Magnesium Fire Starter Tool for Hiking, Camping and Backpacking

I bought one of those cool little magnesium fire starter gizmos the other day to see how well it worked to make a fire. I was suprised how well it worked.

How does it work? Take your knife and scrape off magnesium shavings (the whole thing is magnesium) then when you've got a little pile of shavings (on top of your pre-built pile of super-dry tinder and wood shavings or whatever fire starter you can find) you then scrape your knife blade along the very top part of the gizmo pictured and it creates a spark -- that top part is a flint and it sparks when you scrape the steel knife blade on it. So all you need is a knife and this under-$10 gizmo and it's a pretty good all-weather, no-water-concerns fire starter. Bought mine at Walmart in Canada during the summer, but they don't have it now during their winter stock period. Try your local outdoors store.