The standard mini-Bic is my favorite field lighter because it is small, light, durable and, it gives a lot of lights. Far more than you can get in any match safe I know about. I don't smoke so reaching for a light in every day life is fairly rare. A lighter that disappears in a pocket is good.

Last I checked even the hidebound military had shifted from match safes and wooden matches to butane lighters as their first line. Some old timers still stuff a few waterproof matches and may back it up with a flint of some description but those seldom get used. The Butane lighters are pretty reliable.

Even if they get wet shake the water off and once dry they work again. In the field mini-Bics are so compact that I often have three with me. Usually one in my pocket without any special protection, a second in my pack in a tiny but tough zip-lock with some tinder in the pack and a third wrapped in wax impregnated tinder paper, sealed between two pieces of aluminum foil-tape and stuffed into in a small survival kit.

I figure if all three fail I'm having a very bad day. But preparedness is all about bad days so I have a few matches with tinder in foil, a Blastmatch and have, long ago, learned and practiced how to use bow or lens for making fire.

I have taken to using a small bungee, 20 to a pack for $3 and intended for pony tails, wrapped around the lever to keep it from being accidentally depressed. For normal street wear I have carried the same lighter for over a year and it still was good.

A friend has a method of making a silicone rubber sleeve that will slip over the lighter and keep it water-tight but he didn't tell me how he did it. I have a few ideas and might try to cobble something together. He showed me his and I was thinking I could add an attachment point so I could hang the lighter around my neck. The Mini-Bic sounds good for this because of its diminutive size. It would have to be water-tight because of the sweat and its corrosive action.