Reb of course it has to be VERY DRY lol. Something else I've done is break it up all nice n crumbly into the lid of the tin,once I had an ember going very carefully drop it into your tinder material and blow gently, one hint I tell guys is when ya start blowing , hold the tinder UP AND AWAY FROM YOUR FACE, that way when it catchs you don't get a face full of flames, also your not breathing the smoke while it gets hot enough to get a flame. Ya see so many blowing down on the stuff with their faces OVER the tinder n gagging n coughing from the smoke n then jumping back when the flame starts. By holding it up n blowing into it that way ya aleviate all that crud. -- I've also seen guys that had a real tight fitting lid on their char can actually just strike the sparks dirrectly into it, use their knife tip to fish out the ember n then seal the can back up, without air it all goes out n actually rechars a little bit. --just some thoughts YMHS Birdman ps:with good char n decent tinder I have gotten flames in under 4 or 5 seconds. fer an old dog I actually won a compatition one time hehehe. It'll all come together for ya, ya seem to have all the basics down pretty good from yer posts so now its experiment n practice until your comfortable in more then one way of doing things, next stop "fire drill LOL