Whether you’re camping or fleeing a crash site, if you’re out in the woods sooner or later you’re going to need a fire. GearScout picked up a 23 different pieces of fire starting gear to see what deserves a place in your camping kit or bug-out bag.

The mechanics of fire starting are simple. Let’s just sync up the diction. An intense spark ignites a highly flammable tinder, which burns long enough to ignite larger pieces of kindling, which burn long enough to ignite your fuel, usually logs of firewood.

The two ends of the spectrum are car camping and survival. If you’re outfitting a SHTF kit, choose your kit based on size/weight vs. reliability. If you’re roasting marshmallows with the kids, ease-of-use is likely your deciding factor.

You’re in the middle if you’re loading up a pack and heading into the backcountry for a week. In this gray area you’ll need to weigh these factors more carefully.

The no-BS +/- points in this 4-part post should help you choose quickly whether you’re trying to impress your camp mates or save your ass when the sun goes down.

All modern ignitor rods are pretty much the same. They are made from ferrocerium that is formed into a rod that is scraped with a piece of steel to create a spark. Long ago they were made of flint, but now metallurgy has given us a more reliable alloy that’s made up of iron, cerium and magnesium with a few other metals mixed in. Most ferrocerium rods are chemically identical, so we looked for physical properties to differentiate them. Longer and thicker rods provide more surface area and are easier to control during the scraping stroke. Technique is important, and long, forceful strokes are going to produce lots of sparks, and short, choppy scrapes are less effective.

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Get it going with this stuff. You could look for tinder (cat tail fluff, bark shavings, pine needles) when you’re cold and wet, or you could pull out your stash of manufactured pyronics (I made up that word) and get warm before things get nasty. We tested each of these out and documented their burn-times.

Not all storm matches are created equal. Some perform when others won’t, some catalyst material so far down the matchstick that you’ll burn your fingers while using them. Some catalyst coatings are thicker and more easily lit than others.

Need fire, not fuss? Go with a lighter. Just don’t depend on it. Fuel or flint may run out when you need it most. Butane lighters are notoriously fickle when used at or below freezing temperatures. As with all things mechanical, beware of Murphy.