Okay, let's say it's about to get dark, you are cold, wet, and tired, and you need a fire NOW, in less than optimal conditions. You have scraped together some tinder and kindling, but damp may be a generous description of it. What do you pull out of your pack do will light this mess that you have total confidence in? Often we use tinder that can be coaxed and coddled under optimal conditions, but what do you use when the chips are really down?

My favorite solution in the good old days was a carbide lamp. It did indeed light a fire for me on several occasions in precisely the conditions
you describe. Now I would just pull out my cartridge stove and fire it up. In really cold conditions(zero or below), it would be a liquid fueled stove or maybe just the fuel (AKA Boy Scout fire starter).

For a long time on SAR missions I carried a Trangia alcohol stove. It worked flawlessly on several occasions in nasty weather.

I haven't tried this, but the first thing that came to my mind is a road flare.

What I have used successfully in this situation is fire gel. To be completely transparent, though, everything was wet and I wanted the fire but my car was only about twenty yards away and I could have warmed up there.

Petrroleum jelly cotton balls (PJB's) and a big piece of fatwood wrapped in wax paper and aluminum foil.The aluminum foil provides a shield from the dampness in the ground and the wax paper keeps the fatwood from sticking to the foil. It also burns hot.I split and shave the fatwood down to make a small hot fire to get damp/wet kindling going. I do try to scrape the wet outer bark if time permits. Hasn't failed me yet....

BOATMAN
John

Road flare. I carry LED flares in my truck rather than a real road flare (being in CA I'd really hate to start an inadvertent fire), but for starting a fire in the rain (a problem we don't have in CA) it seems that something designed to burn hot in virtually any weather should do the job.

I have used road flares and they work well. I keep some of the newer Orion flares that are smaller than DOT or USCG approved but still very effective. They're around 4" long but otherwise like a full sized flare. Just shorter burn time and smaller to pack.

I've been thinking about this exact problem. My preferred tinder is cotton balls soaked in PJ. I realized that fluffing up the PJ is definitely in the "fine motor skill" territory.

While I am hoping that striking the ferro rod with the back end of a knife likely is "gross motor skill," I need a better tinder.

If it is damp, it is no longer tinder. I keep dry tinder, and then chunks of pine pitch, then magic sticks from the bottom of trees, and then lots of fanning with a hat or pot lid to keep larger pieces of wet wood going.

Forgot about pine pitch.That stuff is nature's NAPALM...

BOATMAN
John

Boatman
If you're cold you're probably shivering. Is that the best time to be using a knife to whittle wood?
I use tinder cubes made by a friend. About the sze of a sugar cube they burn furiously for about 12-15 minutes.