I've been looking for fire starters for a long time. The ones with the magnesium and the small rod/scraper just aren't durable enough for our needs. I asked a friend of mine, who had a long Army career, what he recommended and he said the US BlastMatch.I found a video on how to use the BlastMatch and I was surprised how easy it looked to use with just one hand. All the other strike kits required two hands. As I get (a bit) older I find my hands are not be as nimble as they were all those years ago so this unit started to look more interesting.I ordered two of the units from Amazon (Acme Approved) and they were in our mailbox within just a few days. I was curious, having seen the video, if this was a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Once I was able to extract one of them from the manufacturer's package, I read the back of the package to see if the instructions were the same as I remembered in the video. They seemed to be the same.The fire starter looked like the one in the video. I put a cotton ball on an old paint lid we keep around for these kinds of things, lightly pushed in the "striker tab", and pushed down. You have to do this a couple of times initially to remove the protective black oxide coating. The third push lit up the cotton ball like the 4th of July. I was taken by surprise because I just didn't put that much effort into pressing the striker tab or pushing down on the flint. With ONE hand! There were a lot of big sparks, not little wussy ones.Another nice feature is the flint rod easily turns so you're not using the striker against one area all the time and this gives the unit longevity. If the unit gets wet, simply wipe off the water and you can use it immediately.When I was through playing.... uh.... experimenting..... I flipped the end cap up and over to go on top of the flint and pushed it down so the flint was enclosed. It's self-packaging. When I get ready to use it again I push up on the end cap and rotate it 180 degrees to be a part of the bottom I push on to get sparks. Someone put a lot of thought into making this fire starter.Here are the directions on the back of the package:1. Place thumb on BlastMatch cap next to the striker tab, against the lip of the cap, exposing the spring-loaded flint bar.2. Push end cap over flint bar and slide to rear of BlastMatch body. Fit cap on rear of BlastMatch body.3. Place thumb on striker bar and press down with medium pressure. (Reviewer note - I used "light pressure")4. While maintaining pressure with your thumb on the striker tab, plunge the body of the BlastMatch down the striker bar. Initiate a few strikes to remove black oxide coating and expose bare flint.A "WetFire" cube is included in the package. You scrape the cube to get some starting tinder.I'm so pleased with the BlastMasters. I thought I would never find a product durable enough to go in our survival gear. I read the comment where the reviewer said it was not for survival situations because you can't light things you find in the woods. That depends on a lot of factors; however, any survivalist/camper/hiker knows to carry flammable material to use with nature's combustible material (dead leaves, dead grass, dry pine needles, etc).

I bought the Blastmatch Fire Starter as a lark, looking to round out my fire starting kit. After experimenting with it a short time, I was VERY impressed with both the amount of sparks/heat generated by the Blastmatch, and the ease with which it lit my fires. Yes, it does help to have a firm surface to press down on, but this is not essential: take your tinder bundle and make a bird's nest with it, grip the Blastmatch with your thumb on the handle and your middle finger on the end of the rod, place your bird's nest close to it, and squeeze. You may singe your finger a bit, but that's a small price to pay in a survival situation. And if the Blastmatch plastic housing completely breaks, you still have a perfectly good, thick, ferro rod with thousands of strikes left. Remove the rod, drill a lanyard hole in one end, attach some paracord and a striker such as a small hacksaw blade, and you've got a new fire starter. Well worth the small amount of money to get sparks and heat of this caliber.

Works. I ordered an orange one but I got the yellow one. I decided the color did not matter. I’m very familiar with Ferro rods and fire craft. This works pretty darn well. I like how you can pin your tender with it. Makes it very easy to hit it with sparks. Only thing is I question its durability. It just feels flimsy. I understand the rod being loose so you can rotate it ect. I just hope it lasts and does not break. I’d like to see this but made with an aluminum or stainless body and the ability to replace the Ferro rod. But for 20 bucks if you wear it out just get another one. I’m gonna use it exclusively for the next 6 months or so to build my campfires and light my grill. If it holds up will I’ll change my stars but I’d say this has a place in my fire kit.

