HF Magnesium bar w/striker

[Kong Soo Do]

Looking around the net, I've seen a few people having issues with Harbor Freight & Tools magnesium bars w/striker. Too me, a magnesium bar w/striker is one of the most useful, and possibly inexpensive fire-making tools one can have. Whereas Walmart and sporting goods store have these for around $8, HF has them for $2.49 and often on sale for $1.99. Question is...does it work?

Well, I have a half dozen of them. I have them in the BOB, the GHB's, my EDC, in the saddle of my mountain bike etc. So I figured I try it out personally and see.

It worked fine.

It rained heavily this morning but I was still able to find some tinder dry enough to catch the flame. You need to scrape the black paint of the flint bar, but then it throws spark just fine. I scraped less than the recommended 'quarter size' pile, and scraped a bit on the tinder bundle itself. I fired right up without any issue. It was no different than the bar I bought from Walmart for 4X the price.

Maybe I'll make a quick YT video this weekend, but there are already some HF YT vids that demonstrate the same thing. Bottom line, it is a useful, and inexpensive survival tool.

I like useful and inexpensive :wavey:

 

[Carol]

Personally I wouldn't travel with any gear that I haven't tested beforehand. Have you tried all of your strikers? Harbor Freight strikes me as a place that buys a lot of made in China knockoffs as cheaply they can so they can sell the items at low prices. For that reason, I'd wonder if there was some inconsistency with the metal used.

Useful and inexpensive is indeed good, think I'll take a ride out to pick up a couple of new toys for the backpack

 

[Kong Soo Do]

Personally I wouldn't travel with any gear that I haven't tested beforehand. Have you tried all of your strikers? Harbor Freight strikes me as a place that buys a lot of made in China knockoffs as cheaply they can so they can sell the items at low prices. For that reason, I'd wonder if there was some inconsistency with the metal used.

Useful and inexpensive is indeed good, think I'll take a ride out to pick up a couple of new toys for the backpack

Several YT posts compared them with other brands and they worked just fine. I've tested mine as well and they worked great. Got them in my BOB, GHB's and my EDC's. The black needs to be scraped off the flint to get it to spark, but that just takes a few scrapes with a good scraper or knife.

 

[Carol]

Well, my Harbor Frieght was out of them, so they can't be that bad :lol:

 

[Kong Soo Do]

Well when they restock, don't forget the 20% coupon and the free flashlight coupon :ultracool

 

[shesulsa]

I don't buy from Harbor Freight anymore. The tools I've bought there last for about two weeks before they either fall apart or fail. Something I need to rely on regularly is not something I would buy there. Work gloves, sure, they're expected to wear out. Something I want to rely on in a survival situation? NOT something I would buy there.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

I don't buy from Harbor Freight anymore. The tools I've bought there last for about two weeks before they either fall apart or fail. Something I need to rely on regularly is not something I would buy there. Work gloves, sure, they're expected to wear out. Something I want to rely on in a survival situation? NOT something I would buy there.

Depends on the tool/resource. Just using the HF mag-bar as an example, I've seen no difference between it and other brands except the price. The first one I bought was at Wally World for $7. It didn't do anything the $2 HF didn't also do as well. Another example is the reflective vests. I bought two of them, one for each vehicle. This way if I have a flat tire at night on the side of the road I at least have some reflective clothing for oncoming traffic to see me (in additon to other attention-getters in my GHB). They were just a few dollars each and no different really than others I've seen. I agree that if I needed a long lasting tool that was going to get a lot of use I'd probably go with a name brand like Craftman etc. But with some items, there really isn't any difference beyond the price. The mag-bar is one of these cases.

 

[shesulsa]

Depends on the tool/resource. Just using the HF mag-bar as an example, I've seen no difference between it and other brands except the price. The first one I bought was at Wally World for $7. It didn't do anything the $2 HF didn't also do as well. Another example is the reflective vests. I bought two of them, one for each vehicle. This way if I have a flat tire at night on the side of the road I at least have some reflective clothing for oncoming traffic to see me (in additon to other attention-getters in my GHB). They were just a few dollars each and no different really than others I've seen. I agree that if I needed a long lasting tool that was going to get a lot of use I'd probably go with a name brand like Craftman etc. But with some items, there really isn't any difference beyond the price. The mag-bar is one of these cases.

Pretty much my point, though I'll say the mag bar w/striker my old man purchased there didn't work as well. Took quite a bit of shavings to ignite.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

Comparing HF mag-bars with other brands:

Simple use of the HF mag-bar:

I've used HF mag-bars multiple times without issue. The black coating needs to be scraped off the flint bar first, which just takes a few scrapes. And many people run the scraper forward on the flint rather than holding the flint steady and pulling the mag-bar backwards. This avoids the tinder being knocked away.

 

[James Kovacich]

I'd like to add that HF power tools are cheap for a reason. Now a cheap pair of wrenches for the trunk of your car is a good deal because it's emergency tools that I could afford to lose.

Survival stuff. Todays Army surplus stores stock up on Chinese goods too, so does walmart. Its supply and demand and our wars have put our surplus stores with much less military surplus. I bought 2 survival knives and was surprised how sharp the blade and saw were. I took the button compass from the knifes handle to my local surplus store to replace it with a better one. They checked it out and said it was fine. A button compass is really a last line of defense as far as compasses go. We really should have a better compass and the button compass as backup.

So depending on how you shop there is a lot of usable stuff most anywhere we shop depending on our needs. Surprisingly, the HF red and black alcaline batteries shine bright in my flashlights and seem to be lasting well. They also have disposable ponchos. For disposable goods definately go to HF.

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[James Kovacich]

Does anyone know how many uses from. H F mag bar?

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[Kong Soo Do]

James, I've never used one up but would figure it has to be in the hundreds. I think the flint would give out before you run out of magnesium. Which really isn't a big deal as you can buy ferrocerium rods all day long and twice on Sunday on Ebay for cheap. I would think a $2 HF mag-bar with an extra Ebay ferro rod for about $2 would keep you lighting fires for a long time!