Meritline "Fauxton" Keychains

As you may or may not know, I love getting random little "toys" from Meritline.  Their items come within 3 weeks from China (?) to CA and are only a couple bucks.

This time around, I got "fauxtons" (photon lights) for $1.29 shipped, for a pack of 5 (assorted, random colors).  It was brought to my attention on EDCF and BLF forums on 27 March 2012.  The product was bought that same morning and here I am now, the afternoon of 13 April 2012 with the items in my lap.

I like them a lot considering the cost, brightness, and size.  I love that for a keychain light, these things don't get in the way.  I used to carry a MagLite Solitaire on my keyring, but it proved to be a wee bit too bulky for my liking and not at all bright, even on a brand new battery.  I think the best part of it all is that these fauxtons have actually got an On/Off switch, whereas most similar products have momentary On/Off switches (you have to continue to hold down the pressure in order to keep the light on).

These items don't feel particularly flimsy, but not exactly "robust" either.  But at the cost of what, just a little over $0.25 each?  I'm quite happy.  You can't get too much with a quarter these days.  The reviews on Meritline said that some of the customers' lights came DoA (dead on arrival), but all of mine worked perfectly fine.  Let's see how they hold up.

I'm kind of glad the majority of my colors are white though; it's easier for me to hand these out to friends with such a neutral color.  I hope these go on sale again soon!

Meritline $1.51 Firesteel!

Yay!  Another coupon code for firesteel is up at Meritline.  After tax (and free shipping), my total came to $1.51.  The cheapest I've been able to find around here was a 3-pack for $10.00 + tax (and then the gas or shipping cost to get it).  As shown, it's only got a limit of 600 uses (one per account) so have at it.

Check out my "review" on it here.  It's not as cheap as the last time I'd picked one up but it still is cheaper than anywhere else right now.  For $1.50, that's the same as giving up a tall regular at Starbucks for a day.  :)  I'll probably try to stock up on these each time there's a code as stocking stuffers for my hiking buddies.  Great stuff.

Improving My Firesteel

I love "bushcraft" fun.  There's something about it that just makes me really happy.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, while checking my RSS feed for FatWallet, I'd happened upon a posting for a $0.69 firesteel/"ferro rod" from MeritLine after coupon + free shipping.  I figured it was worth a try.  I'd never ordered from MeritLine before, but I do trust the people of FatWallet; when a deal seems too good to be true or if it's a not-well-known seller, there's always someone who is willing to "test" them out and report back with findings.

Anyway, MeritLine is similar to another site that I used to use, DealExtreme.  They are based in Asia (I'm sure all in China) and have very inexpensive items for sale, all boasting free shipping.  The only "downside" (not going to be bringing politics or economics into this, people!) is that it takes a good 3 weeks or so for your items to arrive.

A couple of days ago, I'd come home from school to find that my firesteel had come home.  At first I couldn't get it to strike with the striker that it came with.  So I went ahead and scraped off the black "coating" of the firesteel itself with my knife to get to the sweet metal under.  The striker still had some problems; it would create great sparks on one side (the shorter side) but would not scrape diddily squat on the other (longer side).  I tried scraping the green paint off of it to see if creating a coarse edge would work, but to no avail.**

After a quick nap, for whatever reason, I woke up and decided to run it through my Smith's knife sharpener/honer.  The result?  The striker works like a charm on both sides!  If out in the wilderness, I would much rather use the intended striker with these firesteels than the blade of my knife.  I don't think any of my knives have a usable backside of the blade for the firesteel; much too thick/rounded.

:)  I'd read a lot of people buying the Chinese made firesteels and be happy with their rod but not the striker itself.  Maybe this is the solution?  Happy firesteeling.  :D  Please be careful.

** I think it's intended that you use the toothy end of the striker to strike the rod, but I find that using the straight sides give me better grip and emits greater sparks; heck, I don't think I've ever been able to create sparks using the toothy side.  I'd figure that since you could use the straight blade of a knife (or its backside) to create sparks, there's no reason that the straight side of the included striker wouldn't work.  :)