Originally Posted By: Tarzan
The PJ saturated cotton balls seem to be the best bang for the buck in cold or wet conditions. A lot of them pack into a small space and you can use 1/3 of one all fluffed up to get damp tinder going in short order, even in soaking wet conditions... The PJ saturated cotton balls take a spark better than the tinder that comes with a Sparklite or any other store bought creation, and they are dirt cheap to make... Throw in another buck for some sort of durable container and you are golden...


Concur on all counts. In fact just last night I made up a fresh batch of PJ balls. I tested one, lighting it on the first try in breezy conditions with a tiny firesteel, and timed the big flame at over 5 minutes. Only after 5 minutes did the flame diminish much. A key improvement is to put a little "dish" of aluminium foil under the PJ ball. This keeps the liquified PJ on hand for ongoing burning, instead of it dripping into the ground or fire platform.

<drumroll please> grin

OK everybody, I am going to reveal what may be the most durable, leakproof(ish), accessible, and compact container yet for PJ balls: Nalgene vials. I triple up a long strip of wax paper to make a U-shaped sleeve, stack the PJ balls down into the vial in the sleeve, fold the ends of the sleeve on top then pop on the cap.

The vial's diameter is perfect for the PJ balls, it is as compact as you can get, it keeps leaks at bay in warm weather (so your other gear doesn't get greasy), and you can use the different sized vials for different sized kits. When needed you just pop out a PJ ball as from a Pez dispenser. I use the smallest vial in my mini kits and the biggest one in my belt-mounted kit. Works great.