THREE ON-THE-GO, POCKET-CARRY FIRE TOOLS FROM REWILD GEAR

Rewild Gear is a company that stands out from the rest for one reason, especially. Rewild is comprised of four brothers from South Central Kentucky, Adam, Seth, David, and Josh Spears, who have taken their passion for the outdoors to the next level.

A small family-owned business specializing in high-quality, lightweight, durable outdoor gear is what Rewild Gear brings to the table. Keeping conservation in mind, they are building their company slowly, focusing on minimalistic yet high-quality outdoor equipment that will hopefully get people back outside.

A large winter fire was made with the help of the Rewild Gear Pyro Balls. A little extra help on frozen wood is always welcome.

GEAR FOR THE WILD

When I first noticed Rewild Gear, I wasn’t sure what type of company it was. After all, its website features a broad assortment of things, such as a 4-inch fixed-blade knife, a grill, telescopic pocket bellows, a ferrocerium rod, a food utensil, a handsome trucker’s cap, and pyro balls. The company’s specialty wasn’t immediately clear.

The Rewild Gear Fire Kit Bundle consists of the Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod, Firelight Bellows, and Pyro Balls for all-weather fire-making. The whole kit costs $36.

Then it gelled: Rewild Gear is an outdoors gear company specializing in adventure. In no time, I was on the phone with one of the owners, David, to inquire further. I got a detailed picture of the company and its goals. Rewild Gear offers gear that all works together and complements a camp, covering various essential items. I was eager for my order to arrive!

TINDER RIDGE FERRO ROD

This is a long ferrocerium rod with a hand-friendly, bulbous bamboo handle built for comfort, coming in at a total length of 5 ½ inches, with 3 inches of dedicated ferro rod, 0.3125-inch thick.

The Rewild website states that this rod offers 10,000 strikes at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit and was built with thousands of memories around a campfire in mind. A ferro rod is one of man’s only waterproof, reliable fire starters. In the hands of a skilled user, it can be thought of as survival insurance.

A multitool striker with a bottle opener and small measuring ruler (in both millimeters and inches) is included, with a length of 550 paracord (29 inches). The total weight, including the canvas bag, is two ounces.

A dynamic duo. The Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod works well with the Firelight Bellows. These two help your fire be all it can be.

FIRELIGHT BELLOWS

The bellows has one job: deliver a concentrated stream of oxygen to the heart of the fire. This collapsible, stainless-steel magic wand can add the often most neglected part of the fire triangle: air. I always subscribe to the HAF acronym: heat, air, fuel. Take away any portion of this triangle and you have a struggling fire or no fire at all.

The author blows air into a winter fire using the Rewild Gear Firelight Bellows. In cold weather, condensation can build up, but the bellows still gets the job done.

At 5 ½ inches closed and 21 inches overall, this little trick weighs less than one ounce. There is no reason it couldn’t fit in the tightest of pouches or pockets. Save your air for breathing and your knees from the rocky, cold, wet terrain; give the Firelight Bellows a good blow and bring your fire to life!

PYRO BALLS

Wet-weather fire starters are like a gift from the fire gods when you’re caught in rain, humidity, or snow. Rewild Gear’s Pyro Balls are 12 individual cotton balls full of a gooey fire accelerant that’s formulated to ignite your kindling until the larger sticks can ignite.

They come in a survival-type tin that is 100% reusable and recyclable, measuring 3 ¾ inches long and 2 ½ inches wide. It fits in a cargo pocket, possibles pouch, or even a shirt pocket.

The Pyro Ball premise is simple: Fluff out a ball and use the Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod to ignite it. Add your kindling and wood, then use the Firelight Bellows to make it roar and bring it to life.

A Pyro Ball is fluffed out and ready to be ignited by the Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod. The supplied striker has a sharp striking area perfect for this task.

IN THE WILD

In my experience, there are two extremes in the outdoors: below-freezing winter conditions and the jungle. I’ve used Rewild Gear products in both. I started testing the Rewild Gear Fire Kit Bundle in December in the Northeast and concluded testing in the rainy season of the Filipino jungle.

“In my experience, there are two extremes in the outdoors: below-freezing winter conditions and the jungle.”

After several months of use, the Pyro Balls tin and the Firelight Bellows are still intact, albeit well used. The author took them on his last jungle trip, where they did not disappoint.

When the temperatures drop outdoors, fire isn’t only a comfort, it’s also a necessity. In the winter, an outdoorsman depends on his tools, skills, and fire resources. This could mean natural tinders like birch bark, fatwood, dry grasses, lichen, or whatever is local in your environment.

On the other end of the spectrum are manufactured tinders brought with you, like Vaseline cotton balls, SOL Tinder-Quik starters, or any of the plethora of commercially made fire starters.

But remember, an ignition device like a lighter, match, flint and steel, or ferro rod is needed to make it all possible. Rewild Gear offers both a ferro rod and tinder, but also does one better. The Firelight Bellows complements the Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod and the Pyro Balls by helping to build up a stronger fire with direct airflow where it’s needed.

