Ferro rod....I use mine for lighting stoves when car camping and that's about it. I'll carry book matches always, maybe a bic or zippo. Matches are their own tinder and skip a step when making a flame. Instead of sparking and hoping you can blow something into flame, matches are already there. Carry 3 books, in different places, wrapped in saran wrap, and you'll have dry matches. The new kitchen matches are worthless these days. Book matches haven't failed me yet.
I'll also carry some 1" squares of bicycle innertube as tinder/starter. Light a corner and they burn for several minutes, hot! Weigh a little more than a postage stamp. You can also make your own bungees from bike innertube and cut off little bits for fires. Dual purpose.

I like to devote an hour for building fires from scratch. The work keeps you warm and busy. Gather three times as much tinder/kindling/fuel as you think you need. Most fire building fails because folks get in a rush.

For tender in your area, don't get hung up on specifics. Any heart wood, dry/crunchy briar tangles, sub-bark fuzz you scraped with your knife, frizz sticks, all work. It just needs to be hair fine. I use cedar bark around here, or dead briar...its everywhere. Start with a birds nest the size of a soft ball (or bigger!) to give you some time to feed it.