Quote Originally Posted by cofi View Post
What is the benefit of these(the good ones) vs carrying a big lighter?
they don't go bad or evaporate. I have yet to find a reasonably priced lighter that doesn't lose the fuel over time.

The Chinese ones may not have good mag, but the sparkers still work. I generally peel the sparker bars out and pack along with a tube of dryer lint and petroleum jelly which is easier to light. I know I have some harbor freight versions among my stuff, but I have been gifted so many different sparker sticks over the years, I am not likely to fall back to scraping magnesium to start a fire.