I love the stuff and have used it for I guess the last 7-10 years. Yes it works great with wet wood, Just start with something real small and as Chris indicated work your way up to bigger wood. If the wood is dry, most times you only need half or a third of the full bar to get the fire going...then you just wrap the remainder up in the foil packaging it comes in. The packaging itself is waterproof until opened and then just depends on your reseal method. I pulled one out of my pack to find that it had been crumbled into powder...still worked to light a fire.

I wouldn't pay to much attention to the scare mongering..just wash your hands if you have to touch it. It's easy to get a fire going without touching it. Open one end and just slide it out...if you only need a 1/2, break it while still in the wrapper then dump out a half to use. It's really great stuff, heres the website where I get mine.

Sportsmans Guide