When you use a cotton ball you need to get just one blast of sparks into it. I must that I usually need between 1 and 5 attempts to light that ball. When I have to use paper towels I rip them to have a maximum of small fibres. Then I roll it up gently to increase the probabilty of getting a spark on them. I usually use a ferrocerium rod to light those as they tend to require a massive shower of hot sparks.