I'm always looking for redundancy in items I carry in PSK. For a firestarter I currently carry dryer lint or cosmetic puffs (non-cotton "cotton" balls!) saturated in Bag Balm. Bag Balm is a veterinarian salve antiseptic based mainly in petrolatum (vaseline) and lanolin with an antiseptic as active ingredient. It will start a great fire AND serves as salve for scratches, lip balm, hand cream, etc. Old timers around here swear by Bag Balm as cure all salve. Good to have in an emergency, I figure. I keep in a flat plastic pill case in PSK - contains the mess and handy to rub on a scratch!

Supermark, I always thought that the vaseline in the cotton balls were for waterproofing. I could be wrong though.

Has it crossed anybody's mind to just use tinder-quick? The alternate methods should be just that: use if specific items are not available.

Supermark,
Ok. I tried a few experiments. (Why don;t we have any cotton balls [I'm asking my lovely wife]?) I used these round cotton swabs she bought. They're the size and shape of a thin oreo cookie.

I coated two with vaseline (that was messy) and two with parrafin oil. Then I rolled them up like a tortilla.... tightly... and cut them in half so they look like the little fire tinders in Ritter's PSP. (I know they're not as good as that stuff, because it's compressed, but they look like them.) They both took the very first spark from a Doan's flint and, without even blowing on them, flamed and burned. Both burned a nice flame for more than 80 seconds. Near the end when I blew on them (simulating windy conditions), they kept right on burning. So..... taking your advice a little further.....

I made two more batches each and rolled them up in wax paper. I used a hot glue gun to seal the paper on the last part of the roll. They look just like Ritter's tinder but probably not quite as effective. However, you could just unroll the paper, leave the tinder on top, and when it burned it would also burn the wax paper for a little more flame and heat.

I think the vaseline and waxpaper ones would be more water-resistant, but it sure is easier with the parrafin oil ones. I guess I'll have to do some submersion testing.

Thanks for the advice.

Welcome Stretch.
I knew about the steel wool trick and liked it because it could be started by either a battery or a spark. I tried this a long time ago, but found that the steel wool degraded (rust) in storage, so I tossed the idea. However your addition of parafin oil gives this a new twist, since in theory this would prevent the rustproblem, as well as make the glowing steel wool burst into flame. I'll give this approach a try. Thanks for the tip.
I make my own dependable waterproof firestartes (tinder and first stage fuel). They won't stress your budget and they have infinite shelf life.
They consist of 3 inch pencil-thick pieces of fatwood with a PJ cottonball spun around one end. I looks sort of like a caveman's q-tip. They readily accept a spark and burn very hot and very long. Try this, you'll like it. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
Regards,
Pharaoh.

While I haven't tried this myself I've been thinking about using steel wool sparyed with WD-40 and kept in a film cannister. WD-40 would keep the steel wool from rusting and help with ignition I think.

WD-40 contains petroleum products, which can melt a lot of plastics. Make sure you check before you put this in your pack. And make sure your pack won't be eaten but the 40 either.

Never thought of that, good point.