WINTER FIRE

Snow and ice are common in the Northeast. Couple those with freezing and well-below freezing temperatures and it becomes clear how paramount fire is in a camping situation. I used the Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod and Firelight Bellows all winter. I was curious to see if the bamboo handle would come loose from the ferro rod, and how the steel Firelight Bellows would react with condensation.

The softness of the ferro rod made it easy to reign down a healthy shower of sparks like the Fourth of July. The included striker was excellent and could open a bottle top if need be. Another bonus: Bamboo has an extremely low ignition temperature, so the handle could be shaved down to make suitable combustible material.

The Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod remained tough and flawless, along with the Firelight Bellows and Pyro Balls for all-weather fire-making.

I used the Pyro Balls with damp kindling in a small twig stove to get a quick fire and a boil going. However, I saved most of them for humid conditions. Since the humidity is lower in the winter, it was easy for me to ignite feather sticks with natural tinder using the ferro rod. I relied heavily on the Firelight Bellows during winter. I found that the bellows also made a light-duty fire poker, since it was metal.  It was definitely the MVP of my winter fire-making gear.

JUNGLE FIRE

Wet, humid, and buggy best describe the jungle. Now try to make a fire in all that dampness – with bugs crawling on you. Well, Rewild Gear can’t really help with the bugs, but it sure has fire covered. During a month-long trip to the Philippines, I carried the Rewild Pyro Balls and the Firelight Bellows with me as survival insurance. Everything is damp in the jungle. Even without any rain, gear and clothing freshly brought in become damp due to the humid air.

“During a month-long trip to the Philippines, I carried the Rewild Pyro Balls and the Firelight Bellows with me as survival insurance.”

In the Philippines, the author made a bonfire outside the nipa hut where he was camped. The Rewild Gear Pyro Balls easily ignited driftwood and dead bamboo.

Deadwood suitable for fire is often wet from rain and a good dose of humidity, so it takes wood an extra long time to ignite from a flame. I just happened to be camping in the Philippines during the rainy season, and wood shavings and a ferro rod weren’t going to cut it. Typically, you use matches to make a campfire, along with some sort of added accelerant, like kerosene or gasoline. Several years ago, during a jungle survival training class in the Philippines, one local used a match and plastic spoon to act as fuel to get his fire going. This time, I had Pyro Balls.

Fire-making in the jungle is like fire-making anywhere else; preparation is essential. Deadwood isn’t always dry wood in the jungle, and it becomes a “pick the best of the worst” situation. Pyro Balls came to the rescue, though, as they have a burn time of approximately three minutes or more, which is plenty of time to ignite small toothpicks and pencil-sized sticks, then allow the finger- to broomstick-thick sticks to light. From that point in my fire-making, it was all the Firelight Bellows doing its part and really bringing the fire to a respectable level.

HOT TAKE

The folks at Rewild Gear hope to instill their love for nature and the outdoors into the next generation. Their keen awareness of conservation is a big part of what Rewild is all about. These brothers are off to a great start, and I eagerly await their coming projects. Stay tuned!

This canvas bag holds the Fire Kit Bundle and helps keep gear organized. Canvas is tough and durable and can also be waxed for further protection.

THE SPECS

Tinder Ridge Ferro Rod

Handle Material: Bamboo
Rod Material: Ferrocerium
Weight: 1.8 ounces
Total Length: 5.5 inches
Handle Length: 2.75 inches
Handle Width: 1.0 inches
Rod Length: 3 inches
Rod Thickness: 0.3125 inch
Striker Length: 2.75 inches
Striker Width: 0.5 inch
Paracord Length: 29 inches
MSRP: $15

Firelight Bellows

A collapsible tool for all-weather fire-starting. The Firelight Bellows was built for extreme conditions and designed to fuel your adventures with fire, no matter how wet or cold the weather.

Weight: 0.85 ounce
Length (Extended): 21 inches
Length (Collapsed): 5 inches
Width: 0.4 inch
Material: Stainless steel
MSRP: $15

Pyro Balls

Weight: 0.85 ounce
Length (Extended): 21 inches
Length (Collapsed): 5 inches
Width: 0.4 inch
Material: Stainless steel
MSRP: $10

ADD A TRAILSIDE UTENSIL AND MAKE A MEAL

Another lightweight piece of kit from Rewild Gear is the Trailside Utensil. It’s made of titanium and features a fork on one side and a spoon on the other. It measures 8.75 inches extended, providing great reach not found in many other utensils. Yet, it folds to just 5.35 inches, and in doing so, exposes a bottle opener. It weighs just 1.02 ounces.

Trailside Utensil

The Rewild Gear Trailside Utensil is made of titanium and weighs just 1.02 ounces.

Material: Titanium
Weight: 1.02 ounces
Length (Extended): 8.75 inches
Length (Collapsed): 5.35 inches
Handle Width: 0.4 inch
Spoon Width: 1.45 inches
Spoon Length: 2.2 inches
Fork Width: 0.98 inch
Tine Length: 1.25 inches
Bag Material: Canvas
MSRP: $24

SOURCE

Rewild Gear
www.RewildGear.com
Support@RewildGear.com
(502) 208-8840

Editor’s Note:

A version of this article first appeared in the October 2022 issue of American Outdoor Guide Boundless.