Gerber Fire Starter [31-000699]

Short and sweet. This product works just as it should. Its well made, and well put together. The lanyard cord you may wish to replace with something heavier if you feel the need, but I found the one it came with to work just fine. As for the little whistle that comes with it I could take it, or leave it. Its not that loud of a whistle and sounds a little " cheesy " That being said, the fire starter itself works just fine. I like the way the two pieces fit together when not in use and have a very good water resistant connection point. The striking rod and steel are small but more then enough to do the job. On my first attempt at using I placed a small cotton ball dipped in vasoline under some fine tinder and small dry sticks. Two short quick pulls with the fire starter threw a mass of sparks into the pile and in an instant I had fire. That quick, that simple. Just be sure your holding it CLOSE to your fuel source. Its not going to throw sparks from three feet away and start your fire.. Worked just fine. I think a lot of your success depends more on your pre job of setting up your fire fuel then on how big an area of sparks this thing will throw. If your not using something that will EASILY catch fire then obviously your going to have to work a lot harder at igniting it. So, as I said, product works just fine. Well built, compact and very light to carry.

Product is exactly as described. Scrape the membrane off the striking rod then watch out... tons of sparks. I used this product on a 55 mile/8-day backpacking trip in the Adirondacks. This worked excellent rain or shine; I was able to produce a shower of sparks in a down pour; moist wood took the sparks. I used the striking rod about 50 fires; enough sparks produced to start a fire with a single strike. Product is a multi tool with a decent 2-tone whistle, end cap has enough for 2 cotton balls, dipped in Vaseline. Has paracord about 12" long. Housing is sturdy composite material. Weights almost nothing. Has a small description of SOS, Y & N emergency signals on the exterior. Excellent product. Excellent price. Would buy it again.

The first part of the review: the fire starter: In short, the firestarter worked great. Plenty of sparks, hot enough to start even a small amount of dry tinder. Had my tinder smoldering after one flick of the bar. You can tell, however, how much of the material is worn away with every strike, so I wouldn't consider this a long-term firestarting tool (but what tool can you say that about?) but it's definitely something I'll keep in my pack. The second part, the strap: At first I didn't care for how the strap was designed, which basically goes completely through each endcap. It gives you really three lengths to grab on to... two (one each side of) the whistle, and the other one being the piece between the endcaps, without the whistle. After playing around with it, and twisting the one endcap, I realized I could create some decent string "patterns" if you will. In the end, it's a strap. I did notice that one of the end caps pops off (more on that later), but the other end of the tool is not removable, so there's no disconnecting that, unless the strap is cut completely. The whistle: It's a small plastic whistle. For it's size, it sure packs a decent volume of ear-splitting rescue goodness. No complaints there for now, hopefully it's durable enough to withstand a drop or two. One thing I really didn't like is that the end cap that is removable just pops off. There's no twisting or unscrewing involved. It's a pretty tight fit, but I can see a moderate bang (ie dropping it) and that cap might be pop off. The good news is that the cap that is removable has a length of the strap that fits through it, but the down side to that is, the striking bar (not the metal piece, but the "flint" piece) is not permanently attached to anything. If the end cap pops off, and the metal and flint pieces separate, you just lost your "flint". I think having a screw-off cap, or even something that would allow the strap to go through all parts of the tool would have been better. The cap itself came with a little wad of tinder (looks like a cotton ball), which is good. The cavity in which that fits is empty, with a little bit of room for maybe 2-3 more cotton balls, or an equivalent amount of tinder. I know the inside of that is used to hold the "flint", but if it was large enough to say, hold standard matchbox matches, that would have been a bonus. There's nothing like having a firemaking tool that has room to hold other firemaking tools! (Especially if it's waterproof, but I don't know that for sure yet.) One last thought, the tool is mostly a dary gray color with an orange gasket and small print. I think having the tool be a brighter color in general would have been better. We're not looking for camouflage, but rather being able to find your tool if you dropped it in a puddle or in some muck. In the end, for the price, I'm extremely happy with this tool. I wouldn't have paid $20 for it, but the $9 (with free shipping -- thanks to Amazon prime) was a very good price to pay.

