Smith's Pack PAL 50635 Tinder Maker with FIRE Starter Yellow

Very rarely do you find a product so simple and reliable that does EXACTLY what it claims to do. So much so, that as I write this review, I have added 4 more to my cart. Not because they will break, but because as soon as someone manufacturers a great product, they either change it or stop making it. I’m ahead of the curve now! I have soooo many fire steels, fire starters, kindling makers and such that work ok but nothing like this. I let my 10 year old son ( aka mini Bear Grylls) open it and make me a fire. He scraped a pile of kindling from a piece of fat wood, struck the fire steel six swipes and voila! FIRE. It lit so quickly (which I didn’t expect) we had no kindling ready. Then he found a piece of wood in the woodshed (probably maple) and light it did! Took 6 sparks as well! When we WERE ready with kindling now, we lit another pile. Practice makes perfect, right? I’ve attached some pics of our adventure in the wild backyard. In short, it works phenomenally. Thank you, Smith’s, for making such a great product.

Nice to have to make emergency tinder if you are an outdoors person. It could be used in other applications but I use it to break down fat wood and put into my fire tin. This way I don't have to use the spine of my knife. I can process tinder at home or base camp and have batches of tinder ready to go as needed. The kit is small enough to carry but unless your going out for a long hike or trip I would keep it at home and just take small tins or bags of tinder with you. I do recommend for its ease of use and compact size. It is also budget friendly.

Very nice little tinder maker. Actual size is 3" long, 1.5" wide, and 1" deep, and stows easily in a backpack. A friend on youtube (Fabkreations) who makes awesome portable steel rocket type stoves and grills recommended it, and it works really well. I grind up a bit of fatwood, bag it in a ziplock, and stow it in my backpack for camping. Use this with soft wood (pine) only. I'm pretty sure you will damage this trying to make tinder out of oak or some other hardwood. When grinding up sappy wood like pine fatwood, it cleans up like new using alcohol and a paper towel. This thing is really a cheese grater. Cheese graters come in coarse, fine, and very fine. This grater is "fine". I would have given it 5 stars except, I didn't appreciate having to pay for a virtually worthless ferro rod & striker. This thing shouldn't cost more than a few bucks, but they got it up to $11 by adding a cheap 50 cent fire starter. But the extra $ is just a sort spot, not a deal breaker for what this does, and how handy it is. Cheers

The box is of adequate size to prepare a good amount of tinder for fire prep. Experimented with fat wood, oak, and damp pine. Approximately one-half of the box was full of combined shredded material. Place the shredded material onto firesafe surface. Thedry wood lit quickly creating enough heat that then dried the damp pine out a bit easier to allow for starting. “Yabba dabba doo! Caveman make fire...ummm good.” Note: the ferry rod is skinny, just smaller in diameter than a No. 2 pencil. The striker works quickly proving a shower of sparks. Would do great as a backup rod. The grating tool on the box is sharp, so captain obvious need not remind you to keep this away from small children, and to use common sense when using. For those bound to ask, Yes, dump the shavings out, do not start a fire in the box. Another good alternative to other methods of tinder prep.

I was a little skeptical of this item but thought would give it a try. I won't go camping or into the woods without it ever again. I thought I knew how to make tinder but this little tool really does the job, faster and better than I ever could. The spark striker could be a little better, and I would recommend getting something other than what it comes with to do that part of the job, but even without that it is an amazing little tool. It makes the job of creating a bush craft fire so much easier that I would rather us it that standard sticks and matches to get a fire going. I recommend you buy this just to try it out just to see how effective and quick it is at doings its intended job. Who ever designed this got it 100% on the money.

This is a very useful piece of equipment, especially for minimalist backpackers. Using a ferrous rod fire starter by itself is an acquired skill that is challenging to use in ideal circumstances. The tinder box is a great source of dry tinder, by allowing moist exterior to be scraped away until dry wood is exposed and converted to usable dry tinder. I carried a miniature carpenter’s planer for many years but it was quite heavy for it’s size. This item is small, light, and self contained as the striker can be stowed inside the box and the tinder grater reversed to protect your hand from unexpectedly rubbing against it when packed in your backpack or stuff sack.

feral rod to small and handle broke first time i used it but the tinder maker works well so for that part it is worth the price

I’ve been using the Smiths Tinder Maker the past 3 months during my solo trips. I found this very easy to use in the field. I found scraping the box against sticks is much easier than rubbing the stick on the box. I also use it to help form the handles for my tomahawk. I’m not a big fan of the small ferry rod and striker. I removed them and added my own ferro rod and striker. Another suggestion is to remove the cord that holds the ferro rod and connect a small d ring. I find it much easier to use the ferro rod when it is not connected to the tinder box. Last item worth noting is the box and wood grater is very solid and I will make a zip lock bag full of tinder at home and always have dry and quick lighting tinder. For 11 bucks, you can’t beat it. Highly recommend

This is supposed to be used for wood, therefore giving tinder. If you use it on candles you will end up with a far better fire starter when used with cotton balls. Try it!!

Tenía tiempo buscando este producto, desde que vi su fácil manejo y su pequeño tamaño me conquistó. Como es de esperarse, por ser de la marca reconocida Smith's, es de calidad y en unos segundos tienes una yesca para realizar fuego, incluso si está mojada la madera. Además me regalaron una linterna.

より硬派なキャンプがしたくて購入しましたが全く使えません。 良く言えばコンパクトですが小さすぎる為削る量も非常に少ないので火口にすら成り得ないでしょう。 付属のメタルマッチも見栄えを良くするためのお飾りです。実用ではありません。 使用後の冷めた頭で考えたら100均程度の作りで何故5000円近くもして買ってしまったのか...と後悔しかありません

This thing works amazing for shaving down a piece of wood the box actually fills up quite fast.... Recommendation only use this on softwood like pine

Really good and nice to be small to have in a survival pack thank you