The product works well and as described. I have a couple of cheaper ones, but this one produces a significantly larger spark than those.

One detail I noticed was that my steel striker had a small elevated lip on the edges. I am not sure if this was intentional (I believe it is because it is in the direction of the ergonomic thumb print) or just a manufacturing flaw, but it makes the strike significantly better and produces a much larger spark. If some people have difficulty producing a spark with the included steel striker or on a knife blade, take this into consideration and use an edge that will give a good scraping when producing a spark.

Okay, I am a Ferrocerium lover. I practice making camp fire and collect tinder and kindling. One day I meet this very older Ranger and he sits me down and speaks to me about the difference between the blobby sparks and his Light My Fire Swedish Steel. His LMFS was a few years old and had been used many many many times and showed use. My Ferrocerium rod has been used a lot and looked like it was coming to an end. Yes, I got a LMFS and although the sparks are not blobby chucks, my I think I have something that will last a very long time, even in the worst of conditions.

I absolutely love the Light My Fire Swedish FireSteel!! I have 3 or 4 of these, one in a go bag, one in my every day bag, one in the house, in the car....I keep these things everywhere. I am the type of person that I like to know how and be able to do things for myself, fire starting is no different. My better half (who always steals my lighters btw) could not set fire to a piece of paper soaked in gasoline if her life depended on it, so you can imagine how bad it ticks her off when I can start a fire in the rain with one of these fire steels. I actually use a fire steel to start almost all of my fires now that I have learned how to use them. I still have my first Light My Fire FireSteel and I have probably started 200 fires with it (each fire taking 1-5 strikes) and aside from the black coating being rubbed off where I have ran the striker across it there is pretty much zero wear. I have no problem believing that these things will last thousands and thousands of strikes.

This thing is awesome, solid, and delivers seriously hot sparks. I did not realize how under powered my little magnesium / ferro lighter was until I used this. It is a mass of sparks which provide real heat. I am not to fond of the striker portion, so I use the back of my knife, or leatherman saw which works great. I know it says 12,000 strikes, but I tend to push a little harder in trade for more sparks, so mine will not be reaching 12,000 (personal choice, not problem with the product).

Pros:
-not terribly expensive
-color options are a bonus
-throws good sparks
-comes with a good striker
-whistle is a bonus

Cons:
-striker ergonomics only comfortably allows for 1 grip orientation which is bad once one side of the striker begins to dull and you need to start using the other.
-Ferro rod is rather soft and wears out pretty quickly when compared to other fire steels I've owned in the past such as firesteel(dot com) firesteels.
-whistle is rather finicky and not immediately able to be put into action. You have to fiddle to orient it perfect before it will make noise... Certainly not the best design I've ever seen. This feature is more of just a gimmick as far as I'm concerned. It will work just as long as your not in a terrible rush.