BTW, I had a really surprising cotton ball failure while camping last week. I tried a new method of dipping them in a pan of melted wax instead of dribbling wax over them. As it turns out, that batch had too much wax too far into the ball. I guess I shouldn't say it "failed"; it did take a spark and burned enough to get my kindling lit. But then the cotton ball went out! I was pretty shocked- I've never seen that happen. But in looking at that batch they felt like pure wax. I needed a knife to open one! But hey, that's why I was using them in a State Park, and why I had half a dozen tried 'n' true tools with me. You don't learn without trying out new stuff but you don't want to learn in a situation where the lesson can kill you, either. I've had great luck with waxed balls, but I will have to go back to my old method of making them.