interesting idea, but wouldnt the burning plastic be toxic?

Not sure, you don't have to burn the plastic though, you could just use the cotten. It is nice to know the whole thing burns though.

If the purpose is to have a non-messy tinder source at hand..e.g. in a wallet or psk, and you don't like the vaseline-cotton options (though I personally like the vas-cotton option hands down!) I've had good luck with alcohol prep pads (e.g for cleaning an injection site, or pre-stick blood sugar testing).

They're sealed in foil, you can buy them in most Walgreens or similary stores, and I've consistently been able to get them to catch a spark and ignite well. Be sure you get the ALCOHOL prep pad. There are other kinds which won't work.

I would also be interested in testing these for myself. I have yet to find a US vendor though. Hopefully someone else will stumble across one for us.

So is the vasaline. So is the sulfer from a match.

I'm as green or greener than most people, but I figure that if I have to put out the equivelent of 10-20 minutes worth of tail pipe pollution to stay alive, I'll take the trade off.

I did this with my First Aid wallet card (laminated it with a dry cotton ball stretched out and affixed to the back.

I have burnt these in the kitchen (on top of the stove, in a disposable aluminium pan, with the fan going) with no ill effects. The plastic does burn with a somewhat oily flame, but unless you're going to put your face directly over it and inhale it directly, I can't see how it would harm you.

This type of plastic is used for airline luggage tags; I imagine if burning it in large quantities was going to be toxic, it would have to have some sort of warning label on the package.

I prefer to use the flat round ladys cotten makeup removers , is is already compressed cotten and fluffs up great when you pull it apart,
i keep 2 of them and a mini flint rod and a piece of mole skin in asmall jewlery zip lock in my wallet you dont even notice its there
Yukon

The advantages to laminating a flattened-out cotton ball to a wallet card are:

1. I'd normally be carrying the wallet card anyway, so why not?
2. It's waterproof.
3. You really don't notice it's there, any more than you would notice a credit card or library card.

The disadvantage, of course, is that you need a knife or something sharp (or strong teeth) to rip the plastic laminate open.

My solution for ripping it open is a pair of scissors. You laminate in a way that seals a rim of about 6 mm on one side cut a triangular notch about 2 mm deep in it. If you want you can cut about 1 mm straight in the corner of the notch. That gives you a breaking point which is easy to tear open.

Looks like the newly created US distributor for BCB International will be carrying these (see "Warmth & Shelter" under left-side index). You'll see on homepage banner, they hope to be operational by June 10.

bcbsurvivalusa.com

Dan