BlastMatch from Ultimate Survival Technologies

The Blastmatch is a Ferrocerium fire starter designed to be used one handed. Obviously this would be a great advantage during a possible emergency situation where the user could be injured. The spring loaded design helps push the Ferrocerium rod out as we open the ABS plastic shell. Once the BlastMatch is opened, we place the rod at an angle (@45 degrees) and by simply pushing down create a spark. The shower of sparks created by the BlastMatch on the down stroke is the largest spark I have used so far.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Material, Flint Unit: 7/16 inch diameter spring-loaded flint bar in ABS case
Length (closed): 4 inches (10.2 cm)
Weight: 2.7 oz (76.6g)

The diameter of the rod is a about a half of an inch (1.3 cm). This is a larger diameter than a lot of Ferrocerium fire starters available. The larger rod increases out chances of ignition by creating a much larger (hotter) spark. This can make the crucial difference when working with adverse weather and higher humidity. As with any other fire starter, choosing the appropriate tinder is the key to success but in less than perfect conditions we want to use anything that will give us an edge.

Here we use a piece of poplar bark to help us block the wind. After collecting dry tinder, we place the tip of the Blastmatch rod on the ground and push down at an angle. Note: Make sure to place the tinder in front of the match where the majority of the sparks will be placed on your tinder.

One stroke and the tinder ignited. The tinder was made out of dry grass, shredded poplar bark and dandelion clock. As you can see we are able to create a spark using only one hand. The spark is large enough to easily ignite fairly dry tinder. Ultimate Survival Technologies Strike Force is its predecessor. The Strike force has a small internal compartment that can be used to store tinder. This handy fire starting tool comes with one block of Ultimate Survival Technologies WetTinder. WetTinder will burn in wet condition and seems to be a great way to carry waterproof emergency tinder.

We are looking forward to testing more of Ultimate Survival Technologies products.