Hi all!
Firstly to anyone under the age of 16 please remember fire is dangerous and should be used in controlled circumstances!
Apologies if this is common knowledge, had a scour through and cannot find any related posts.
Cyalume chemical light sticks are obviously single use therefore probably do not feature in many peoples kits, however the used fluid can be re-used as tinder in a similar way to Vaseline on cotton wool, I experimented earlier today and it kept a cotton wool make up pad burning for around 2 minutes.
another use is to cut off the top of the lightstick, insert cotton wool to form a wick and light as usual, with a spark or similar method. The one I tried earlier I put out after around 5 minutes as it was catching the plastic having burned the fluid.
Obviously in a survival situation burning plastic would be less of an issue than staying alive but for practice and training purposes I would advise burning plastic is not the way ahead! Below are a few pictures of my findings.