Find your way back to the campfire!

This version of the fire ball striker has a button compass built in to the handle to enable you to keep track of your direction of travel. The fire ball produces sparks of around 3000 degrees in a ball of flame rather than the spread that you get with other steels. Again the steel will last for approximately 12,000 strikes and the sparks will ignite many natural and man made tinders.

So what do our instructors think? Here Jason writes:

"Well, ok lets look at this seriously... at the end of the day this is a good quality fire steel and we should concentrate on that. The button compass is quite quirky and I think makes a nice present. It could come in handy to figure out your rough direction of travel when your not relying on natural indicators such as landscape, the stars or the sun (and there effect!) although we would never travel without a more accurate compass and a map... but a great little extra quirk to a good high quality steel"

Advantages: This method of lighting a fire is used frequently within the industry and is very reliable. The steel produces very hot sparks to form the first part of the fire triangle... heat... you just need to then provide the fuel, oxygen shouldn't be a problem!

Disadvantages: The compass adds another £2 on to the cost of the fire ball but lets face it, it will make someone smile if it is bought as a present and if you buy it for yourself then you'll be popular with everyone else when you wander off in the woods and cannot find your way back!