Well, I cannot comment on Tilley hats, but this is something I know about <grin>...<br><br>I don't want to start any flame wars - but petroleum jelly isn't even remotely napalm - a matter of professional minutia. Napalm was a specific name (may be trademarked) but now is used as a generic term that means thickened hydrocarbon fuel. (Think "velcro" vs "hook-and-pile-fastener") Originally made from "palmitic acid" (used for making soaps, and yes, it's from palms) + "almost gasoline". I'm intentionally leaving some parts of the process out, for obvious (I hope) reasons. <br><br>The process today is basically the same and any number of specific ingredients may be employed commercially. "Na" (Napthalene) + "palm"(palmitate) = "Napalm". (palmitate is generic-speak for salts from palmitic acid, IIRC) Napthalene is way generic from naptha, which is generic for various near-gasoline fractions (and said fractions may constitute significant portions of what we call "gasoline". For discussion's sake, napalm is about the same as thickened ("jellied") gasoline.<br><br>Jellied fuels (actually more properly termed "thickened fuels") substantially retain all the flamability characteristics as the parent fuel - like flash point. Some armored fighting vehicles use thickened fuel (diesel) to reduce the hazards resulting from getting struck by various projectiles, but the ability of the fuel to perform its function in the engine is unaffected by being thickened. I don't believe that petroleum jelly is in the same league as diesel, let alone gasoline...<br><br>Anyway, the melting point of plastic drinking straws is WAY below the ignition temperature of cotton, petroleum jelly, or the combo. But don't use a bic lighter or any other flame to seal <grin>. A seal-a-meal type device is too hot/too concentrated to do the job for me, so I gave up. The straws work fine left open; I abandoned efforts to seal them as it's too much effort for too little gain.<br><br>As to the original question - try various amounts of petroleum jelly. They all ignite easily from spark or flame. Small amounts of petroleum jelly in the cotton ball is barely palpable, ignites readily, and burns long enough to do the job. Large amounts - such as dipping in molten petroleum jelly and squeezing out the excess - leaves a sticky cotton ball that ignites just as readily and burns for a significant amount of time - long enough to dry out and ignite wet kindling. No matter how much one uses, the cotton ball must be teased out - fluffed up - to readily catch the sparks. The key is to work the petroleum jelly completely thru the cotton ball so that every strand of cotton has a film of the pj on it. The EASIEST way to do this is the dip-and-squeeze method, but one then must package the result as it's a somewhat gooey mess - hence my straw suggestion. Oh - use a double-boiler method for melting the jelly, just as one would for melting candle wax - and BTW, melted petroleum jelly is much LESS likely to ignite on the stove than melted candle wax, I am QUITE certain - empirically determined by moi and others. There is greater separation between the melting and ignition points of pj than there is for candle wax.<br><br>Hope that helps.<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Tom