Last week I was helping a firefighter buddy move and at the end of the move he gave me a box of stuff that he thought I might like. Inside were a bunch of little odds and ends that hes' collected over 20 years in the Army (he was correct about me liking.) I was excited to see a few boxes of trioxane included! I was disappointed though when I opened the triox box. I remember this stuff as being about 2.5-3 inches long and scored so you could break it into three pieces. This was about the size of a silver dollar? I know that the military no longer issues Trioxane but when did the smaller bars happen?

I bought some as recently as about a year and a half ago (NSN:9110-00-263-9865 & MIL SPEC: MIL-F-10805D) and they are approximately 3" long (by 1" wide).

Jim

Does it evaporate/sublimate? Maybe the seal on the package was imperfect.

I have a box I got a few years ago the stuff is awesome. Burns so darn hot, but it is toxic.... be careful.

I've had that happen before so yes, if the package has a small pinhole it will disappear/evaporate. These bars were just small i guess. I do prefer the triox (despite the fumes) over esbit tabs as they don't make the bottom of my canteen cup or other vessel sooty.

My brother in law was in the army for 20-years, he use to give me trioxane, I used it for low heat cooking in a folding Esbit stove. I still have some of it left but now I have it more as an emergency fuel or fire starter. I made an alcohol burner for the Esbit stove that works well and cost less then trioxane.

Triox is my #1 Overboard Vest fire starter.i wrap the foil packs in a zip lock and replace them every spring.in a "real life" test some years ago i made a fire from wet pine wood..at the end of a day of that cold drizzle we get in canoe country i pulled onto a point and set up camp..while a Peak stove was heating water for tea..heavy on the sugar--i got the top of a downed Black Spruce dripping with water and stomped it into as many bits as i could in about 30 seconds and fired up a Triox..these Spruce are all over and while not very good for a long term fire the tops of dead ones are thick with small branches--toothpick to chopstick size..the fire tab dried out the wood and lit it with lots of tab still burning to catch bigger bits of wood untill i had a good strong fire going..i let the blazing tree top burn out and went back to my tea but it was clear that the Triox was burning hot enough to get a fire going from the sort of wet wood i could find in a survival situation..the packs are easy to rip open and light at the touch of a match--or lighter--i never tried a sparker but they fire up much easier than the new gel packs--and yes they turn to dust and are worthless if air gets in the pack, that is the only downside..