I've noticed the same thing about the three cotton types (like Chris, I am assuming you are talking about the sparklite tinders). All three readily ignite from a spark, but the sparklites don't have much "juice" compared to the Coghlans or my current homemade ones with vasoline or sno seal. <br><br>The first several cotton ball and vasoline ones I made were dry to the touch, much like the sparklites - I used just a little bit of vasoline, according to the instructions I had. They burned exactly like the sparklite tinders, surprise, surprise. They also don't coat everything with a film of vasoline (neither do the spark lite tinders).<br><br>I got lazy and used the "molten vasoline dip 'n squeeze" method - those are torches, but need to be wrapped or packed in something. I wrote previously about stuffing them into plastic drinking straws and cutting off the section with the cotton ball inside - that is working peachy so far for me.<br><br>The sparklites tinders work fine and don't coat everything with residue that I can tell, so they seem to be a good idea inside a PSK. <shrug> Just my opinion.<br><br>Tom