince when I see the precious edge of a knife being used to pare the magnesium block or to strike sparks off the flint.

Instead, break off the end of a fine-tooth hacksaw blade to the length of the magnesium block. Clamp the hack saw blade in a vise or a in a pair of vise grip pliers to break the blade. Join the piece of hack saw blade to the fire starter block with a short lanyard to keep them together. Use the teeth of the hack saw to make magnesium filings. Use the back of the hack saw to strike sparks.

It is much easier to make magnesium filings with the hacksaw blade than to shave the magnesium block with a knife.

The very hard high-carbon hacksaw blade will make a much bigger shower of sparks from the fire starter "flint" attached to the magnesium block than a stainless steel knife. You may have to stroke the "flint" a couple of times to clear oxidation. Much less motion is required with the back of the hack saw blade than with the back of a stainless steel knife to make an adequate shower of sparks -- you are much less likely to disturb your pile of magnesium filings and other tinder.

To see a photo of the lanyard arrangement, Google "A better way to use Coghlan's magnesium fire starter".

This product works great, I have used it many times to start campfires in the wilderness. Regardless of conditions, this will never let you down, even if submerged in water, just dry it off, and it works. The only downfall is that you will need to scrape off a lot of magnesium for it to do any good. So, if you don't have a lot of time to spend scraping, you're better off with waterproof matches. But keep this in your pack just in case.

Okay so your cold, it's gonna get colder, you need fire and your matches are soaked... You probably wont care how long it takes to get one going.

PROS:
It works! If you have the time and patience to sit there and scrape the side of this little wonder for 20 or 30 minutes until you have enough shavings to get started, it WILL get you a fire going. You'll need a pile big enough to cover between a quarter and a half dollar. Once you have it the flint striker does wonders as the pile will flash after just a few quick strikes. Make sure your tinder is already covering it or only a second away as the magnesium burns quite hot but also quite fast! With some basic fire builders skills you'll be warm in no time.

CONS:
Time, collection, noise, knives, and wind... As I mensioned, 20 to 30 mins to get a pile big enough to burn. Add to that the time it takes to find wood and tinder and this could be an all evening process. Trying to collect these little shavings into a pile is kind of a pain. Though a little trick I thought of works well. Lay down a coffee filter and use that to collect them. The filter doubles as added starter. Even wet the filter wont hinder the burn ability of the magnesium. Noise, for the duration of the scrapting your have to listen to a very loud squeek with every pass of your knife. Just think metal on metal. Speaking of knives, your going to have to dull a knife doing this. So I recommend carrying a "cheap" lock blade just for this purpose. (Not too cheap though, as the cheapest in my collection actually got a notch carved in it by the magnesium and you do want a locking mechanesem that can withstand the downward pressure your going to have to put on it.) The final issue is any firestarter's worst enemy. Wind... Gathering a pile of shavings is tough enough but having them blow away is just insult to injury. So if there's any breeze at all, you might consider doing this from inside a tent or shelter.

This truely is a survival tool but one worth having. If your outdoors in the fall or spring without a fire you'll spend every sleepless minute of that seemingly never-ending cold night wondering what made you decide NOT to get a flint and magnesium fire starter.

With a little practice you can very quickly start a fire with less hassle then plain fire steel. You don't actually need a giant pile of shavings to start a fire if you have gathered the correct kind of tinder. Enough shavings to cover a dime would be sufficient to get a moderately dry tinder ball to start going.

There are cons to this product though. I have owned 3 of these, and of those three 2 had the fire steel come lose from the magnesium brick (the other was lost in a lake). Yes you can just glue it back on, or keep it lose, but that's not the type of reliability that I'm looking for in this type of tool (obviously this is for survival situations, or you would have matches or a lighter). I much prefer just a plain old fire steel with striker for reliability sake.

A side note is that the fire steel will burn the finish of your knife, so I suggest getting one with a striker for practicing.

i mainly bought this as a backup in case i was stuck in the woods somewhere and was too far from camp to be near a fire source. i didnt have too many magnesium strips in my time, but i am guessing they all work the same way.

now the instructions say that you need a back of a knife to get it to work, but pretty much anything metal will do the trick. thats right, you can use your keys are even the zipper of your jacket to get it going. its just so easy to use. altho, i guess the cons of it would be if you left it dangling out for whatever reason and it hit something, you'd start a fire. unintentionally.

I purchased several of these repackaged at WalMart (though they still say Coghlan on the brick) as well as one at Amazon. Rather than rehash what the other reviewers have said (which is essentially accurate) I'll just say it works if you do what you are supposed to do. I keep one of these in each of my various packs (3-day bag, Camelbak HAWG, Camelbak Ambush) as you never know when you might need a fire. Yes, your handy lighter might work, but if its out of fuel, the weather is bad, etc. this little gem will still get 'em started. 4 stars instead of 5 as it would be better if it came with a small piece of metal for the stiker/shaver.

It works well, cheap way to make a fire, not heavy and only use a very small room on your survival kit
Cons:
The product does not come with any kind of striker/shaver attached. This tool could really benifit from a small piece of metal to use as a striker and to shave magnesium off.
If you shave magnesium off and striking the flint with your knife will dull the blade pretty quickly. You can find a special striker for carring with it. Personaly I use the one that came with the Coghlans Flint Striker.

NOTICE: If you plan to fly to diferent location to start you journey be carefull you are not allowed to carry it in your luggage or in your carry on bags

I struck this fire starter about 10 times and it was already gone. I looked at it and it looked like one that i bought a year ago and used a countless amount of times. I left it alone for some time. I struck again and about 3 sparks came out. I was extremely disappointed with this product.

I've read other reviewers complaining about this product - saying they had to dull their knives, how long it took to make a pile of shavings, and how the the ferro rod came loose. All of these problems can be easily overcome.

Firstly, you must not follow the directions to the letter. You should keep the spine of your knife at a sharp 90-degree angle with a fine file or course stone. Use the spine, with lots of pressure, to create the magnesium shavings. The magnesium bar is VERY soft and the large shavings created with the spine of the knife burn much longer than the smaller shavings created by the blade. This makes a fire easier to obtain and saves your blade.

Secondly, if you have a proper spine on your knife, you can make a great pile of shavings in a minute or two. You need to keep the spine sharp for making good sparks anyway, so this should be a given.

Third, you should ALWAYS carry a large secondary firesteel. If you rely on the little one attached to the magnesium bar, you may find yourself in a world of hurt if it does come loose. The rod on mine never came loose. I got a couple hundred good strikes out of it before it became difficult to use.

In the end, you're really paying for the big soft bar of sweet wonderful magnesium. A little pile of this magic metal can mean the difference between being comfortable and freezing your @$$ off - or worse. Get it, keep your knife in proper order, carry an extra firesteel, and pray never need any of it.