Swiss Safe 5-in-1 Fire Starter with Compass, Paracord and Whistle (2-Pack) for Emergency Survival Kits, Camping, Hiking, All-Weather Magnesium Ferro Rod (Glow in The Dark)

Disappointed but that’s because I didn’t look closely enough at the pictures nor did I read the description or reviews. I wish I had. Would not have gotten it.First off there is a double sided blade just hanging from the Lara cord with no case. Huge cut hazard. The blade has no handle to hold it making it unusable to cut small branches into kindling.The para cord is two feel long tops so it’s too short to use for anything other than keeping the blade attached to the striker.The compass is soooo tiny I can barely read it and it didn’t really work anyway.Haven’t tried the whistle because I don’t care at this point. These are going back or going in the garbage. I got a knife that has a fire starter built into it and the knife is in a case. Will probably get a couple more of those them get paracord, compasses and maybe whistles separately. Will be more expensive but everything will be more useful so it’s worth it.

Works as expected. The compass is tiny, but OK for basic survival purposes. Same for the whistle, better than nothing and if you're lost in the woods this may help you get found again (carries further than a shout and saves your energy). The glow in the dark whistle and lanyard is a good idea if you drop it in the dark (but must be charged in the light so not much good if you've kept it in a dark place). I can see this as quite useful, your fire making tool is not something you want to lose. The main thing of course is the magnesium fire starter and sparking tool. Easy to use, just shave off a small pile of magnesium with the included saw blade over your tinder and strike some sparks until it ignites. Simple. You get two units which is a good value.UPDATE, got a chance to really try it out. Using regular cotton wool from an aspirin bottle as tinder, feathered it out and with 5 minutes of practice I could light the tinder with a few strokes. Did not really need a lot of magnesium scrapings, just enough to lightly coat the tinder with scrapings ( more needed if damp conditions). There is a sawblade edge and a burred edge on the scraper. The burred edge gave me the quickest lights.

I really want to give this item a 5 star rating and if I could give it for customer service alone I would because it is phenominal. The fire starter itself is a good size and simple to use even for beginners. The compass is questionable but in an emergency it'll get you by. The whistle will not save you air because you have to blow pretty hard to make it work efficiently but it will save you from going hoarse from yelling. The kicker though is that the ones I received do NOT glow in the dark which was the selling point for me. I know they have to charge in sunlight for some time but I've had 1 set in my windowsill in direct sunlight for 2 continuous weeks and still they don't glow. Another set its been almost a week and same thing. Bottom line, its a great firestarter from a fantastic company but that's it. Don't expect to find it in a blackout.

My 10-year-old grandson is obsessed with practicing his firestarting skills (yes, always under supervision). His other flint wore out in a short time. He came online with me and chose this one because it looked sturdy, it had a compass, and a whistle! And he really liked how sturdy it looked. I ordered two, and they are everything they promised. There is one confusing aspect, which is that the directions refer to shaving the magnesium, and there isn't any magnesium on it that we can see (my husband is very experienced with the magnesium, and brought up another flint piece that DID have magnesium, and it's unmistakable.). Not sure what the mixup is, but overall, we love it because it is so well-built and practical for our outdoor nature-loving family.

I bought this fire starter as an early Christmas present, and as such I didn’t open the box but wrapped it up. When my husband opened it on Christmas Day, we discovered one of the two fire starters in the box was smashed to pieces. Very disappointing as we wanted two to store in our camping gear. Unfortunately the return date has passed so I can’t get a refund.