My (uneducated) understanding is that Magnesium oxidizes extremely quick when exposed to air, and this is why making "pre-shavings" does not work, or so folks (far wise than I) say. I guess this why my mag-blocks all have a weird dull-film on them after not using them for a while which takes a couple of strikes to get off.

But Iron, you bring up a interesting point, if you can make the shavings quickly and then get them in an low oxygen environment, e.g. dunking them in petroleum jelly (is that a low oxygen environment?), is it possible to reduce the oxidation to the point where the mag shavings remain easy to spark? I am guessing the bigger the shavings the better, but I will defer to the chemistry types which I am sure are nearby. I was Googling around and I found references to "magnesium ribbons", which sound like a great
gift for the upcoming holidays, does anyone know anything about these things?

Marc

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."
-Howard Aiken