Please tell us if in worked!

Might be a while. Feel free to try it and report, just send the royalty check to me general delivery. Oh wait, seems to me I got that idea somewhere else (don't remember where)...

I use a small ziplock bag. I get the cotton ball and stretch it and flatten a little. Then I put a glob a PJ in the middle and fold the cotton ball so the outside is dry and the inside has the glob of PJ. To use it I massage the ball of cotton to spread the PJ then fluff it a bit. Not that messy!. And if you get a bit of PJ in your fingers is not too much. Just spread it on your hands.

I just use latex gloves to make it and throw out the gloves when finished. No mess at all. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I am going to try an experiment and see if I can't come up with something a little better.

I'll let ya know how it goes.

As other have posted, a bit of jelly on the hands is not much trouble.

As for storage, I like to use plastic straws, cut in 1.5" long pieces.
A lighter to heat the plastic and the pliers of my Leatherman to seal one end ; then bits of jelly (slightly) soaked cottonwooll are pushed inside the straw ; lighter and Leatherman again, to seal the other end of the straw.

No leak. No mess in the PSK.

Mixing the cotton and vasoline will be a little messy, but is not very messy to use. The cotton should be lightly coated, but mixed through thoroughly. I filled a Fuji film conainer with the mix. The container holds a lot of compressed cotton. I like the Fuji conainers because the cap fits on the inside, and if necessary, I can sqeeze the conainer to pop the top off. The opening is wide enough to put two fingers in, or even a stick can be used to dig it out. I have ususally carried it loose in an outside pocket of my fanny pack with a Boy Scout hot spark. Never tried to put cotton in an Altoids tin or whatever. A film conainer will hold a lot of fires worth of cotton.

I take a jar of PJ and put it in a water bath (about halfway up the side of the jar) and melt the PJ, then I take my CB's and soak them in the melted PJ, using wife's tongs pull them out and let airdry on a paper towel then I wrap them like raviolis, when I need one just pull one out from my pack and cut an X pull out the fibers and presto 30 min of fire <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Mike

For those of you using 35mm film containers, Susan's tip ("don't wad them tightly into a tiny container. If you can't get your finger in far enough to grab the cotton, you're going to have a real problem when you're shivering from cold or fear and can't feel your fingertips.") got me thinking (always a dangerous thing). How about cutting a disc of thin plastic, poking a hole in the center of it, threading some bright colored string through the hole, and putting the disc on the bottom of the film can before stuffing the cotton balls in, leaving the end of the string sticking out the middle of the mass? That way you could pull on the string, using your teeth if necessary, and the cotton balls would kinda pop out...

Tested this yesterday. Made two and both burned like a tea candle for about 25 minutes. I then removed the burnt cotton balls from the foil, re-lit them, and got another 30+ seconds of fire.

Wrapping them in foil also solves the messy fingers problem in the field.

Pat