Use the gas fireplace remote.
It’s easier to carry matches than Vaseline, cotton, flint, etc.
I like the BIC lighter technique.
My zippo lighter uses a flint
Zippo. Back in my smoking days I always had a zippo and a spare can of fluid, you want a fire I got a fire.
I try to start fires with a hug or a kiss.
Turn the knob.
That’s one of them. I keep a dozen petroleum jelly-soaked cotton balls in an aluminum cigar tube in my ruck. I also keep a Swedish “fire steel” rod/scraper combo, UCO Stormproof matches (the best) and a triple-head cigar lighter. With fire, always redundancy.
BIC
In the Boy Scouts, we would open up a large box of wooden matches and pour wax on them. Made for a large supply of waterproof (strike anywhere) matches.
We would also roll newspapers into tubes, tie with string, and cut the tube into small segments. The segments were dipped into wax. These made waterproof fire starters - just cut them open to find bare newspaper, and the lit and burned like a candle.
There are practical solutions that can be carried/abused/rained on, and still work.
Carbide lamp. Still make them for hunters, cavers. Still need a lighting method, but takes very little to light with any kind of spark, as it emits acetylene gas. You can use the flame for light or use its flame to ignite wood or other media.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbide_lamp
Road Flares - Never Fails.
bkmk
That said, just stick an old zippo, a SEALED container of flints and a fuel bottle in your bag if you've got the room. Easier to use, gives you far more flame, and you've got fuel to use to ignite even wet wood, and easily lasts decades in storage.
Pray someone comes along and starts it for me.
Either that, or I'll enlist the manual labor of unarmed campus liberals; either the make fire, or they don't eat.
meh
If you have a fire steel then all you need is a bunch of detris. I am not carrying Vaseline around in my camping gear, may as well carry fire starter at that point
Track of the Wolf has some great kits for starting fires.
Steel plus box for tinder plus flint. New flint can almost always be found.
Some of the boxes also have a lense for using the sun to put a light to some tinder.
The BIC lighter I keep in my pocket with my SIG P938 and J5 Tactical flashlight.
Like the AMEX card in my wallet, I never leave home without them.
