wetfire came in today
I used one to try it out. A couple of observations
-It has the consistancy of soap or a solid deoderant. You can flake it off about as easily as you can flake off bits of soap.
-It was fairly easy to light (both in flake form, and the larger solid piece form.)
I used a knife and firestarter. It took about 5-6 showers of sparks before it lit, but I was keeping my distance and was using moderate force.
-Both caught fire well, and both burned well. The flakes burned for several minutes, the large chunk (about half the cube) burned for about 5 minutes.
-It seems fairly wind resistant. The chunk obviously didn't blow anywhere, and even in the wind the flame was a constistant 6-8" or so.
-It did not seem very waterproof. Not nearly as much as advertised. I removed a tea-candle from it's metal holder, and used the holder to hold a moderate amount of water.
Test 1: Poured a little water on the flakes. The flakes went out.
Test 2: Floated medium sized chunks in the water, tried to light them with sparker, didn't work. Tried to light them with a lit stick, didn't work.
Test 3: Put a large chunk on the end of a stick and lit it. Placed it on top of the water as if it was floating. It went out.
Test 4: After setting the doused chunk aside, tried to light it with sparks. Didn't light. Cut chunk open to reveal the fresh inside, tried to light it with sparks. It caught and burned.
Final Observations:
Considering it doesn't seem to have as impressive an advantage in wet weather as I had previously anticipated, Tender Quik might be the better option. I haven't tried it, but I'm willing to bet both burn fairly well even in moderate wind. The tinder quik has an advantage in that it does not need to be sealed in an airtight package, and can be stuffed into small spaces.
I also tried cotton and vasoline. It didn't burn very tall, but it will probably get the job done as well. Kinda messy though with the vasoline.....
Thanks for the comments and advice everyone <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />