Fire paste is another viable option. You may want to take a deep breath and set your priorities. For some people firemaking is a philosophical ritual conecting them to primal people's and some Rousseau concept of 'THE NOBLE SAVAGE.' Thats fine if you want to become skilled with ancient bowdrills and rub out whatever frictions you have with modern stresses. If, like me you just want instant gratification then a portrait of Bin Laden on my tarp works great when illegally hiking the desert bombing ranges. Those jets dropping napalm on it give me a fire better than my best efforts 100% of the time. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> The nice thing about this most essential of skills and resources is the easy redundancy and availability of several methods. Try them all. We all develop our favourites, and with 3 options it is problematic if we could fail in most situations. I doubt I will ever need to make an ice lens again. But I can, along with all these other often arcane methods. The ultimate test would be to hop in a very cold shower, go outside in poor light and with your weak arm alone make a fire with each of your chosen methods.