I am a big fan of adding one of these to a survival kit, or a wallet if you don't mind the slight bulk.http://www.toollogic.com/tools/svc1-38.html
The Survival Card 1 [...] offers a new skeletonized, serrated knife of tough stainless steel, a magnesium alloy fire starter, a loud signal whistle, plus an 8x power lens and compass. There's also a tweezers and toothpick and a hole for lanyard attachment.
jzmtl... Can you explain what some of the smaller bits are? I can't identify everything.
A pencil sharpener makes for a nice tinder maker
The Exotac's are nice. A pencil sharpener makes for a nice tinder maker
Why take dowel? Pencils are useful stuff for the kit anyway The graphite can be a lubricant if it's a softish pencil, and of course there's use as a writing implement too Green twigs won't work, but featherlight shavings on a dry twig with a crisp snap to it would work (one that's been caught up and air dried in the crook of a branch for example, rather than one that's been sat on the forest floor). That said, if you have some other tinder such as cotton wool & vaseline, shavings that aren't quite dry enough to catch a spark, will still help keep a small flame going long enough for twigs to catch. That way you can make a small supply of cotton wool last a bit longer as you're only using it to catch the spark rather than relying on it to ignite your fuel
BTW I've just remembered another way some pencil sharpeners might help with fire starting. Some pencil sharpeners are made of magnesium alloy such as these ones.