Another interesting twist here -- I just looked at the lightweight survival kit I had put together the other day. Inside a small zipper pouch (heavy duty Omniseal kind for fishing licenses) were two pieces of WetFire tinder. They have not been subjected to any abuse and were put there directly from original packaging. I looked at the pouch and realized there was a glossy sheen inside, with an outline where the two tinder tabs were sitting. I pulled them out and sure enough, an oily residue on the foil packaging and they were partially opened on the end seams.

Then I went and looked at the rest of my WetFire tinder in the closet. More of an oily sheen on nearly all of the individual foil packets, too! And all over the plastic drawer.

Not sure what to make of this except the seams are failing in my three separate batches that had been opened, and leaving an oily residue (guessing from the tinder ingredients). I have another retail package I had bought last week and upon closer examination I can see lots of little white flakes inside. Not a good thing.