Make a Fire Starting Kit

This article will show you how to put together a compact fire starting kit for camping or survival.

Steps

Collect the items needed for this project. These are listed below under "Things You'll Need".
Cover your workspace. While optional, this makes it a cleaner way to work, especially as you will be working with dripping wax.
Waterproof about 50 matches or so. Do this as follows:
- Light the candle and let the wax melt a little.
- Dip a match into the wax; be careful not to light the match in the flame.
- Let the wax dry on the red part of the match.
Make some tinder. Soak the cotton balls in the alcohol and let them dry.
Put a tissue in the bottom of the container. Put the matches on one side. Then, put the cotton balls in the bag, roll the baggie up, and push into the case.
Include a small piece of Make Sandpaper Last Longer. This will be used to strike each match.
Wrap the edge of the case where the tin closes with electrical tape. The fire starting kit is all set to go.

Remove the striker from the box of kitchen matches, fold & include in kit. If your matches are not the "strike anywhere" kind, this striker will be required to provide the second half of the two-part match/striker system. As opposed to the sandpaper used above, this striker is NOT just a friction source. It is half of a two part chlorate / phosphorus ignition system.
Finished.

Matches are fine, but stick a "Bic"-type lighter in too.
Cotton balls with petroleum jelly worked into them tend to burn very well and last long enough to light damp tinder.
Dryer lint can also be collected and used instead of the cotton balls for tinder. Don't compact the tinder too much.
Wrap another piece of electricians tape around the middle of the can also, to re-wrap the kit if needed.
Also, a small bag of Fritos chips works well for an easy tinder in damp conditions and burns easy and long.
You can prepare chemical fire starter by packing a small bottle of glycerin and some potassium permanganate, mix the two ingredients when you need to start a fire. Powdered glucose works as a replacement for glycerin.
For best results work a small amount of petroleum jelly into the dryer lint.
There are many magnesium based fire campfire starters such as Swedish Firesteel - google magnesium fire starters to shop for options. In use, they ignite magnesium shavings which will burn in any conditions.
If you can add an altoid's container full of cotton, cotton is a great for char cloth.