Any rod made from ferrocerium should spark regardless of the type of steel used in the striker (though you want a good square, almost sharp edge). The old flint blocks required carbon steel. The reason is that with the ferrocerium, it is actually that material that is burning, not pieces of metal from the striker. With flint and steel, the opposite is true, it's pieces of metal from the striker that are burning not the flint.
I don't have any experience with MSR cooksets but I have bought quite a few Snowpeak Titanium cooking utensils. All my stuff is single wall type. In general I have found the Snowpeak tiatnium utensils to be sturdy and work fine if you take into consideration that thin metal does heat a lot faster so things can burn if you don't control the heat. I have the Sierra cup, also a regular coffee cup in titanium. I like the mug best, it is very light and can nest into many other things, holds about 10oz. The Sierra cup is just like the regular steel ones but made of titanium. Both cups have that funny metal tingle when you put them to your lip. Usually you don't notice that with steel cups. I like their single person nested cook kit. It looks like two soup bowls with handles nested with a small fry pan on top. Very nice for solo camping. Their kettle is very good for tea and such. Holds enough for about 3 people. The French coffee press is OK but is very tall and narrow so it is prone to tipping. Also doesn't filter as well as my home presses. I have a nested pot set(multicompact?) probably about .75l and 1 liter and those are OK. Have a bigger separate set(I do not see these in their catalog) that I think is 1 liter and .9 that I like a lot. I even used them for a short time for regular cooking when I was in temporary housing while scouting for a new home. I used them in my office on weekends on a butane stove so I could cook some "homestyle" meals all by my lonesome. Those looked like kitchen pots with flip out handles on either side which could flip up to hold the lid on tight. The fork and spoon set is OK but a bit small. I have both the long and short handle versions. The long is better. I do not have their knife. In the past, most companies did not make titanium knives due to issues of brittleness of the edge. So not sure what snowpeak did to make their knife work other than maybe they are dull edged like a butter knife? Or maybe it is a lesser alloy? The Spork is very good. The only item I hate is the fry pan, but I hate all light wieght pans. I have the older model without teflon. It is not worth a darn for frying anything even with a ton of grease. But then I have never had any real luck using camp fry pans, they are just too thin and have no heat control. I always bring along a heavier aluminum teflon pan(I like the GSR and another noname folding handle pan) or even cast iron if I really need to fry something. So I like 99% of the snowpeak titanium pots and pans and utensils. None of it has failed and none has been dented or damaged in about 10 years of use. I have heard that titanium is "notchy" if it ever gets a notch cut in it, it will continue to split until it is unusable. As a final comment, I just got back from camping with my boys at Kern river last weekend and I used my old mid 1970's noname aluminum pot and pan set. The old war horse almost looks as good as when new. It has a 1qt and I think .9 qt pot and a worthless teflon frypan/lid. They still work as good as ever. We used the heck out of it last week. That old cook kit has certainly been one of my better $ investments. Probably will be working as good as new some day in the far future with my as yet unborn grandchildren. And we used the Ti kettle and coffee press too. Jim Henderson
Hey, Jim, Many thanks for the detailed report on the Snowpeak Ti stuff. I still wonder why it's so inexpensive, when the comparable MSR stuff is so expensive? Any ideas? Thanks, again, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
I've read several times, but not experienced, that the Doan's magnesium bar has a better striker than the Coglans magnesium bar. Also, many people use a piece of hacksaw blade for making sparks rather than dull up a knife. Scroll down this post on Backpacker for more ideas (well illustrated) on this topic. You need to go down quite a ways. http://www.backpacker.com/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=613107219;t=1861024613 I've backpacked with Michael and his bush skills are top shelf stuff.
Just for shits and giggles, I just turned a tea cup upside down on my desk, got out my Spyderco Delica and a piece of fatwood I keep in my BOB, scraped a pile of shavings onto the bottom of the tea cup, and lit it up with my firesteel. It took about 5 or 6 scrapes and then instant fireball. Made a lot of black smoke which set off the smoke detectors for a few seconds. Good thing my wife was at the store.
Hey, Rich, Now, THAT, was funny!!!! You certainly fit in here, at this Ship of Pyros, just perfectly, with experiments like that!! Thank goodness that no harm was done, and that nothing was alarmed more the smoke detectors! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
I can comment on the snow peak stuff, I have a couple of the stoves and the potset. Its durable but ultralight .I consider snow peak top notch and high priced. No maintenance. Designed for backpackers who want to stay under 15 lbs packed and use the propane/butane canisters. Those little 4 oz. stoves pack 10,000 btus.
It was just a small pinch of shavings, the sort of thing tea cups are great for containing. One thing is for sure - fatwood sure smells a lot better before it is burnt than after. And one last word to the wise - whenever I use fatwood to start a fire, I tend to start making the shavings by holding the knife at around a 45 degree angle to the wood. Do NOT do this. The shavings will come out too thick to be lit by a firesteel (though they can be lit just fine with a match). What you want to do is hold the knife edge perpendicular to the fatwood and scrape up and down. This creates very fine dusty shavings that light very quickly with a few scrapes of the firesteel. I always start doing it the wrong way and then DOH! and start doing it correctly.
I always thought Snowpeak was expensive but maybe in comparison to MSR it isn't. I have read that other than marketing etc, a lot of times the cost of a titanium product is very dependant upon the exact type of titanium alloy used. Some are much more expensive than others. When the USSR folded, a lot of their military aircraft suppliers had tons of titanium laying around looking for a jet to pop into. Instead, the Ruskies got smart and started talking companies into making stuff out of titanium. I have even seen things like titanium crowbars, expensive and tons of other things you wouldn't think of. So supposedly this is why we see a lot of things in titanium. One other comment on the titanium fry pans though I have beat it to death already, is that the titanium fry pan does tend to warp on the bottom if overheated and it does not pop back into shape and it is too "springy" to reshape it your self, at least that is my experinence. I never had that problem with any aluminum cook ware. All my other titanium stuff is fine, but maybe I just never overheated it. Jim Henderson
Hey, Jim and Diesel, Many thanks for the info on Titanium cooksets. I have read that there are, indeed, differing grades, and qualities of the Titanium that's being used for cooksets, and other things, and that makes perfect sense. I like Spudz' comment about MSR = "More Sheckels Needed", though, whether it's true, or not!! It appears that, just from a casual glance, the MSR stuff is roughly twice as expensive as the comparable Snowpeak Titanium. I do think that the overall quality of the Titan Kettle that I have from MSR is very high. I would like to compare it, directly, to the Snowpeak stuff, and may have to head down to REI to do that, one day. Not today, however, as I'm here enjoying our rain, which continues to fall, steadily, and continually! Just what we need right now!! Thanks, again, Friends! Much appreciated! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
