Lousy weather on a Saturday afternoon made me decide to test some gear that I had never tried. Good thing that I did, as now I know what works, or at least what works for me. Here's what I had out:

REI Storm Proof Matches (REI)
ProForce Wind & Waterproof (NATO) Matches (Brigade Quartermaster)
BlastMatch (had it forever, don't remember where I bought it)
Coughlan's Emergency Tinder (some department store)
Sparklite Firestarter kit (CountyComm)
Trioxane (Cheaper Than Dirt)
JetBoil (EMS)

My intention was to see how I could get a fire going the easiest and fastest way. I laid out the Coughlan's, the Sparklite tinder and the trioxane and tried lighting them all with each firestarting item.

Both types of matches worked great. It's quite true that you can only light them with the correct striker pad. I had the REI matches in my K&M case (real nice, BTW) with a striker. The ProForce have a striker on the top of the container. I will carry the REI ones only because they are twice as long and therefore will burn twice as long. I think I got every match to light on the second swipe.

The BlastMatch and the Sparklite caused me some problems. I never got anything to light with the Sparklite. The amount of spark coming off of it was minimal, and I rubbed two different fingers raw trying to use it. The Blastmatch woked best with the Trioxane, then the Sparklite tinder, then the Coughlan's. I don't think I got flame with less than 5 strikes. I'm guessing it's my technique because I've read great reviews on both products.

The Coughlan's was almost impossible to light except with the matches. Once it lit, it burned big and strong for quite a while. The Sparklite tinder lit very easy, but didn't have an excessive burn time. The trioxane lit easy and burned forever. I say burned, but that's deceiving. It gives off very little flame, but incredible heat. It was cool, damp and windy but as soon as I dropped a few wet pine needles on it, they flamed up immediately. Probably the best over all flame I got was putting a Coughlan's on top of a burning Trioxane.

Once this was done, I pulled out the JetBoil for it's innaugural run. As has been reported, the Piezo lighter is not very good. It lit only twice out of the four runs I gave it. However, the unit itself worked as advertised, 2 cups of water to a full boil in exactly 2 minutes. This is a keeper, even though I'll need to always have matches.

What did I learn from all of this? Exactly what everyone always says, have at least two forms of firestarter with you, and preferably two forms of tinder. I was very dissappointed in the Sparklite. I thought this was going to be a great compact kit. It isn't, at least not for me. The tinder is excellent though. I won't be buying any more Coughlan's as well. I may need to experiment with some home brew tinders. My primary gear will have the REI matches in the K&M case, SparkLite tinder and Trioxane. I will have the BlastMatch and the ProForce matches as backup. I need to get a Bic lighter as well.