Good job

The blast match is a nifty thing to have when you need it. It is made well enough for its purpose and it isn't too large to carry along, although sturdier and smaller would be good. I got into trouble attempting to cross a stream while dragging a deer this December here in the Kodiak islands. I got dunked in ice water with temps around 15 degrees, a 25kt wind was blowing and I had almost 2 miles of steep little hills covered with knee deep snow ahead of me. It wasn't as much fun as it sounds. Anyway, I was able to make a fire in spite of the fact that I could not bend my fingers to operate a lighter. Regular Bic lighters were my "go to" till I got one of these. You can use the blast match with one cold hand where you honestly couldn't flick a lighter to save your life. Sure, a guy might think of some way to make it "better"; reduce size or make it lighter, make it laser guided and have it delivered by miss America or something like that, but, I can't deny results. Five stars.UPDATE!Well... more of a qualifying statement really.I've continued to use the blast match (same one) for the better part of a year now and I guess I've started 70 or 80 fires with it since that first use above. The thing is still going. *My qualifier: Don't go running into the woods expecting to point the blast match at a wet log in the rain and have the thing burst into flames; the planet cannon from the deathstar it is not. You still need DRY, fine, tinder or, better yet, do what I do which borders on cheating - I use little blocks of WetFire AND magnesium fire starter as well when I've got both to use and things are wet. I pile my tinder and wood shavings around the end of a sturdy chunk of wood that serves as my base plate. Generally my base piece is just a short stick that I've batoned in half, length wise, with my Ka-bar. I put the WetFire block on my flat base piece, shave a layer of magnesium on top of that and then strike the blast match next to it to set the thing off. That'll frikken do it I tell you, wet wood or no. Pull a bullet and substitute gunpowder if you can keep it dry and that will work well too. As long as you can supply enough in the way of twigs and/or wood shavings your little piece of WetFire should burn long enough to keep your fire going initially and you can add bigger pieces and generate enough heat to dry wet stuff as you go. It's so much easier than just dry tinder it's almost embarrasing. "well why not just use a lighter then?" you ask. A lighter will work with Wetfire of course, just so long as the lighter stays dry and/or does not/has not run out of fuel or it isn't so cold the lighter doesn't want to work. I don't bother dealing with those problems anymore and I say I'm so much the better off for it.The Blast Match still gets Five stars.

LE point fort de cette article c'est qu'on peut l'ouvrir et l'actionner d'une seule main; c'est facile d'emploi et sécurisant, c'est pour ça que je l'ai acheté pour ma mère. Personnellement je continuerais de me servir de firesteel classique car le Blastmatch est quand même cher (d'ou 4 étoiles au lieu de 5). Je ne sais pas ce que ça vaut dans le temps; le ressort tiendra t-il le coup? Le système de verrouillage sera t-il fiable? Je ne sais pas. Fait de belles étincelles, semble robuste.

As described at best price on internet for the UK. Works surprisingly well. Good buy.

Endlich habe ich einen Blastmatch!Gefällt mir sehr gut. Ist zwar nicht ganz billig, aber mir istbes das Wert.Der Feuertahl wackelt zwar ein bisschen und die hülle wirkt ein klein wenig billig, allerdings gibtnes für mich bis jetzt nichts zu beanstanden. Der Durchmesser vom Feuerstahl ist ziemlich groß. Ich hoffe ich werde lange freude daran haben. Habe schon Erfahrungen mit anderen Feuerstählen gemacht, allerdings stand der Blastmatch wegen der einhändigen Bedienung schon länger auf meiner Wunschliste und er gefällt mir sehr gut.

La primera impresión es buena pero una vez en la mano deja mucho que desear.Probablemente no forme parte de mi equipo pues no me inspira confianza.•Valoraciones:-Materiales: 3/5.Materiales de construcción de poca calidad,el cuerpo de plástico se nota endeble y frágil para este sistema. Remarcar que la tapa del ferrocerio se sostiene sobre dos nervios de plástico bastante delicados.-Funcionamiento: 2/5En funcionamiento no es bueno pues al accionarlo pude comprobar como la cuchilla que incorpora el pulsador es endeble.No genera chispas correctamente, mas bien genera virutas o se resbala sobre el ferrocerio.El único inconveniente que podría pasar por alto es el ruido del resorte que incorpora en el interior.•Conclusion:Si está interesado en este produco le sugiero otros ferrocerios de mayor calidad y prácticamente al mismo precio, sin ir más lejos el hermano de este modelo el "UST StrikeForce" y también el ferrocerio de una famosa marca sueca.

This is my second Blastmatch. The first one had a harder, more brittle ferrocium rod which sparked more freely. Even at first time of use. This one is taking more effort/strikes to achieve same.