This is the Zippo Fire Starting Multitool, it’s designed to be an all-weather solution to getting a fire started that includes a flint wheel ignition, 15″ of wax-coated fire paracord, a tinder grater, and a number of other tools that’ll come in handy in the great outdoors.
When camping there are few things more important than getting a good fire going. It can be used for cooking of course, and for making coffee, but it’s also invaluable as a source of heat, a way of drying off wet clothes, and it can help to keep curious predators at bay.
This multitool from Zippo includes a number of other non-fire starting features including a double-cut saw blade, flathead screwdriver, bottle opener, and a high-carbon steel knife.
The Zippo Manufacturing Company, known for its iconic windproof lighters, was founded in 1932 by George G. Blaisdell in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Blaisdell was inspired by the Austrian lighter design created by Julius Meister, which was windproof but inconvenient to use. Blaisdell sought to improve the design, and the first Zippo lighter was unveiled in 1933.
The name “Zippo” was chosen by Blaisdell because he liked the sound of the word “zipper,” which was a relatively new invention at the time. He modified the word slightly and ended up with “Zippo.” The Zippo lighter quickly gained popularity due to its durability, reliability, and its lifetime guarantee.
The Zippo Fire Starting Multitool was developed to last a lot longer than a box of matches or a regular gas or liquid filled lighter. To start a fire you grate some dry kindling into fine pieces, you can also used dry grass for this, then you add some of the wax-coated fire paracord if you deem it necessary.
When not in use it folds into a small and easily packable size of 1⅛” high x 3⅝” wide x ⅝” deep.
Once this is all done you use the flint wheel ignition to send a shower of sparks over your kindling and ignite it, and once it’s going you add small sticks, more grass, or whatever fuel you have at hand. This multitool also has a double-cut saw, flathead screwdriver, bottle opener, and a high-carbon steel knife blade.
It retails for $22 USD and it measures in at 1⅛” high x 3⅝” wide x ⅝” deep with a weight of 4 oz.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
