Ok, I admit it. As a maker of fire, I suck.

Practicing my survival skills in the comfort of my home as a good little preparedness-er, I decided to see if I could get an ember "borrowed" from the fireplace to ignite a cotton ball (both with and without Vaseline).

Both smoked and smoldered like the dickens and charred as I cupped it and blew on it just like I've watched Les do on Survivorman.

What am I doing wrong?

I can get the Vaseline cotton ball (VCB) to catch fairly easily with my fire steel, but if I'm going to try this with an ember produced by a fire-bow or similar, I'm in for a cold wet night.

The cotton ball of course ignited and burned up almost instantly when tossed frustratedly into the fire itself so that shoots the "fire retardant" theory.