I�ve been experimenting with making my own fire starting aids lately while learning to use a fire steel better.
My latest concoction: 2 parts Vaseline to one part paraffin used as flammable minimal binding material for a blend of pitch wood sawdust and fine shavings plus drier lint with two wicks and a waterproofed cotton ball stuck on top. The whole batch goes into a half sized paper cupcake liner, filled about � full. A lighter or match will light it anywhere on its surface and the flint & steel will light the lubed cotton ball if some of the fibers are teased and combed out into fine separate threads rather than clumped tight in the waxy coating.
Yesterday in gusty slushy rain on my deck it lit on the third try with firesteel and burned for almost five minutes. My son has tried it after submersing it in water for five minutes and it lit immediately with a lighter.
Natural cotton balls light instantly with sparks from a fire steel, but they need some kind of waterproofing to be worth carrying in our wet country. With a light coating of Vaseline rubbed into them, they are still fluffy enough to light fairly easily and are remarkably water resistant. When fully saturated, they are hard to light with the fire steel without considerable picking and combing out fine fibers for the spark to ignite. With cold hands in gusty rain, it could be tough to do the fine motor skill work to get flammable fibers separated out enough for the spark to ignite.
Another excellent start medium for the fire steel is fuzz from pitchwood. With a knife blade or the sharp edge of a freshly broken rock, scrape and rub back and forth for a half inch or more on a flat surface of a small slab of pitch wood. Fuzz will build up on both sides of the scrape area. It only takes a pinch of such fuzz to ignite with a fire steel spark, and if the pitchwood slab is thin and small, it will continue a strong flame.
