This fire starter is easy and cheap to make. They only require cotton balls, petroleum jelly/wax, an knife and an igniter. These are fully waterproof as long as you make a clean seal and they float. These burn for app. 5 min. and are very hard to blow out. I had to use 3 cups of water to put them out.

Step 1: Optional: Roll in Hand Sanitizer

Rolling your cotton balls in hand sanitizer is just an extra precaution to make sure that they burn.

Step 2: Waxing Your Balls (pun Intended)

To seal the cotton balls and make them burn longer you need to coat them in a wax or petroleum jelly. I just melted a small candle and poured the wax over the balls. The most important thing is that you make a watertight seal.

Step 3: Igniting

To light the fire starters you need to cut the seal of wax so that the cotton ball is exposed. Do not cut to much of the wax off or it will not burn as long. Then you have to light the exposed cotton. You clould use flint and steel but i have not tried so i don't know for sure. Thanks for checking out my instructable! If you liked it please vote for it in the outside contest. Thanks, Have fun with your fire!