Hey Everyone, I'm considering putting a product together and would love some feed back. I want to put together an emergency fire starting kit which would include flint, steel, jute, char cloth, etc. I cant decide between a nice leather pouch or metal tin for storing the kit. If I go with the leather pouch, I will probable include a small metal tin to store the char cloth, and also for use to make more char material.

Any preference? Which one would you prefer?

Crap I just noticed that was my first ever on here... How rude of me.

I could have swore this was the forum with the shed hunting contest each year.

There are so many other things better than flint and steel if you are in a situation where you really need a fire that I would not even consider a flint and steel kit.
If I really need a fire I will use a 9 volt battery and steel wool rather than play around with flint and steel. If you want to impress at a rendezvous, that is one thing, if it is life and death, it is something else. Actually, a butane lighter is your best bet if it is life and death.

I made such a kit years ago. Steel striker, a couple of good flints and a supply of char cloth. It fits inside an Altoids tin, which in turn, fits in a leather pouch that attaches to my belt or I keep in in my pack. A piece of buckskin separates the tools form the cloth. It's possible to use the Altoids tin to create more char if necessary. I've used the Altoids tin to make char made from punky wood and tinder fungus which works as well as cloth. I find the system more dependable than a butane lighter which won't light worth a hoot in cold weather or at high altitude.

invented a cheap fire starter.

There are so many inexpensive firestarters out there, it's crazy. I have a magnesium block with flint and steel striker. it was maybe $5.

I have the same. Used it once in a bad situation and it work better than expected.

I'll admit that I don't carry the kit much any more. A couple of years ago I got several ferrocerium rod fire steels and keep them in my various hunting packs for emergency and regular use. I find them as effective as the flint & steel and I don't have to have char.

I've by and large given up on carrying anything that can get wet and not function. I carry a manmade flint rod embedded in a hunk of magnesium and a steel. Then I'll worry about finding something local to burn. The Mg can get even damp stuff to catch up, a heck of a lot better than flint & steel by itself. I never expect to have to use one, but I start campfires with them each year to stay 'practiced' on doing it, in case I ever need them in an emergency. I have the same cheap - I believe Coleman? - starters in my hunting packs, on my saddle billets, in the storage on my motorcycles, tackle boxes, glove boxes. Never really realized how many I had until now.

What a lot of people call a "day pack" when hunting, I call a "all night pack" (basically my "go bag").

I have probably four (4) different levels of fire building.

It's important.