I don't have my list in front of me, but I think potassium permanginate is on Homeland Security's watch list of precursor chemicals...might be a little harder to find now days...I used it for a reaction rate demonstration for chem classes...go with the smallest crystals if you can find it

Check Peter Kummerfeldt's blog. He has a short post on this topic.

www.outdoorsafe.blogspot.com

His post was written after a soggy day training an Oregon SAR team in the Coast Range.

Blake

This thread reminds me that the big ol pine tree in my backyard is patiently waiting for me to come out and collect some more pine pitch. It takes a flame really well, helps the tinder and kindling get going, and a small film canister full weighs next to nothing and takes up very little space.

Pine knots work very well as fuel if it's wet out. (The end of the branch that grows out of the tree.) They're full of resin so catch well and burn brightly.

Bacpacjac is on the right track. Tree pitch makes for a very hot burning fire starter. In my area of the world, there is certainly no shortage of it anywhere, anytime of year.

In cold wet weather, which is currently typical, I have more faith in pitch then many other more modern materials. A film canister of pitch will last for many fires even under the most demanding weather conditions and is easy to replenish without a trip to a store or having to re-purchase from an internet site...

The pics were taken in last, mid summer.

lets go back to square one on this because this subject has come up several times and always go's back to what is used to light a fire when what we really need to know is how to get a fire going and keep it going in the rain.in canoe country a tarp over a smoky fire with a few guys standing around is as common as bugs,you see it all the time.a few times i have lit a heap of birch bark and pine sticks on a aluminum pie plate inside a tent,my big Timberline,and then carried it to the fireplace that has been filled with as dry as i could make wood and covered with a trash bag.the tinder blazing because it was out of the wind and lit in several places was then slid under the firewood and the bag removed at the last second.this trick only works if its just a light drizzle and you have some sort of overhead cover.this is where you have to do lots of saw and ax work to make billets of dry pine,or whatever,and stack them log cabin style until you get a fire that will outpace the rain.more often than not the rain wins out,even forest fires damp down in the rain.this is one reason i went to the Baker Shelter and Coleman stove with extra fuel.with that i had a total shelter and just not a overhead cover and a heat source that was non fail.
OK..back to the subject survival wise..i would say that you need to have cover to make and keep a fire in the rain.a huge bonfire to beat back the rain or a smaller one,or even two you can get between,that you can feed and keep going.
the best place to find the details on how to do this is best found in the older outdoor book,the ones from the pre camp stove days when making a fire was your only course.i have seen some with drawings by Dan Beard on several ways to make and keep a fire in the rain from digging into a dirt bank to cutting and sticking branches in the ground around a fire to make some sort of cover...

ethanol-based fire gel in a tube (various brands)
http://survival.atactv.com/?mediaId=900

I guess that's the same thing as hand sanitizer (?). Apparently, you can get wet wood going with a ferro rod and this stuff. If that's true (I haven't tried), then that's one thing petroleum jelly can't do easily.

A piece of innertube about 1 inch square. Light one corner, put under tinder. All done.

A piece of inner-tube can get the fire going initially, like any good tinder -- the trick is in having the foresight to bring/collect along the way tinder AND THEN having a supply of (do I need to say dry) fuel to continue the fire after the tinder has done its job. You need enough dry fuel to get the fire hot enough to dry the wet fuel that will surely follow. In the rain some fuel will be wet.

So it's pouring rain and all you have to do is whip out a 1 inch piece of inner tube,light one corner and toss it under your tinder ? I guess I need to go back to the drawing board because it's never been as simple as that for me. I must have been doing something wrong all these years.

Are you lighting the innertube with napalm ?

Just to be precise, an inner tube will not ignite from a spark from a ferro rod. (Thank God.) So, if you go out to the rain with only a ferro rod and an inner tube while everything else is wet, you will have major difficulties getting a flame going. However, an inner tube is good fuel if you already have a flame. (Please don't inhale the smoke.) This issue reminds me that it's important to practice beforehand and not to take any stage of fire starting for granted.