ferrocerium

Magnesium bars are sometimes sold with a length of ferrocerium cast into one edge.

It is also used in the "flint" (actually ferrocerium) of lighters.

Ferrocerium is used in many cigarette lighters, where it is referred to as "flint".

The mill idea was revived in 1946, based on the developed technology of cigarette lighters and ferrocerium flints.

Modern fire strikers, commonly called "artificial flints", are made from ferrocerium alloys.

A traditional use of cerium was in the pyrophoric ferrocerium alloy used for lighter flints.

In a modern lighter or firesteel, iron is mixed with cerium and other rare earths to form the alloy ferrocerium.

For this purpose, it is blended with iron oxide and magnesium oxide to form a harder material known as ferrocerium.

The sparks from the ferrocerium will ignite the magnesium, which will in turn ignite the tinder.

Because it can produce sparks when wet and can start fires when used correctly, ferrocerium is commonly included in survival kits.

In 1903 Auer von Welsbach won another patent for a fire striker ("flint") composition named ferrocerium.

That model used battery-operated spark-coil ignition; widely sold mid-century models created a spark as modern lighters do using ferrocerium.

The patenting of ferrocerium (often misidentified as flint) by Carl Auer von Welsbach in 1903 has made modern lighters possible.

Its most common use is in the ferrocerium "flint" ignition device of many lighters and torches, although an alloy of only rare-earth elements would be too soft to give good sparks.

Flint and steel used to strike sparks were superseded by ferrocerium (sometimes referred to as "flint", although not true flint, "mischmetal", "hot spark", "metal match", or "fire steel").

Professional backpackers (operating in the wilderness) have however now turned away from the regular Zippo lighter in favor of torch butane lighters which have windproof technology, heavy-duty matches, and ferrocerium rods.

These are simple to light, often using a wheel mechanism that when spun with the thumb creates friction on the internal rod of ferrocerium "flint" and throws a shower of white-hot sparks into the tinder.

Some fire-starting systems use a large ferrocerium rod and a hard scraper to create hot sparks by manually scratching the ferro rod with a knife or sharp object to ignite man-made or natural tinder.

When used in conjunction with char cloth, a small piece of charcloth is wound around the curls and a spark is struck on to it, using either the traditional flint and steel or a modern ferrocerium striker.

Lighters, such as those for cigarettes or grills, use a ferrocerium "flint" for the spark, and gas fuels such as butane, or a liquid naphtha/gasoline-impregnated wick as the tinder and fuel.

Modern ferrocerium firesteel products, commonly referred to as "flint", though having a completely different chemical composition to naturally-occurring flint rocks, used in lighters, torch strikers, "flint and steel" fire starters, etc., contain around 4% praseodymium.

Caption: Bear Claw Leave it to a famous British survivalist to pack a flat-edge knife, flamethrowing ferrocerium rod, LED task light, and two types of screwdrivers into a card the size of your iPhone.

A modern ferrocerium firesteel product is composed of an alloy of rare earth metals called mischmetal (containing approximately 50% cerium, 25% lanthanum, and small amounts of praseodymium and neodymium), plus iron and a small amount of magnesium:

A flint spark lighter works by rapidly rubbing a small piece of ferrocerium upon the sharp edge of any substance that is harder than the rod, However carbon steel works better than most any other material in much the same way flint and steel are used.

However, some manufacturers combine a strip of ferrocerium along with a strip of magnesium in the same item, the idea being that you scrape off a few grains of magnesium into the tinder and ignite it by striking the ferrocerium.