[UPDATE] My problems with the firesteel were in fact, due to my own lack of knowledge. The striker part of the firesteel will work just fine, it's the way you hold it that matters. The top part of the blade should be facing AWAY from you, not TOWARD you. If you hold it with the top facing away from you, then the striker will produce a very nice shower of sparks, which is great because I'm not quite sure what kind of long term damage would be done to a knife if you consistently use it to produce sparks, but it certainly looks like it would do some damage. Because it was my own fault I had problems, this product gets a 5 of 5 for being a flawless firesteel. I wish they'd include some tip like that with the product because new users obviously have problems with it judging from my original review and other reviewers. It's an excellent product, I would definitely recommend it. I've left my original review below so you can see what else is good about this product. This is a decent firesteel, and my problem with it may be due to my own lack of skill with starting fires. First off, I like the build quality, everything feels solid and well put together. I also love the way it all snaps closed into a compact tube. The cotton inside the small storage space was perfect for starting a fire, and I'll be repacking it as soon as I get more cotton balls. The problem with it not producing sparks until you scrape off the black coating is minor, I used my knife and had it off and producing large showers of sparks in no time. This does, however, expose the big problem: the striker doesn't seem to want to produce sparks. Whether it's too dull, or I'm just using it wrong, I can't get it to spark using the striker. I can, however, get a huge shower of sparks when I use either of my knives. The whistle is neat, never know when you might need one, and I like both the pocket survival guide, and how the firesteel has useful signals printed on it. It's nice to have those, Gerber definitely hit a homerun there. The lanyard kind of ticks me off though because it seems to be twisted just due to the way the cap closes. Still, it's a good product, and if I had to buy it again knowing what I know about it now, I think I still would.

When you are buying this product, you are not just paying from the name of Bear Grylls. You are getting a great quality product. That is constructed well, and is built to withstand some punishment. It has worked every time I have used it. I have used this to start fires using cotton balls, tampons, commercial fire starter, a plastic bag by accident. It throws a shower of sparks every time you use it, once you scrape the black protective coating off with the steel. This product comes with a little paper insert that is a good read on survival, a whistle that DOES wake up roommates out of a dead sleep when you blow it even lightly, and a place in the handle of the rod, which is perfect for a petroleum soaked cotton ball. I would recommend this to anyone. It is easy to use, extremely effective, and given you find yourself in poor circumstances, could save your life. If you have this tool, and the contents of a girls purse, you can undoubtedly start a fire. If you happen to have a prepared fire starting kit, then it's even easier then using a lighter.

This works and sparked almost immediately. It's been a long time since I've seen a product, which goes WAY above and beyond; than just giving you what you've ordered. For me this is a FABULOUS product. The rod and striker goes together with a rubber washer to keep water, dust out. But that isn't why I love this. They have included a very compact, folded guide. An the title is a real gem, "So you're in a spot of trouble." A very personal message. It details information on determining direction, collecting water, snares/traps, knots, fire starting, shelter, signaling and a ruler in centimeter and inches. So much information so copy it, have spares and I really hope you do this. But No There's More - They've made little diagrams (but easy to read) - 'what position to take if a plane flies overhead, SOS and Alpine Rescue Signal - ON THE CASE. Oh and the lanyard is OK but I'm going to replace it with a weaved paracord; cause you can never have enough paracord. Anyway, I totally understand if it doesn't fit your needs or you're looking for something else. As you can expect, I definitely recommend this and will definitely purchase more.

Gerber 31-000699 Bear Grylls Survival Series Fire Starter: While at first I was hesitant about this because most "Bear Grylls" "survival" products tend to be overpriced to the name attached to it, I was singularly impressed with the product for the price. Running about $18 or so, it uses what I believe to be a composite phosphorus/flint type "flint" and a very sharp edged steel to shave off extremely high temperature embers that make firestarting very easy. I'm not sure why it is packed in a large case (waterproof? But why, its flint and steel?), but it has a great loop with toggle to attach anywhere, and as my video shows it works really well and much easier than similar but more expensive products. The embers tend to last somewhere between 0.25 and 1.2 seconds, and temperatures can be as high as 900 degrees (I own at home scientific equipment). Great buy, easy to light hay/other tinder and even paper (accidentally lit newspaper).

AAAAAHHHHH So many Darwin awards to be handed out while reading reviews about Bear's line of equipment. No. its probably not the best fire steel known to been but it's not bad. I bought one and started 2 fires quickly. The whistle attached is loud and does the job. Bonus: A place to store some dry tinder. I have a few of his things and some I dont think are the greatest, paticularly knifes with serrations, but I wont get into that. Great little fire starter. The best thing about bear's line of outdoor stuff is that the kids love it. It's getting more younger people into bushcraft and off the couch. I buy this stuff for my nephew and he's stoked. Review it for what it is and the price you pay for it. Bottom line, when it comes to this fire starter and the ultimate survival knife, 99% of the people who write bad reviews will fail before the equipment does in a survival situatiion.