Modified Fire Steel

I’ve got a few firesteels from Light My Fire, and they are indeed a great little tool.

I did find the handle a little too big though. For packing into small kits I would rather fill that space with useful items rather than plastic. Stuck it in a lathe and turned it down.

I also put a piece of shrink tubing over it to prevent oxidization of the ferrocerium. The only drawback to the firesteel is that as soon as you use it, it begins to corrode. I took the shrink tubing off since that photo was taken and as I suspected, it did oxidize. It was coated in a fine grey dust and was quite pitted. I cleaned it off as best I could, tested it again (it does still spark) and this time coated it in nail polish, and then put some more shrink tubing over it. It’s admittedly not something I use every day, so I’ve gotten a few that I’ve never used, precisely so they’ll be in tip top shape when I do actually need them.