Addendum: Oak will be updating the instructions with a list of some of the things he's successfully used for tinder. Most illuminating was to first scratch up the surface of Fuel tabs such as Triox. Remember, a spark is short lived, and what it lands on isn't always as important as how that tinder is shaped.

Simon:
Do you have any pictures?

No, I'm relatively poor and never have been into cameras at all, much less digital ones. It's real easy to do though. My example was just something that worked for me, there's countless other ideas out there that probably work better.

As much as I hate to do it, I'll reveal The Secret All Fire Starter Companies Know and that is - TINDER IS THE REAL KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL FIRE. Yeah, my Magfire is a solid performer, but if you take time to practice, you'll soon learn that making a spark isn't the hard part (if you have any fire-making tool at all). It's going from spark to fire - that is the real challenge, especially if it's damp out - not just rainy, damp. That's why I "cheat" and carry dryer lint soaked with WD-40 in a film can. It lights in the rain, burns hot and stays lit. It's really best with lint from a polar fleece blanket - massive heat output lets you dry questionable material to get ignition and get the fire going. All other tinders are inferior to a good old hydrocarbon product. Oh, and I took alcohol OFF the list because In like a VISIBLE flame.

So, did you loose your eyebrows with that technique?

I have found that with a magnesium block, the goal is not to get shavings, but scrapings. To shave is to attack the block with your knife at an angle to it. Rather, scrape, with the knife edge perpedicular to the block and substantial ribbon-coils of magnesium should come off. It works great for me! At least that's how I think I recall doing it. It's been awhile.

Good information, thanks for sharing. I can tell you that a few decades ago, a friend and I went and did about the same experiments but with different items.
We went to tha mountains, about 7000 ft in a pine forest and took minimal equipment and the plan was to test all our "survival" gear.
Perfect timing, it was not too cold but it was almost a steady drizzling rain with a wet forest all around. We had a vehicle within a mile, so we could always retreat.
We made a nice shelter with a tarp tent item I wish I still owned and proceded to test out some navigation skills and search the nearby area. The original area we planned to go had been recently clearcut and turned into a mess:(
When it was time to cook our meals, we started testing all the firemaking goodies we had collected over the years. Some of these miracle items had been carried with the intent that we could rely on them in an emergency. As it turned out, nothing worked very well. Some items could not even be lit once we finally had a fire going. They had dried out or evaporated whatever magical property made them flammable.
What finally worked was come plain cotton balls, one of the magnesium blocks with striker and after exhausting all the super duper magical firemaking gadgets, we found the Starburst candy wrappers in our pockets were perfect to make a fire in wet/damp conditions.
By using a dry cotton ball and shaving the magnesium into the cottonball, which kept it on one place, easily sticking to the cottonball. One strike from the ferro rod and it caught fire, a few starburst wrappers, which are waxed paper, and we had a system that burned long enough and hot enough to light damp shavings and wet twigs. From there it was easy to get a nice cooking fire going.
Since then, I have refined my system a little, I buy a roll of waxpaper at the market, costs less than $2. I then saw off about an inch and a half roll, pull out the cardboard tube from the center and carry that inside a 35mm film canister. I use a Firesteel to ignite a tinder tab (Same as the Sparklite ones) or a plain cotton ball and take about a 6 inch piece of the wax paper twisted up and it will almost always burn long enough and hot enough to get my kindling going, even if damp. If I need more, I have plenty of waxpaper in the canister.
I have several Sparklites and my only concern with them is the flint can deteriorate over time, while the Firesteel is obvious as to it's condition and I check on it before any trip.
Everyone should test their technique and gear and know what works for them and what doesn't. You now have a some good ideas on firemaking and know what works for you. Way to go!

cotton ball soaked in vasoline works every time.

I like the vasoline/cotton ball technique. Also, a few drops of Purell into the cotton ball helps it ignite quickly.

Good post! IMO, tinder is the key. My current favorite is dryer lint with Bag Balm. Bag Balm is mostly vaseline but has antiseptic qualities (redundancy). I also carry in my PSK what I call "micro flares." I make them this way: take a British lifeboat match and duct tape three kitchen matches (strike anywhere) just back of the lifeboat match head. Then dip the whole rig in paraffin several times to cover the kitchen matches and leave the lifeboat head exposed. One of these is my "last ditch" fire. Once you see one burn they are very reassuring and quite small! <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />