Ferrocerium Rod, Stainless Steel Striker
& Jute Cord Product Eco Rating
Ferrocerium is a synthetic material that was created in the early 1900’s. It’s mainly made of Iron and Cerium, often also containing Lanthanum and small amounts of Magnesium, Neodymium and Praseodymium.
Iron is considered to be eco friendly due its durability and recyclability, although in terms of a Ferrocerium Rod, they can rarely be recycled due to use and using it correctly will result in the rod deteriorating. However, as Ferro Rods are usually kept in a hiking pack as an emergency fire starter, if they have not been overly used, due to the amount of Iron, some recycling plants may have the capabilities of melting this item down and recycling it into a new product.
Cerium usually makes up about 30-50% of a Ferrocerium Rod, which is a rare-Earth element.
Ferrocerium Rods are somewhat of an eco alternative to Gas Lighters as they don’t contain Plastic or Butane and last much longer. The mining of the materials and use of rare-Earth elements heavily reduces this products eco rating, even if it is better to have a Ferro Rod in your hiking pack than a gas lighter.
The Fire Strike used to create a spark on the Ferro Rod is Stainless Steel, which is eco friendly due to its recyclability and durability.
The cord holding the Stainless Steel Fire Striker to the Ferro Rod is Jute, a natural, renewable material.
Possibly create sparks with your first strike as many people have claimed to do with this superior and innovatively designed fire starting stick and striker from Wolf & Grizzly. Designed to easily ignite and built to last many thousands of strikes, it doesn’t only shoot off sparks better than a lighter or matches but will also outlast them and have a lower cost on the environment.
This Ferro Rod has a wide surface area and sharp striker, allowing it to easily spark and create a heat of around 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit/almost 3,000 degrees Celsius.
These fire lighting sticks from Wolf & Grizzly are incredibly well designed and engineered for ease-of-use and durability, although we find the most impressive thing about this fire lighting tool is the cord attaching the rod with the striker. The outer layer is paracord and in the centre is woven Jute, which is a plant based material that can act as tinder to light a fire. If you were in the situation where you couldn’t find any dry materials to set the sparks onto, then you could cut open the Paracord, remove the Jute and set it on fire with the sparks generated by the Ferro Rod.
It only weighs 64 grams/2.23 ounces, making it suitable to take hiking.