Roughly two years ago I put three pieces of tinder quick in my wallet. One of them has disappeared (I think I tried to light a cigar with it?). They're really flat. I just cut one in half, I'm going to try and light it w/a spark lite shortly. I'll post the results...it looks pretty fluffy!

So what is tinder quick? I keep reading about it but didn't feel like to spend that much to try it. Some sort of wax impregnated cotton?

I think it is a wax impregnated cotton. I have it mostly because I bought three military fire starting kits, for the spark lites, and ended up with a fair bit of tinder quik as well.

Yesterday was a total failure. The tinder quik would not take a spark.

I keep a spark lite on my keys. I fluffed the tinder quik (A LOT, despite it being super flat from two years in my wallet), thought it would easily take a spark, but nothing happened.

I'm sort of under the impression the spark lite isn't producing enough spark. I wonder if, from being stored on my keys, the spinny part has spun so much it has reduced its throw. This seems unlikely.

Tonight I'll try lighting the old piece of tinder quik with a new spark lite, a new piece of tinder quik with my old spark lite, and new with new, hopefully this goes better. I may also try an old piece of tinder quik with a larger piece of man made flint.

For the record, I have previously lite tinder quik with a spark lite and it worked very well.

If you can't get the old piece to light even from a new sparker, see if it will light from a lighter? Just to confirm that it will still burn at all? (I can't imagine why it wouldn't, but reality doesn't always match expectations.)

I know approximately nothing about tinder quik. So, I have some questions.

Is a wallet a bad place to store tinder quik?

Would the tinder quick have dried out if you stored it in a container like an Altoids can or something?

I have yet to try other ways of lighting it, but on keeping it in a wallet, I'm sure it is a terrible place, but I always have my wallet with me. I won't always carry an Altoids tin with me.

What does the wrapping look like after lurking in your wallet? If there are any pinholes, it may be that the good little volatile elements have all escaped and gone bye-bye.

I just looked at my Wet-Fire bundles, and I don't think they would stand up to wallet carry very well.

Not everyone realises that with Spark Lite it makes a difference which way you spin the wheel. There's an arrow printed on the orange stick to show the correct way. The wrong way doesn't produce many sparks.

I don't think it has volatiles. It doesn't come in special packaging, and I have some that's been left out for years that still takes a spark. It should be very reliable.

There is no packaging. And my spark lite produces NO SPARKS (at least none visible in daylight) when spun the wrong way.

R

Finally got back to this. Used a regular flint, maybe the scout from light my fire? Anyways, the original piece lit right up.

Hmmm....I guess just not enough spark from the spark lite for the beat piece of tinder quik.