Ah, yes - "Girl Scout water" - sometimes that's the best approach <grin>. There was this standing black spruce tree one -50F afternoon and we were about gonners... looked like the night of the living dead shuffling up to that blazing tree... none of us could ever have stayed lucid long enough to build a conventional fire, but 1/2 gallon of gasoline and a match did the trick. At that temp, the gasoline ignited ponderously - more like charcoal lighter than gasoline.<br><br>I keep a few trioxane bars in my kits for that reason - and they readily and safely take a spark for ignition even when deteriorated/expired. But even those can have a tough go when everything is saturated - when I really have needed those, there were still no shortcuts to a self-sustaining fire. However, I believe my wife could have coaxed up a fire the day after Noah's ark settled on terra firma - I don't know how she does it. No training; don't tell her "that won't work...", but I note that it's tedious even for her in nasty weather.<br><br>Chris, oddly enough, I was thinking exactly of the Leukko-Puukko combination - funny you mention that. The concept makes a lot of sense to me. Sometimes I curse at thick-spined blades... I still probably would prefer them if they were the only fixed blade I had, but they are not perfect. Did you get yours through Ragweed forge?<br><br>Tom