That’s one thing I dislike about the PJ and cotton balls. While it works well, it’s very messy. For general fire starting, I usually just use cotton balls and fatwood. I always use a firesteel to start my fires, and I never have problems using cotton and fatwood. Usually a finger size piece is all that’s needed.

If wild pines don’t grow in your area, you can buy fatwood at Walmart like I do. I also carry Burt’s Beeswax daily, and I could always add that to the cotton if I needed to as a fire starting aid. A good tip I heard from Mike (thatmguy) is to use those little packets of Neosporin crème. It contains PJ, and it makes it a duel use item, for 1st aid or fire starting.