Fire steels & Magnesium fire starters

I tried that cheap kit from harbor freight and it works pretty good, i will keep one of them in an emergency bag in my kayak.

  What "Kit" are you referring to? Their cheapy $3 magnesium block?  If so those are the ones I have many of, there cheap! Can afford to experiment on them to get used to using them when I don't need to.

those are the ones, some times they mail a coupon and can get them for 99 cents.
they work.

they are 2.49 till the 28, but i have seen them go for 99 cents before

http://www.harborfreight.com/magnesium-fire-starter-66560.html

Redundancy.  What if the stormproof lighter fails? I have a waterproof lighter ( I call my jet lighter cuz its a little torch!) and 99% of the time I'll use it first (Till it runs out of fuel and I have to refill it)

For redundancy, how about just carry one more lighter? A Bic lighter would last for months. Don't get me wrong, I like playing with fire. I just don't believe in all the gimmicky ways of starting a fire. I played with magnesium, char cloth in piston chamber, steel wool with battery, magnifying glass, flint stone, plain old wood stick, and a number of flammable concoctions,  but if I'm going to store these items in my survival kit, I might as well just store a lighter. I think it's much more practical. Sorry for going off on a tangent here.  Carry on.

Lighters are good until they get wet.

Bic lighters dry in a matter minutes in decent weather. I can see the magnesium starter working solidly in snow and wet weather, problem is dry enough tinder and wood are a challenge of its own in snow. Carry both and don't worry about it.

Rub two sticks. I tried that for hours throughout my life, and was able to warm up. NOt from a fire you see, but the physical exertion and the flared temper.