I found this video a few weeks ago and have eventually re-found it since. It took a bit of looking.
I've had a ferro rod in my pack for years, it was always a back up item. I checked it out when I bought it, packed it away for emergencies and used my lighter ever since.
More recently I changed my thinking to that, if I ever was in an emergency I would want the simplicity of a lighter. So now my "Clipper lighter" with 2 spare flint holders (3 methods of starting fire ) are in my backup kit and I use my ferro rod on a daily(ish) basis.
Over time I have seen lots of videos online where people have really worn out at the tips of their ferro rods. This was weird to me. This is where the video comes in. There are rods on the market with different percentages of materials. Duh, of course.
My rod was bought long ago, probably on eBay or Amazon for £1 to £3. It is one of the harder ones, see the video for details. So pro's and con's on soft or hard, what do you prefer and why?