This weekend we did a alternate firestarting demonstration at our scout outing. I grabbed my wife's half full bag of cotton balls and a small jar of petrolium jelly. I was impressed on how well it worked, especially with magnesium filings from a MFS.<br><br>When I got home, my wife commented that they really were not cotton balls, but synthetic "fluffs." I didn;t even realize such a product existed. Now I have to go and get the real McCoy and see if they are better than the poly balls!<br><br>BTW, they worked with matches, but not as easily. My guess is that the magnesium burns at a much higher tempurature than a match and was therefore more likely to ignite the jelly without the ball palying a significant roll. I would hazard a guess that real coton will work better than the poly for starting fires with matches. (And work equally well with MFS).