I picked up some Boy Scout "Hot Spark Fire Starters" (Item#: 01167) at a Scout Shop recently for about $2.50 each. Being only a Ferrocerium rod, it's very small, waterproof, and kosher with the TSA. Add a 2 piece of an old hacksaw blade (teeth ground off), and instant fire.
I was testing it out this weekend with my kids and tried it first with some kleenex, but didn't get it going. I then switched to cotton balls. Took a couple of strikes and voila. I then tested with PJ massaged into the ball and it only took one or two strikes to get a nice flame.
Since I was testing it in the sink to put out the fire quickly, I had the idea to take the PJ soaked ball and run it under water and try it. One or two strikes and it lit. I tried running the rod under water and found that it had to be dried first. Finally, I had the PJ soaked ball floating on water, and it also only took one or two strikes to light and burned well until we extinguished it.
Some of the testing was done with only 1/4 of a ball and it lit just fine
Great little addition to the hunting and SAR survival kits, and one is now on my keyring with a piece of hacksaw blade in the wallet.
http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/Item...&item=01167I agree with Hacksaw, keeping the PJ mess out of other stuff is your main concern.