$1.99 Magnesium Fire Starter
CosmicJoke
We were at Harbor Frieght today and I decided to spend 2 bucks to try one of the magnesium fire starters they sell. It was cold out and a bit windy, so...
Bushcraft USA Forums
We were at Harbor Frieght today and I decided to spend 2 bucks to try one of the magnesium fire starters they sell. It was cold out and a bit windy, so better weather may have better results.

I scraped a decent amount of the magnesium into some shavings. The scraper is a bit flimsy and it was a bit of a pain. A knife spine would work better. The ferro rod stick glued to the side of it didn't work well with the supplied scraper. Very little if any sparks. After about 15 minutes frustration got me and I came in and got a ferro rod and scraper. Less than a minute later the shavings caught, but I doubt it was the scraped magnesium that took, I believe it was just the wood itself taking the spark and igniting.

It certainly sounds like your issue was with the little piece of painted hacksaw blade scraper and not the bar/rod itself. I have actually had excellent results with them and literally every time they go on sale for .98 cents I'll buy a dozen to give to my friends.

Exhibit 1.......

Otters, eagles and a couple of real zingers....

I took advantage of my day off by taking Ruby and heading up into some country looking for wolves. With all of the deer down low in the winter, I find it pretty productive to hunt along the river edges where I can watch for tracks and also move fairly easily and cover a lot of country. We...

It certainly sounds like your issue was with the little piece of painted hacksaw blade scraper and not the bar/rod itself. I have actually had excellent results with them and literally every time they go on sale for .98 cents I'll buy a dozen to give to my friends.

Exhibit 1.......

Otters, eagles and a couple of real zingers....

I took advantage of my day off by taking Ruby and heading up into some country looking for wolves. With all of the deer down low in the winter, I find it pretty productive to hunt along the river edges where I can watch for tracks and also move fairly easily and cover a lot of country. We...

Dryer lint goes up easily, even more so with an accelerant like pine pitch. I was using just some shavings and scraped magnesium. The video I made showing how little the sparks were/are isn't worth the effort of transferring it to the laptop, then to my external HDD, then uploading it. I sometimes torment myself with the whole video process, but not over this type of thing.

I plan to try this again using either a better scraper or a knife spine. Just didn't feel like trying it tonight.

OK, so I busted out a knife with a sharp spine and gave the budget magnesium bar another go. Night and day difference here! The knife shaved the bar a lot easier and faster and threw a ton more sparks than that flimsy little piece of metal they call a scraper that came with it.

I wouldn't have been upset if nothing had changed because I wasn't going in expecting much. I'm going to put a little of my wife's nail polish on the ferro rod part to help preserve it and toss it in the dash of my vehicle to hang out with the Companion and Eldris HD's in there.

Harbor Freight... I've gotta stay away from that place! Every time I go in there I end up walking out with something!

Last time it was for 2 of those Mag bars, a folding saw and a Camo tarp for shelter.

Stop enabling me, youse guyz!

I was only in there because my wife wanted a couple of things for herself. I picked up a few more packs of AA and AAA batteries and while waiting for the wife to check out I saw the fire starter on the rack by the register. I rolled my eyes, shrugged, and said "Why not?" to the voices in my head telling me not to do it.

I think I've said this before? I hold the knife, edge up, on the ground and scrape the mag across it. It helps keep the mag shavings dropping right down rather than flinging about. Much easier to keep a pile together.

There were two different packaging of the harbor freight mag bars. I used to have a picture but my computer seems to have empty pic folders now? I believe they reaized the negative feed back on the bars and changed something. I've had very good results with the two I have. They burn a little slower than Doans and I think it's a bonus. Doan is extremely hot, but very fast to burn. Like gunpowder.

I think I've said this before? I hold the knife, edge up, on the ground and scrape the mag across it. It helps keep the mag shavings dropping right down rather than flinging about. Much easier to keep a pile together.

There were two different packaging of the harbor freight mag bars. I used to have a picture but my computer seems to have empty pic folders now? I believe they reaized the negative feed back on the bars and changed something. I've had very good results with the two I have. They burn a little slower than Doans and I think it's a bonus. Doan is extremely hot, but very fast to burn. Like gunpowder.

It did burn longer than some of the really old ones I've tried. Using the knife spine was a huge difference, I'll try to remember to scrape the bar on the knife and not the knife on the bar.

