Reading the thread on Zippos someone posted they don’t use matches any more. I have 2 older metal match safes that I take with me all the time when camping. I have a few of the green plastic ones in various kits and my van. But I never use them any more; I use a lighter (the evil Bic) and fire steel. If I had to make a choice, I would rather have fire steel then matches. A match safe only holds about 20-matches at the most. For its size that’s not a lot of lights. Even less so if it’s windy and it takes 2 or 3 to get a fire going. I know someone will say they can do it every time with one match. But this is the exception, and probably a bit of embellishing.

I do use strike anyplace matches to make fire starters, but as far as pulling out a match to light a fire, I don’t do it any more, it’s been 20-years or more since I have.

I would suspect the government at some point in the future will stop the sale of strike anyplace matches, saying they are too dangerous. And for our own safety they are going to make them illegal. At this point matches become even less useful for the outdoorsmen.

For now I’m not going to stop carrying my match safes full of matches, I will continue to cycle the stock of them in the match safe and have them with me for the “what if day”. But I suspect that when “what if’ comes I will use the lighter or fire steel.

When camping I have been using the fire steel more then the lighter, I see it as a skill I want to have and feel am not good enough at starting a fire with it yet. On a nice day it’s easy to do, But I want to be able to do it when its raining. But I always have thee Bic there if needed.

I pretty much have stopped using stick matches. The vast VAST majority of the time I use either a sparker or a butane lighter.

My Coleman propane lantern has a peizo-sparker on-board. I think my propane stove does too (I don't use it much - prefer Coleman fuel for stoves). My older Coleman liquid fuel stove and my MSR backpacking stoves are lit using either a sparker or a butane lighter.

The only place I still find them non-replacable (can't find anything else that will work) is to light my older Coleman liquid fuel lantern. It's globe only has a small hole through which a stick match is the only thing that will fit.

I tried installing one of Coughlan's lantern sparker devices, but it won't fit on the globe of my paticular model. I assume it fits OK on other (unknown) models.

Ken K.

I installed a Coughlan's lantern sparker in a 2-mantle Coleman gas lantern, it works great. I had to drill a hole in the lantern base to mount it. It fit because it’s a large lantern.

I guess I am just backwards, but if I am cold and wet,give me a match. Even the Mountian men used a match when they could get them, flint and steel, just last longer than a match when you are Way up in the boon docks and the store is open next spring. Don't get me wrong, I still have and use my FireSticks, but when push comes to shove give me a match. Strik anywhere matches are almost a thing of the past here in So. Calif. But I use mostly REI Storm Matches or the lifeboat type of match. I also carry lighters in all my kits, but like the fire steels are just back ups.

I have some OLD news for you. The Government outlawed true 'strike anywhere' matches years ago. It seems the composition of the matchhead was perfect for improvised explosives.
The present formulation is good, but hardly 'strike anywhere.'
The second blow to match use was the determination they are a HAZMAT product with greatly increased shipping costs.

It is FOOLISH for anyone to dismiss common methods of firemaking. A few years back, Randy Davenport was briefly the guest expert at a knife site. He too, dismissed matches. So I postulated this scenario: Randy was lying unconscious from some mishap in the snow. A troop of girlscouts came upon him and decided to build a fire. Looking through Randy's pockets they laid out ;magnesium block, firesteel and flint, New Guinea Higlander firepiston,custom bowdrill with ceremonial eagle feather. Oh, and by chance a book of paper matches courtesy of the DEW DROP INN in Boise Idaho.

There are a plethora ( spit like bad guy in The Three Amigos) of firemaking tricks from the common to the show off and MacGyver wow wee.

It is foolish not to carry multiple methods, AND one almost universaly understood by all people.

I don’t know if the strike anyplace matches I buy (they are hard to find by the way) are any less of a match then ones I have used in the past. They seem to work on a lot of surfaces.
The strike anyplace matches I buy are the Diamond brand, use to be called “Ohio Blue Tip.”

I do carry matches with me, and said so in the first post, and that I will continue to do so. I was just wondering if others have found that they don’t use them much anymore.

As far as carrying multi methods of fire making, I think we all do that, and a lighter (and I carry several at a time) is about as universally understood as it gets, probably more so then a match.

While certainly not a strike anywhere match, I've never found the REI stormproof matches not to light a properly prepared tinder ball on the first match. Granted these matches require a striker, but even the most fervent of gram weenies out there would have a hard time making a case against that.

Jim

I don't think there's any form of fire-starting that's outdated.

I still carry matches.

They don't take up much space, they're light, and they're pretty handy if you don't want to leave somebody's bathroom smelling funny after you've done your business...

Agreed. I use a non-refillable butane fire stick most of the time, to light the BBQ, campfire here in the campground, the pilot lite on our oven (try that with a metal match/flint and steel), etc. When camping and using a Coleman gas stove and lantern, usually strike anywhere matches. I probably have five or six boxes of them, vacuum sealed, stuck here and there. I have a Boy Scout hotspark on my keyring. I have a reproduction of a good old mountain man flint and steel set, complete with char cloth that I play with from time to time. But in my pocket right now, and all the time, is a GI match safe, filled with REI Stormproof matches and a striker board, still sealed in plastic. Those guys are easy to light, and they don't go out 'til they burn out. You do have to shorten them a tad to get them in the match safe, but big deal...

I find it ironic society keeps 'improving things' and I am less enchanted with the results. I have to get this converter box for an older TV for mandated digital TV. Words cannot express the joy I'll feel watching'reality' shows with Paris Hilton & Co improved. I would personally prefer Red Skelton on our old Black and White again, the picture sometimes tweaked by Arizona winds playing with the guy wires on that parasol antannae we had.

There is nothing wrong with advances in technology. What is wrong is the failure of it's users to define what is an advance, and what is merely painting wooley mammoths on cave walls with acrylics after forgetting why we painted those animals.

Firemaking, that most ancient and basic of skills that has translated itself into Saturn Rockets has become commonplace and ill appreciated.

Our oldest forum member, Oetzi carried flint stones, tinder AND a container with a preserved ember.There he was in a resource rich environment, one he knew intimitely. And yet he 'thought ahead'because immediate firemaking was as much survival as convenience.

People are wrongly focused on the intitial production of the ancient flame. People fail miserably in translating said flame to an enduring fire of intelligence.20 matches, firesteel, Bic lighter; It is irrelevant if you lock onto a set piece of doing something, or discard others.