Bagheera, A quick search turned up 20@ $7.97 from www.sportsmansguide.com WAY TO MUCH! A really nice Swedish copy ( a bit larger and robust) goes for 10@ $2.49 from www. MajorSurplusNSurvival.com. Either of these companies are going to charge exhorbitant shipping to Europe. How many do you need?They are a common item, and another source for P-38s is out there, if that is what you want. Maybe somebody over here can add some to an order, and then ship them seperately to you. I wish I had a nickle for all the ones I used once and tossed in the service :(<br><br>

P-38 kick bahaawell you know.<br><br>GOD bless the U.S.

My favorite source for striker material is the end of a highway flare cap. Very tough striker, you can cut it off of the cap and have a little disk of striker material that will fit inside of many match safes.<br><br>

Excellent information, OldBadGuy. <br><br>

Thanks...But I'm a nice Bald guy, not a bad guy. Hahahaha<br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Hatch wrote:<br><br>"I like to get the "storm proof"- "NATO lifeboat" matches in a MATCH box. Same exact matches. You still get 25 matches BUT there 1/2 the price ($1.50) as the ones that come in the canister. I put mine in 35mm film cans that I get FREE from my local grocery stores photo lab. The cool thing is the box of matches comes with the striker on BOTH sides of the box. I just cut them off, and put them into the film can."<br><br>I got them at my local ARMY surplus store. <br>But I found this link on the web with a pretty good deal 2 boxes of 25 and comes with a 5-Pak of Slow Burning Emergency candles for $3.95<br><br>http://www.janddsurvivalproducts.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?category=kits<br><br>It's the last item on the page.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br><br>I checked this link. Here's the image they have there:<br><br><br><br>I emailed them. They are very friendly and have great customer service! They sent me a test sample for free, just so I could see if I liked them. I was amazed. I'd love to be able to recommend them and their product, but...<br><br>...what I got looked more like this:<br><br><br><br>Instead of the nicely even and smooth two-tone brownish flammable material that is on the Lifeboat matches, there is, instead, a monotone coating of unevenly applied reddish flammable material. I'm hoping the images do justice to what I'm trying to describe, so everyone can know what to expect if they order.<br><br>I have also seen these same NON-Lifeboat style "Storm" matches inside some sort of "survival kit" I saw at REI, even though the illustration that was on the package for these kits depicted the other genuine Lifeboat matches instead.<br><br>I can only guess that once upon a time you actually could order Lifeboat matches in boxes, but that the company manufacturing (or at least, packaging) these "Storm" matches has at some point changed from using "real" Lifeboat matches to some other make.<br><br>They must be struck on a strip of abrasive designed specifically for lighting matches, so they are not "strike anywhere" types. They burn nicely, even after I soaked them in water, so they're not a rip off by any means. They're fine. I just wanted to let everyone know, in case they might order some of these expecting something else, and be disappointed.

These matches that Jet got in the mail look like Coghlan's wind/water proof matches in place of the original ones. I bought some of these recently and they look like they are supposed to, with the brown top similar to Lifeboat matches and to the first pic posted. I am suspicious.

I love the Coughlan's windproof/waterproof matches*. I also love the REI stormproof matches. They both are great. The difference in appearance from the BCB lifeboat matches is that the REI ones are bigger and the Coughlan's ones are red. I use the Coughlan's for commercial airline travel, because they are almost as good as the lifeboats, but look more like "normal" matches in a cardboard box than the lifeboats do in their white plastic bottle. I prefer them for travel over REI's because they are normal sized, whereas REI's are oversized. I don't want to give any security officer any reason whatsoever to do a double-take when (s)he looks at them.

And yes, you're right. Of the three I just mentioned, the matches I got from this service look most like the Coughlan's. They're not oversized, and they're not two-tone, and they're not brown. However, the Coughlans' are consistenly and evenly applied and the burnable material has a glossy finish. These looked like they might be knock-offs of the Coughlan's style, but the burnable material had been unevenly applied and has a splotchy, flat finish which looked quite different.

Please understand me, they work just fine; there's nothing wrong with them. I have carried them and used them and like them well enough not to complain. They're completely acceptable, and yes, they are rather waterproof and hard to blow out. I'm not complaining about them at all, though I guess my earlier post may have sounded like that. Sorry for not being clearer. I guess I was just disappointed, because I got my hopes up.

But, I'm a gear snob, I guess, and prefer to pack BCBs in my PSKs. I carry Coughlan's when flying, 'cause they look normal. I usually carry REIs when hiking or camping, because I like the longer burn time of the larger matches. Since I got these matches from the above link though, I've been substituting them for the REIs, and I guess I'll continue to do so until I use them all up.

I don't have a problem with these matches, I just wanted everyone to know what was what, so they weren't surprised if they ordered some too.


*I always like to point out that I'm not talking about Coughlan's "waterproof" matches. Those are different.