Hockey Club

Great (2008-09-05)
Works well on starting stuff like dryer lint or vasoline covered cotton balls. Easy to use.

Multiple Uses (2008-09-01)
Typically, for fire starting in the wild I use a Fire Piston, however for camp stoves and/or other butane appliances, Sweedish Firesteel is hands down the best out there. You dont need to worry about matches not lighting due to moisture or high wind, you dont need to worry about lighters running out of fluid or anything like that. Just take your stick and point it toward the object you want to light and in one firm scrape, the striker will produce enough sparks for ignition.

If you (or your scout) plans to use this for camp fires, then the best tinder I have found for this item is something that anyone can make at home; CHAR CLOTH. One strike and the charcloth has enough ember-holes going to create flame upon any foundation for a campfire.

Overall: This is a great item to have on hand and it has so many uses around a camp that you'll never not need one on hand.

Perfect for what it was designed for (2008-08-15)
This is a good product, it is easy to use and produces a very strong spark that will light a fire even in the hardest weather conditions. I tested it while camping in a tropical rainforest in Costa Rica, and it simply worked like a charm. Can't complain about such a single purpose object with such a good design.

Great Product - Slight Learning Curve (2008-05-28)
This product is terrific.

There is a slight learning curve involved with this product that breaks down into two parts:

1) You must know what type of tinder to use for this. If it is not good enough tinder, it will not light.

2) Realize that short, very hard strokes with this is the key. Longer, slightly softer strokes do produce many sparks, but it is the short, repetitive strong ones that create very big and hot sparks which will ignite the tinder into a flame.

Enjoy!

Really really cool, but not as easy as it's cool (2008-05-17)
The sparks fly high and are very impressive, but starting a fire with it isn't easy. The perfect kindling or lots of rubs from the firesteel are neccisary for a fire.
I'm giving it 4.49 stars because its a great device (it can get soaked and still work 2 seconds later), but not a 5 to make sure people realize that (without cotton balls) it does require hard work to start a fire. Although it probably gets easier with experience.