TofuSoleSurvivor,
Try a little 000 steel wool, dry, all by itself with no magnesium. Of course, have your dry tinder and kindling at the ready. See if your Dad will bet against you on this one.

Take your steel wool (extra-fine "000" or "0000" is best), and pull off several wispy strands. Don;t just take a big bunch, but pull off a good little amount. Bunch it together, but leave it somewhat wispy for airflow. Using your striker, get some good sparks onto the steel wool, then gently blow (loooong gentle breaths) as your hands gently push your tinder down onto the wool. The wool might develop a flame, but more often than not, it will burn in hot embers.... more than enough to light your tinder. Now, if you find the wool doesn't burn hot or long enough to light the tinder, maybe you made it too wispy. Next practice attempt, use more wispy strands and rebunch them a little tighter together. This works even if the wool is damp (as if it got wet and you shook it off and blew on it to try and dry it), but save the wet attempts for later. I've praticed enough to where I'm confident I can do this inside of 2 minutes even on a blustery day, and you can too after a few practice attempts. And believe me, I'm no mountain man! Maybe you can try it a time or two, know you can do it, then show your dad.

Matches and lighters are great, I use them too. But judging by your first post, you're trying to go the hard way, which is good, because we don;t always have the other methods. So maybe give some thought to the steel wool method.

Good luck