As mentioned before, my daughter and I went for an extended camping trip on Labor Day weekend. It got pretty wet while we were out and I was glad to have taken a couple of different firestarters with us. One worked well and the other left a bit to be desired.
My least liked one was a paraffin and sawdust starter stick made by Western. I found it in the camping section of Walmart (I am pretty cheap). It is essentially just what it says, compressed sawdust and wax cut into small bars that you put into your kindling and use to get the fire going. It works ok if everything is dry, but not the greatest on damp stuff; it just burned too slow and did not seem to get hot enough. As it was being sold in the camping section, I had a bit higher expectations of it. I think I paid about $10.00 for the package I got. I still have some of them left as I switched to using the other ones mentioned below.
The other type I used and was very glad to have with me were Landmann firestarters that I bought from Menards. These are small squares of about 1 1/2″, you simply light them and put them in the fire. They are advertized as burning at about 1500 degrees and last for about 5 mins, plenty hot enough to get a small fire started even with damp wood. They are also virtually weightless and take up practically no space. A box of them in your pack would not even be noticed. A box of 24 sells for around $7.00 according to online pricing.
I think it is pretty easy to deduce my recommendation between these 2, hope it is helpful.
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