No doubt we all have ferro rods, petroleum soaked/regular cotton balls, matches, hand sanitizer, etc. to start a fire with. I'm always looking for different ways and while going thru Home Depot's barbque section found these items. First is Webers barbque starters, 24 cubes to a pack. Suppose to peel the tin foil cover off, then light it with a match where it will burn for several minutes. I'm thinking of what if you have nothing but soaking wet wood and your ferro rod can't cut the mustard in getting your tinder to ignite? The other is, what if your matches are wet or lighter simply won't work? These WILL catch fire using a ferro rod and I've also tried some other things with them such as soaking one in water for 15 minutes and it still caught fire. You also don't have to use the entire cube either as I broke one cube up into 4 separate, small piles and each still caught fire. Remember the snow we got on the 31st? ALL my wood was soaked, but after making some tinder shavings, with larger pieces on them, used just a 4th of the cube which got my fire going. These are $3.24 a box and already bought 4 boxes, with me having at least 6 per bob/edc.
Next is Ignit-O, also sold at Home Depot. There are 12 packages to a box and a bit expensive, like $8?. Made of the same stuff as the cubes and works the same. Think for what you pay vs what you get, it's a rip off.
Next is Extreme Fire and these things look like a nasty/greasy/waxy tootsie roll. Suppose to lit the paper it comes in and the paper has a slight waxy feel to it also. Thinking bad things happen, can I start the paper on fire with a ferro rod? No. Then tried starting a couple of chunks of this stuff with a ferro rod and then, some matches. Again, no. In fact, I tried lighting the chunks of this stuff with SIX matches and it still wouldn't catch fire! Then took a bit of the waxy paper and wrapped it in the small chunks, with the match catching the paper on fire and of course, then the chunks not only caught fire, but burned for several minutes. So this stuff is good, but ONLY if you have matches/a lighter. Don't remember what this stuff cost me.
I'm going to stay with the Weber cubes as they give me the best bang for the buck. Also going to try the matchless fire system, something I saw on YouTube. Pour so much potassium pomegranate and then a VERY small bit of glycerin. The potassium stuff is available at Lowes, $37 for 7 pounds. The glycerin, I'm not sure about as there are several different kinds of glycerin such as vegetable and animal. CVS has it, but I refuse to pay $6 an ounce for it and been told Walmart carry's it, but haven't found any on the shelves of the 2 stores I check out. Once you combine the two, a spontaneous fire will start, no ferro rod, etc. needed. Will do a write up on it once I've tried it.....or maybe someone else has already done it and if so, how about posting how it went for you?