Recipe:
Make regular old cotton balls with petroleum jelly mixed in.
Roll them around in your fingers to compress them tight.
Put them in the freezer (honest... for about 15 minutes or so).
Melt candlewax in double boiler tin cans at a low temperature.
Dip each cold compressed cotton ball quickly into and out of the melted wax (tweezers work well for this) and let each wax-covered cotton ball sit and cool. (The reason you want the cotton balls cool is to keep the wax from completely saturating the cotton; preferably, you want a shell of wax on the cotton).
This process is quick and kinda fun (if your wife doesn't find wax all over the stove). It produces grape size wax covered balls that are waterproof and can be more easily stored. An altoid box will carry 20 or so; a hollow Gerber hatchet or knife handle would hold lots.
Once these little balls are opened and the cotton spread-out about a 1/2" on top, they ignite easily with a single spark, and because of the added wax (fuel), each one burns for about 5 minutes with a nice big flame.
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