@CosmicJoke while you’re coating the rod apply some to the bar. Magnesium has been known to corrode.

I'll add a thin coat to the bar itself.

I have quite a few of these too.

You're 100% on point. The little scraper is junk.

I like to mess around with them now and then. I think they work great. Especially considering I can buy a dozen of them for the price of one Doan's. I do have a couple of them, and other brands. I really don't see much difference between them if you use the spine of a decent knife.

Thank you for the write up and follow up.

I'm a huge fan of cheap, but effective gear.

I have quite a few of these too.

You're 100% on point. The little scraper is junk.

I like to mess around with them now and then. I think they work great. Especially considering I can buy a dozen of them for the price of one Doan's. I do have a couple of them, and other brands. I really don't see much difference between them if you use the spine of a decent knife.

Thank you for the write up and follow up.

I'm a huge fan of cheap, but effective gear.

I like budget gear whenever possible. The problem is you never know if a low-cost item is going to work until you try it for yourself. I was happy with the results using the knife. I honestly can't say if I see myself buying more of them or not. I guess I'll know the answer to that the next time I'm in Harbor Freight.

I like budget gear whenever possible. The problem is you never know if a low-cost item is going to work until you try it for yourself. I was happy with the results using the knife. I honestly can't say if I see myself buying more of them or not. I guess I'll know the answer to that the next time I'm in Harbor Freight.

I hear ya.

Way I look at it, magnesium turns a little spark into a big spark. Even if my EDC Bic that's wrapped in gorilla tape runs out of fuel, I can shave some magnesium onto the tape and flick my Bic.

Boom, fire.

The are 3 parts to the product: 1) chunk of magnesium, 2) ferro rod on the side, 3) scraper. I think we mostly care about #1 and it's hard to see how HFT could get that part wrong, though I wouldn't put anything past them. If #2 or #3 are worse than alternatives, #1 can still be fine. It is just a matter of bring your own ferro rod and scraper.

No need to even carry a magnesium bar in that case. Just carefully scrape the ferro rod to make a small pile of shavings from that to use as an ignitor.

I am trying out a new to me scraper. It is a ceramic scraper that picked from Amazon. I have some "micro" ceramic scrapers but I like how this bigger one has more grip to hold it than the micro. Now that I like this scraper it is unavailable. Update: I have found these on Etsy under Nexland

Harbor Freight seemed to give me dust at first then I got short shavings.

Coghlans gave me decent shavings.

This keychain magnesium rod gave me the longest scrapings.

GOD Bless you and your families

Kenneth

Could the initial dust from the HF bar be because of its unpolished surface when new? Or do you get an impression that the metal itself is different? I have not yet weighed my HF bar but I think a sizeable amount of the weight must come from the ferro rod. So I either should measure the rod and calculate its weight, or else pry it loose from the bar. Then there will be a groove left in the bar, plus the keychain hole. Maybe I can adjust for that. The goal is to calculate the bar's density and compare that to the known density of pure magnesium. Unfortunately I don't have a container really suitable for measuring the bar's volume by immersing it in water. Hmm maybe there are some ways I can try.

Could the initial dust from the HF bar be because of its unpolished surface when new? Or do you get an impression that the metal itself is different? I have not yet weighed my HF bar but I think a sizeable amount of the weight must come from the ferro rod. So I either should measure the rod and calculate its weight, or else pry it loose from the bar. Then there will be a groove left in the bar, plus the keychain hole. Maybe I can adjust for that. The goal is to calculate the bar's density and compare that to the known density of pure magnesium. Unfortunately I don't have a container really suitable for measuring the bar's volume by immersing it in water. Hmm maybe there are some ways I can try.

I never gave it a lot of thought. I personally say most of them are manufactured in the same factory in China and just engraved with different company names. Most likely contracted out and mass-produced like knives, cook gear, packs, etc. I doubt the dust being scraped off initially has anything to do with it. For me was 100% the crappy scraper that came with it. It was very flimsy so it was hard to actually scrape material off and even harder to get good sparks. I pretty much figured that was the issue hence why I tried again the next day using the knife spine with very different results. I'd bet even using a stiffer piece of a saw blade would work better than the supplied scraper. The magnesium itself worked fine as did the ferrocerium rod.