I checked all mine. They are all in the gold foil and none of them were coming apart like noted in the original post.

I opened one from my *EDC* which is in my backpack, but packed in a a titanium bowl which means it is *semi* protected from crushing.







The opened packet shows some crumbling, but not tons.




I did a light test with a Firesteel Jr., which shows that lighting the solid cube takes some work, but it does light, and crushing a portion results in much easier lighting (which seems to be expected, IMO).

EDC cube + Firesteel Jr., partially crushed (.mov, 92MB)
EDC cube + Firesteel Jr., UNcrushed (.mov, 214MB!) Note at the end, I accidentally crushed part and then it lights. No need for snide comments about my technique! :-)

I went back and pulled a fresh (not carried) cube from the original packaging from the Rubbermaid box I keep supplies in and found the same results (work to light whole, not very difficult lighting a crushed portion).





"new" cube + Firesteel Jr., uncrushed vs crushed (.mov, 196MB!) Attempt to light for a while, then crush some and attempt again.

Note I don't have any way to determine the age of either of the cubes tested, but neither are "new" and all of my supply use the gold foil.

Takeaway:

1) In this limited sample, the gold foil doesn't seem to have a de-lamination issue.

2) Crush protecting the packets is probably a good idea.

3) In my limited sample, I did not see any large difficulties lighting my cubes.

4) Crush portion of cube when lighting.

[full gallery, larger size images]

-john