I always carry a sturdy fixed blade knife and have been experimenting with how to carry a ditch kit. I need to find a comfortable, water resistant, fanny pack. I used to carry a round tin (empty Bear Grease can) about 4 in in diameter and 2 in thick wrapped with duct tape in my PFD. But that made a sizeable lump.

I tried to start a fire in a down pour one time without using my favorite militarty firestarter Trioxane. It was a candle that finally did the trick. I scraped the wet bark from the kindling and shaved the inner wood then dried it over the candle until I had enough to start. Then shaved bark and dried the larger sticks until I finally had a nice fire. The partial serration on my fixed blade KaBar really helped with preparing the wood.