Exotac Fire Starters

What Exotac makes for hunters and campers

On this site, Exotac covers two product types: fire starters and tinder. The grid above also holds the toolROLL, a roll-up carrier for a fire kit. Everything in it is small enough to ride in a pocket, a pack lid or a loop on a knife sheath.

The lineup falls into four groups:

• Ferro rods with a built-in striker: the nanoSTRIKER XL, polySTRIKER and polySTRIKER XL
• Ferro rods with a tinder capsule: the fireROD and fireROD XL
• A flint-wheel spark tool: the nanoSPARK
• Tinder and a carrier: tinderZIP, quickLIGHT and the toolROLL

Exotac also makes the titanLIGHT, a refillable lighter, plus matches and a match case. This site doesn't list those on this page.

The grid filters by type and changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the groups and what separates them, not about how many are listed this week. Most of the specs in the grid came from Amazon listings, and the grid marks those. Where I checked the maker's own product page, I say so. A dash in the grid means nobody told us, not zero.

Quick glossary, since it matters on every line below. A ferro rod is a stick of ferrocerium, a man-made alloy that throws hot sparks when you scrape it with a hard edge. Exotac says its rods spark at roughly 5,500°F. The spark doesn't start a fire on its own. It lights tinder, and the tinder lights the kindling.

Lineup notes: the Exotac fire starter families

nanoSTRIKER XL: the keyring rod

The nanoSTRIKER XL is the one people search for by name. Exotac describes it as a collapsible ferro rod where "the striker, the rod, and the lanyard are all part of one object." Nothing to drop in the leaves.

What the maker lists:

• Rod: replaceable, 1/4 inch
• Striker: stainless steel with a tungsten-carbide insert
• Size: collapses to about 3.65 inches and rides on a keyring
• Weight: 0.95 oz
• Body: CNC-machined in-house in the USA from 6061 aluminum, then anodized
• Lanyard: 550 FIRECORD, whose inner strand can serve as tinder

Exotac says it's waterproof and that the rod sparks wet or dry. It also suggests it for lighting gas and alcohol stoves and grills. A keyring fire starter beats one left in the truck. (The truck was a quarter mile away. The stove was right there.)

polySTRIKER and polySTRIKER XL: the plastic pair

Same idea, lighter body. The polySTRIKER is molded from recyclable ABS plastic, about 4 inches long, under 0.5 oz, with a 3/16-inch rod rated for up to 1,000 strikes, per Exotac. The tungsten-carbide striker snaps into the handle when it's not in use.

The polySTRIKER XL scales it up. Exotac lists a 5/16-inch rod rated for up to 10,000 strikes, a bigger handle and a weight of about 1.4 oz. The maker says to pick the XL when you expect to use it with gloves, in winter or as your main fire starter, and the standard one as a deep backup.

That's the honest split. A thin rod in cold fingers is like threading a needle with mittens on. Renee watched me try once. She went inside for cocoa and came back out before I had sparks.

fireROD and fireROD XL: rod plus tinder storage

The fireROD is built to ride in the ferro loop on a knife sheath, per Exotac. The rod is 5/16 inch and rated for up to 10,000 strikes. The aluminum body holds a sealed capsule for quickLIGHT tabs, natural tinder or water-purification tablets, and the maker says it's waterproof. The rod is replaceable with a standard or XL refill.

The fireROD XL is the oversized one. Exotac lists:

• Rod: 1/2 inch, up to 20,000 strikes
• Size: 6 inches long, 3.8 oz
• Storage: a waterproof tinder capsule sized for quickLIGHT
• Extra: about 12 inches of heavy-duty repair tape wound on the body

The maker calls the XL "a deliberate piece of kit rather than an everyday-carry item." I respect a company that tells you its own product is heavy. Saves me weighing it on the bait-shop scale.

Both fireRODs are meant to be struck with the sharp spine of a knife, angled, with firm, quick pressure, per Exotac. The ferro rod page covers rod diameter and strikers across brands.

nanoSPARK: a flint wheel, not a rod

The nanoSPARK is the odd one in the grid. Exotac says it uses a flint wheel with larger, deeper teeth, not a scraped ferro rod, and that a ferro rod throws more sparks per strike. The wheel is meant for fluffed, high-surface-area tinder like quickLIGHT tabs, or for lighting a camp stove.

Per the maker: 0.5 oz, 2.62 inches long, about 5,000 sparks per flint, and room for up to five spare flints in the capsule. O-rings seal the tinder capsule and the flint screw. Exotac says it's designed for one-handed use with practice. Practice is the word to underline. The fire starters page covers spark tools that aren't ferro rods.

