I’m going to make Black Friday easy for you, at least on my site. I can’t promise that you won’t have to stand in line for 10 hours to snag your cheap HDTV, but I can make buying a flashlight, firesteel, and a few other items easier for you.
Through the end of Monday, November 30, you can use coupon code bf09 for 25% off the below items/categories. I have limited stock on some of the items, but everything not marked with a asterisk (*) can be backordered if I run out. New stock will be here in the next week or two.
I went a little video crazy over the past couple of days, meaning that after being really slack on the blog and video front over the past few months, you now have 12 new videos to suffer through.
The first one shows the butane lighters I stock. I had several requests for this one, which kind of surprised me. I always figured the lighters kind of explained themselves…
I made a video showing the new Firesteel Super Strikers from my store. I was really pleased with the way the strikers turned out. They work as well (or better) than anything else I use, even the squared off spine of a fixed blade, which is impressive considering they are under $2.
I take customer confidentiality very seriously, but I can’t contain it any longer. Les Stroud (or his assistant) ordered a Badger firesteel from me a couple of weeks back. I could tell from the shipping address and email that the order was legit. I sent him about 20 times the value of the firesteel in all kinds of other stuff, so maybe you’ll see a Going Gear product for 1/10th of a second on one of his future shows.
I saw these Kodiak Firestarters at a recent show and was very impressed with how well thought out they were. They incorporate a large magnesium rod, firesteel, paracord with striker, compass, and thermometer all into a stout wooden handle. The firesteel is one of the ones that is harder than the other ones I sell, so it is easier to use, but the sparks do not last quite as long. They still work great for any tinder I could find, especially when used in conjunction with the magnesium.
I have been very impressed with the little guy so far and it is definitely the easiest and most well thought out firesteel based tool that I have ever used. The initial reports had it rated for something like 100 strikes, but it has a 1/4″ firesteel in there that should be good for at least several hundred strikes. The version I stock is the brand new version with the rotating firesteel that lets you rotate the rod to a spot that has not been scraped yet if you want/need to do that for any reason.
Surprisingly, even my wife wanted one. She normally rolls her eyes at any light producing, fire starting, or sharp cutting implements, so having her want one was a bit of a shock to me. She gets all enthusiastic at gun shows when customers ask what it is and launches into a demonstration of fire on one of our tables that will surely get me in trouble with the show owners one day.
They are still plastic like the Blastmatch and Strikeforce, but the small size, light weight, and ease of use with the Sparkie are steps in the right direction for UST.
The site that greeted me upon opening the first box.
Howdy kiddos, what did you do yesterday? Anything fun? I got to cuss about starting my own business and being self employed.
I received a shipment of over 6,000 firesteels that had, well, not the most effective packaging I have ever seen. I cringed when I picked up two of the three 60 lb boxes, not just from the weight, but from the tinkling noises I heard inside. You see, thousands of firesteels are not supposed to make tinkling noises until after I remove them from their packaging. Every single bundle of 14 different sizes of the rods were busted open, save one, and, of course, that was the only one that was in a box by itself.
So, I got to spend several hours yesterday sorting the rods into their appropriate bins. My hands were stained black from the protective coating and I am pretty sure the nice jeans I was wearing are now work jeans.
Halfway through sorting the first box.
The good news in all this is that I have seven new sizes of firesteels, filling in some gaps between the sizes where I thought additional sizes would help. This brings me to a total of 16 different sizes, with a few more on the way in the coming months.
A couple of shipments ago, I decided to name all of the sizes after animals. I had a couple insects in there and some other random critters, but now they are all named after North American mammals. Hopefully a cheetah or leopard did not sneak in there to showcase my ignorance of wildlife.
OK, I admit, these probably aren’t the best tools to use on your next razed earth campaign, but they will help you get a little fire going to warm you and your significant other on a cold night. Here are a few new toys in the store:
I tried really hard to make a video about something other than fire. Those flickering little flames won out in the end though, so here is a video about making a fire starting goo with a couple of very common ingredients:
The goo actually works really well and is fun to make. Be sure to store it in a container that can handle gasoline byproducts, unless you want your whole backpack to smell like a gas station.
After my last video, I had several people ask for another video showing more detailed use of a firesteel with various tinders. I like playing with fire more than the average person and was happy to oblige. I really hope there are no arson cases in my area, because the investigators could just point to my videos and I’d be done.
