Roger-X had a fire-starter with a pathetic striker.

These are the improvements...

Step 1: Blade

The original striker that came with it was pathetic and blunt.

We replaced it with a blade given by a friend. I don't know what tool it came from, but his employers make expensive wooden furniture, and find it cheaper to replace slightly-blunt blades than to sharpen them.

Happily, the blade already had two holes drilled in it, presumably for attaching to the tool.

Step 2: Safety

Unfortunately, the blade is, well, a blade. Being sharp all the way along, every strike drew blood.

Not a useful feature, but easily solved by adding a whole 5g sachet of Sugru as a safe grip.

That's it.

The whole job took less than five minutes, but the fire-starter is now easily ten times more effective than it was.