I've heard that wax cylinders burn very hot and make excellent fire starters-- This info from a delightful old codger I met in the mountains of Virginia many, many years ago. He lived quite aways up a "holler" and seldom ventured into town. He had a small seamless brass horn that---yep!-- he had been using as a funnel

It was pretty rough, but I paid him for the horn and drove him into town and bought him a new funnel!
As we talked about my hobby, he said that as a kid in the 1930's and 40's he used to go into a store in Mt. Jackson, VA and carry home boxes filled with cylinders that his family used in their stove. I've never tried to replicate his fire-starter story. Perhaps your broken cylinders could be put to the test
Brad Abell