[confused / amused]So, let me get this straight, You live at home and they will let you walk about with a decent fixed-blade knife but they won't allow you to carry fire making tools? How young are you? Am I missing something here? Are you a convicted pyromaniac? Have you ever built / started / cooked on a campfire?[confused / amused]

Anyway, get a bic lighter. If you go to school / get into town to help your pop pick up some feed / hitch a ride and run away (or all of the above), spend the buck and buy a real live bic lighter and while you are paying ask the clerk for a couple of books of matches. Carry the matches in a zip-lock baggie or equivalent. Don't set your pop's crops on fire!

For friction fire you will be best off with a bow drill. It's not easy or really fun but it is fairly reliable once you get the hang of it. All you need to carry is a metal top from a soda / beer bottle a decent length of twine (boot laces work) and a knife. With practice you will be come to know the good woods in your area for working with. Check out the web, there are lot's of sites like this that make it look easy. The important thing to remember is that both ends of the drill will get hot so you need that bottle top as a pivot point at the top. If you count on spinning the drill with your hands instead of the bow you will get warm but not from the fire. You will probably wear yourself out before you get fire.

For flint fire with a real flint you may need special steel but I wouldn't really know where to find real flint and real flint doesn't give that good a spark anyway. Get the sparking rods like the swiss fire-steel or the BSA spark and any decent knife and you should be good to go. It is more about the tinder than the spark. If you place an end of the spark rod in the tinder and scrape downward on the rod you should peel off some burning sparks into the tinder. If the tinder is dry and flamable then you will have fire.

If you really want trouble take the 9 volt battery out of the smoke detector, grab a steelwool from the kitchen or shop (- make sure it isn't impregnated with soap like a brillo or sos pad) and just jam the 9 volt, business end first, into the steelwool and it should get extremely hot. Once started you won't see flame but it will start fires very well. If you carry a PAL emergency light (9-volt led light) you will have both light and heat until your battery goes dead.

Don't burn you pop's crops!