Just a useful suggestion, when ever you are putting your firesteel somewhere where it might get wet and sit for a while (such as outer pocket of a backpack, in my case), buy yourself a little bottle of clear nail polish and coat the rod. I left mine in exactly where I said, and didn't notice til about 6months later (before I got back into camping after many years), due to rain dampening my firesteel it became heavily pitted and I couldn't use it anymore (ended up breaking it because halfway down the rod was the deepest crater.)