Just last week a few miles down the beach the kids wanted to build a fire, problem was miles away from home and no matches/lighters or strikers/fire lense.
As we were traveling by ATV & trailer we used the next best thing, A fist full of old growth grass (3 " in diameter and 8-10" long) touched on the hot header pipe it will smoulder for a bit and you need to keep it going till you get a good glow going
For slightly damp hard to ignite grass you have to hold the grass wad on the header for a bit longer till it chars to a good ember going kinda like that scene from 'Quest for Fire'.
I guess the grass idea came from a book I read by Willa Cather 'My Antonea' in it they mention twisting big hanks of dry prairie grass to burn in the wood stove.
As I like to ice fish, I sometimes will tote along a pipe & pouch or a couple cheepie cigars (perfecto's) to pass time while fishing, the wind along coastal shore ice presents a challange to get them lit off, A Zippo does fine if you want to mainatin one, Bic's are ok inside but almost impossible to get to light out on the ice due to wind and cold dropping the regulated pressure, even in the chest pocket of my flanel shirt inside layerd under my sweatshirt and parka that darn Bic is a booger to get lit more than once.
Those cheepie paper book matches ignite reliably reguardless of temprature provided they are out the wind, if I unzip My parka and use the one half as a windbreak kinda down in the armpit area and double or tripple the matches i can get a really good scorch on a stogie, I just fold matches over and rub em on the strip instead of tearing them loose.
Another the guys that Icefish carries paper book matches with the fold over flap dipped in pariffin and if he needs to get a fire going will lite the whole book off with the pariffin treated cover as a booster to get tinder going.
