I had been raised in and around the aluminum and magnesium foundry business. My Dad always had machine shops at these and I learned to located magnesium turnings under the lathes whenever he'd been doing a run of magnesium castings.
Steel wool tinder on massive steroids.
While you're out gleaning the dental labs for epoxy fire starter putty Bill, you might keep an eye out for metal foundaries. It's called ferrocerium and it's the same material which is in modern lighters. Andr A magnesium striker is as far as I'm concerned the most fantastic emergency fire lighting device in existence. Now for using it- the instructions that come on the package suck. If your striker does not have a magnesium side, slowly scrape a pile of shavings directly from the flint side.