Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s Item of the Day is Bayite Ferrocerium Rods.  I wanted to give you guys some options for ferro rod options with various price points and form factors.  In the end a ferro rod is a ferro rod, you are paying for size, shape, someone to have drilled a hole in it and what ever gadget or gizmo it is built into.  I chose Bayite because they have a great rep in the bush crafting and prepper world, great pricing, lots of options and good customer service.The options I have for you today are mostly a diy type of rod, some do come with a key loop but mostly they are just good quality rods.

So before we look at the options what exactly is a ferro or ferrocerium rod?  Simply a rod made with ferrocerium, which is a synthetic alloy that is rather soft (as metal goes) that throws very hot sparks when you shave pieces off of it.  How hot?  Like over 5,000 degrees under the right conditions.

So they make excellent fire starters.  All you need is a bit of tinder, scrape the rod (back of a knife works great) and hot sparks hit tinder and fire follows.  It takes a bit of practice but once you get the feel it is the easiest way to start a fire short of a Bic lighter.  In many ways I feel in some circumstances it is frankly better than a lighter.  No fluid to run out or leak out, etc. and with good tinder if you can’t get a fire with a ferro rod, I am not sure you could with anything short of a gallon of gas and a torch.

Now Bayite has quite a few options for you.  The first one is a set of three drilled rods on key rings.  This set is only $11.49 with free shipping on prime.  So less than 4 bucks each.  These rods are 5/16th in diameter and just over 3 inches long.  This is a nice size for an EDC key ring.  Yet it is long enough to be very usable.  I’d recommend this size for your key chain or small compact kits and projects like lanyards and such.   From a pure price to value stand point, these are one of the best values on the market period.

Next up is one just a bit bigger, this one is 3/8th by 4 inches and will set you back about 7 bucks and change per rod.  While more expensive then the 3 inch rods, you can buy just one if that is all you need and personally I prefer the slightly longer and thicker foot print for ease of use.   More rod equals more fires before you shave it down until it needs replacing.  If I just wanted an EDC Ferro rod for a key chain with no bells and whistles, this is what I would go with.  It isn’t too big to be bulky and in the way.

Now we are going to move up in size to the XL Model which is 1/2 inch by 5 inches and comes in a two pack for about 14 bucks.  Translation you get a lot more rod then the previous model for about the same cost per rod.  But before you go ordering this with plans to use it on a key chain, think about it.  To get the scale in your head, we are talking a 5 inch piece of half inch PVC pipe.  In addition to throwing a shit ton of sparks and lasting damn near forever it would make a damn decent defensive tool on a key chain.

If that appeals to you, well, you can get the same diameter but 6 inches long and it would be a damn decent impact weapon.  The six inch version sells for under ten bucks and that is a lot of fire starting for 10 dollars.  The question you have to ask if you plan to use it for EDC is do you want something that big on a key chain?  To me the answer is no, I see this as a really good tool in a Go Bag or Bug out Bag or Wilderness Kit.

Next lets go to the other side of the spectrum.  Bayite also makes the small 5/16th by 1 inch toggles with two drilled holes that are all the rage right now.  They are also very inexpensive at only 9 bucks for six of them.  I want to be clear these work, you can start a fire with them but it isn’t quite as easy as the full sized rods.  The key is you can build them into things so they become true EDC.  The holes are about this size of parachute cord, so they make good toggles for “survival bracelets”, you can make zipper pulls with them, etc.  Lots of people build them into necklaces and such as well.  I keep one on my Henschel Hat and you don’t even know it is there until you need it.

These are just five of the many options that Bayite offers in ferro rods you can see them all here but these five are the ones I felt would most likely appeal to the TSP community.  I know you guys love DIY projects so I stuck to pretty much stock rods.  They do offer things with handles, lanyards and strikers as well.  Okay let me finish with a cool hack, the best striker to keep with your rod is simply an inexpensive jig saw blade.  Most of you likely have a jig saw and have some laying around.  They throw a great spark and you also have a little saw blade with you as well.  If you buy some for this purpose and want to carry it on a key chain just make sure you get the kind that have a hole in them.

In any event ferro rods belong in your life, the six areas of survival we teach are food, water, shelter, energy, security and health & sanitation.  Folks in many settings the only energy you can create on demand is fire.  It cooks food, boils water, warms shelters, provides security and can even aid in sanitation.  So check out Bayite Ferro Rods today.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – Usually you can scrape up some tinder, say cedar bark, dry grass, etc.  But I don’t leave survival things to chance.  So I always carry tinder on my key ring and in my kits.  My go to is cheap cotton balls, with a dab of Vaseline on them.  If you can’t make a fire with that, your skills need serious work.  My go to for keeping my tinder is the Ultimate Survival Technologies Aluminum 0.5 BASE Case it is cheap, and it just works.  I have one on my key chain that has now been there over 8 years.  These things are only 6 bucks and one of the best kit items I have ever found.