I don't know why I never thought of this, but sparklers!<br><br>All they are is magnesium or aluminum shavings and some kind of binder, on a piece of wire. If you fold or cut off the wire, they will fit into a medium PSK, on up. They last for a couple minutes, and if buried in among other, ntural tinders, will last long enough to dry them out and light them. <br><br>As anyone ever tried these? If so, it might be a useful idea for people who live in the small number of places where sparklers ahven't been banned as being to dangerous for your average moron.

That's a very interesting idea. Wrap the sparkler in plastic to keep the magnesium dust contained, and scrape some off in case of an emergency.<br><br>Now you've got my mind spinning on using fireworks as firestarters. Those little black "snake" tablets were pretty good too. I might have to head out to the nearby Paiute fireworks shop and see if there are any small items that could be used similarly...

It's been quite a while since I lit a sparkler, but as I recall they were pretty hard to light, often requiring most of a wooden match to get going. I think the match could be put to better use. Now if you are talking about scraping some of the sparkler off and lighting the dust with a spark to get your tinder going, that might work. Have to try it next July...