I received and tested mine at Marty and Aggie Simon's WAR rendezous, 2006. It worked and worked pretty well. I was able to achieve huge showers of sparks from a firesteel and I was able to render good sparks from various "sparky rocks" - jasper, agate, novaculite, quartz, etc.
PWYP N encampment, 2006, we used both the Gossman FireStriker and one of my homemade file strikers to conduct a mini firemaking workshop. What an awesome time! Even in broad daylight, I was able to catch Matt's sparks from the FireStriker and sparky rock in the air...
Look at his left sleeve -
Matt caught some of those sparks in a small piece of charcloth and immediately nested the ember into a jute bundle...
As you can see, Matt was successful at blowing the ember and jute bundle into flame...
Not wanting to slight anyone, I should mention that Tim, Marcelo, and Rob were all very successful in achieving fire with flint and FireStriker - I just happened to catch Matt on digifilm for this writing. Kudos to all - I made them each achieve fire three times before they left and they all did me proud.
Matt caught some of those sparks in a small piece of charcloth and immediately nested the ember into a jute bundle...
As you can see, Matt was successful at blowing the ember and jute bundle into flame...
Not wanting to slight anyone, I should mention that Tim, Marcelo, and Rob were all very successful in achieving fire with flint and FireStriker - I just happened to catch Matt on digifilm for this writing. Kudos to all - I made them each achieve fire three times before they left and they all did me proud.
My personal thoughts on the FireStriker are as follows -
The knife is diminutive and is intended to be capable of being carried in the smallest of fireboxes, PSKs, or to be worn around the neck. Scott designed the knife to be used with a completely unsharpened edge, but will sharpen the edge at the specific request of the purchaser. I bought mine unsharpened and have since used it enough to feel comfortable in using it with a semi-sharp edge. You will need to make up your mind how you want yours made, but I'm recommending that you strongly consider an unsharpened version if you intend to use it with sparky rocks. Once you become proficient with the sparking technique, you can always apply an edge if it's desired. The FireStriker knife is handy enough and fun enough that I've already placed my order for a second. It's an awesome tool with an exceptionally high "cool factor." I love mine and consider it a must have camp and survival tool...
M
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