(Decided to move my message to new thread from steel wool dedicated one)

I've got this 2x AAA powered lighter.



Same principle as in the car cigar lighter, very simple construction. Works very well with cigarettes, and ignites paper quite easily. ~50 ignitions from two partially discharged AAA cells so far. The heating element have a form factor of a regular incandescent bulb (with open Wolfram spiral), so you can use it with almost any regular 3 Volt incandescent flashlight.

I think a small piece (~1') of Wolfram wire in EDC kit could be more versatile than a big sponge of steel wool. It's good for making fire, light, hand warmer, boiling water, hot knife for plastics (cutting, carving, hot gluing), poker-work on wood (holes, signs, messages), soldering iron, etc. Just find some source of electric power.

By the way. It's very easy to make fire simply short-circuiting a single D cell with a medium sized paperclip. Just make sure your fingers are not touching the wire directly. And sure thing, be aware that your battery can explode if you keep it short for too long (1-2 seconds is usually safe, and enough to ignite paper with practice).