Tinder and the toolROLL

The tinderZIP is a zipper pull with a red flammable core inside a black sheath, so tinder stays on your jacket. Exotac lists it at 3 inches and 0.06 oz, with a burn of about one minute once lit. The maker's spec sheet says it resists water; knock the water off and fluff the end before lighting.

quickLIGHT is dry-treated cotton tinder. Exotac says each tab burns for one to two minutes, beads water instead of soaking it up, and can be snuffed out and relit later. It's sized to fit the capsules in the fireROD, fireROD XL and nanoSPARK. The grid lists a 12-count pack. More on tinder types is on the fire starter sticks page.

The toolROLL is a carrier with five elastic slip pockets, five mesh pockets and hook-and-loop straps, per Exotac. It comes empty. The maker says a full fire kit in it "packs down to the size of a burrito." Walt asked what kind of burrito. I said a Wawa one. He said that's not a unit.

How to choose within the Exotac lineup

Pick the rod size for your hands and your season

Rod diameter is the deciding spec, and the grid's rod field sorts it. Across the lineup it runs from 3/16 inch on the polySTRIKER up to 1/2 inch on the fireROD XL. On Exotac's numbers, a thicker rod is rated for more strikes. The maker also says a bigger rod and handle are easier with gloves and in the cold. If you hunt late season, that matters more than the ounce you'd save.

Decide whether the tool carries its own tinder

The fireRODs and the nanoSPARK hold tinder inside. The nanoSTRIKER and polySTRIKERs don't; they carry a FIRECORD lanyard whose inner strand burns as emergency tinder, per Exotac. If you want one object that does the whole job, start with a capsule. If you already keep tinder somewhere else, a striker on a keyring is less to carry.

Decide where it rides

• Keyring or pocket: nanoSTRIKER XL, polySTRIKER, nanoSPARK
• Knife-sheath ferro loop: fireROD, which Exotac designed for that
• Pack: fireROD XL, polySTRIKER XL
• Jacket zipper: tinderZIP

My one opinion on this page: carry a spark tool even if you carry a lighter. Exotac's own titanLIGHT page says butane won't vaporize below freezing and that piezo igniters are often the first part to fail on a cheap lighter. A ferro rod has no fuel to run out of. That's the checkable reason, and it comes from a company that sells both.

Using any Exotac ferro rod

Exotac's instructions are the same across its rods: build a loose bundle of fine, dry tinder first. Wrap the lanyard around a few fingers to steady the handle, hold the striker at an angle, and scrape with moderate, quick pressure. Gerber's how-to adds a control trick: hold the striker steady just above the tinder and pull the rod back toward you, so the sparks land where you aimed them.

Real talk: the tinder does most of the work. A shower of sparks on a damp leaf is a light show, not a fire. Fluff the quickLIGHT or the tinderZIP end before you strike.

Strike inside a fire ring, away from dry grass, with water nearby. Keep a fire starter in the fire kit, not in a kid's pocket. Fire rules and burn bans vary, so check local restrictions before you strike anything.

When you're done, put the fire out the way Smokey Bear's guide says: drown it, stir the ashes, drown it again, and feel for heat with the back of your hand. If it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave.

Spare parts and care

Exotac builds most of its tools so the part that wears out can be swapped:

• fireROD: the rod takes a standard or XL refill kit, per the maker
• nanoSTRIKER XL: a refill kit with a new 1/4-inch rod
• nanoSPARK: replaceable flints, with room for up to five spares in the capsule
• quickLIGHT: snuff a tab out once the kindling catches and relight it next time

A ferro rod doesn't need much else. Exotac says to pat a wet rod dry before you strike it. Check the capsule seals on the fireROD and nanoSPARK when you restock tinder, since they're what keeps it dry. And put the tool back in the same pocket every time. A fire starter you can't find in the dark is a fire starter you don't have.

Exotac facts

Here's what I could verify on the maker's own site:

• Company: a family-owned small business just outside Atlanta, Georgia, started by a Purdue engineering graduate
• Where made: in the USA, with nearly all manufacturing steps in its own factory; the aluminum bodies are machined in-house
• Warranty: a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects on all products
• Spare parts: replaceable rods and flints, sold as refills

The maker's site doesn't give a founding year, so it's left out.

Pack a spare quickLIGHT strip in the toolROLL and another in the truck. One for you, one for Walt, who will have forgotten his.