Fire Starting in Wet Conditions

Birch bark.

It burns when wet and if you can peel some paper-thin, it'll take a spark from a ferro rod.

I try to grab a hunk or two and stuff it in my pocket whenever I'm walking in the woods.
 
While lots of people advocate vaseline as an accelerant to use on cottonball tinder, I recommend beeswax instead. Or use paraffin if you don't have beeswax. Being a solid at atmoshperic/body temperatures, the waxes aren't as messy as the vaseline. That leaves your fingers & kit tidier. I also believe that beeswax will burn longer than vaseline, but I haven't tested that hypothesis yet. See this thread from Cliff for more info on firestarters. Cliff's firestarters are sorta like the ones that Rawhide Clyde describes making.

See also the great Playing With Fire thread by Evolute over on the Swamp Rat survival forum.

-- Drugstore Alert!! --
Instead of cottonballs, which you compact to achieve density in a container after soaking them in accelerant, check out cosmetic cleaning pads. I think some manufacturers call them "buffs". I got a package of 100 at the discount store for under a dollar. They are 2+ inches in diameter and about as thick as a silver dollar. They seem quite dense. They are quilted (stamped pattern) on both faces. When I shred one apart with my fingers, it makes a ball about as big as a normal cottonball. However, the fibers seem to be chopped shorter than the ones found in regular cottonballs. Testing still to come on these.
 
In my area (Maine), I'd opt for Birch bark with dead, dried twigs and sticks from the area near the trunk of a Spruce tree. This combo will make a fire in the worst of conditions NOW.
 
Here's a simple gadget that works every time: you need a short (3"-4") piece of metasl tubing and about a foot of rubber or flexible plastic tubing, each about 1/4" id. Stick the metal into the plastic and it's done!

To use, place the plastic tube in your mouth, aim the metal end at your tinder. When you get the slightest flame going, blow into the tube. Wet wood or paper will burn brightly! So will just about anything else combustable. Best of all, there is nothing to wear our or burn out.

I have used one of these gadgets for years and never been without a fire no matter how wet the conditions.
 
I've used the vaseline/cottonball system in pretty bad weather, and still recommend it. Rather than consider the vaseline a problem because it can be messy, I consider that an asset! It represents a dual-use, which is desirable in a PSK. I wouldn't carry vaseline in a survival kit, but have found it useful for windburn when a bit was squeezed out of my tinder.

To really catch a spark I use a bit of vaseline cotton pulled out into a thin gauze, under a piece or 0000 steelwool similarly pulled out into a thin gauze. The combo will catch a spark and support ignition like you wouldn't believe!
 
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Paul rainwater's guaranteed firestarting device
 
Melancholymut,

Now that is a firestarter!!!

Thanks everyone for your helpful posts. I got some great gifts for Christmas including a nice flint and steel. Will be trying out some of these techniques soon.
 
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