Firesteel Decay in Storage

[GreekMan]

hi all!

Over a Greek survival forum we had 3 cases of firesteel degradation in survival kits.

in 2 cases there was erosion on the rod and a fine grey dust all around.

The other case was scary.





flint dissapeared completely!

All the kits were sealed and left stored. There were no indications of moisture (I am adamant in my case) but all kits had Bic lighters in them, that they were not jammed in anyway to avoid gas leakage.

What is going on?

[Nicodemus]

Mischmetal is mixed with iron oxide and magnesium oxide to make Ferrocerium sparkers. It is very susceptible to corrosion through air and moisture.

If you take a Bic lighter out of its original packaging to repackage it you have the potential of picking up moisture.

You can coat firesteels (ferro rods) in Fingernail Polish or Plasti-Dip to help protect them from corrosion. Obviously, you'll need to pull off the Plasti-Dip or scrape off the Fingernail Polish before they'll spark.

I just let some of my firesteels develop the outer layer of corrosion and scrape that off before use.