Since these seem to sometimes be difficult to find; just bought Blue Diamond brand in the barbeque section of our Westlake's ACE hardware store. They had both small and large wooden strike anywhere matches in stock. FWIW.

same here..Ace BBQ section,older hardware and small grocery stores are a good place look.i stocked up a few years ago,i have ten box's still in the wrap and sealed in plastic jars.

Strike anywhere matches are readily available from various outlets of my local supermarket, a division of Safeway. No problem at all. I prefer, when bundling them for the outdoors, to keep their striking surface available.

"surface available"..i don't get what you mean,i keep the ones that i take camping in small WP plastic jars with the heads down so i'm not picking them out with a wet finger by the heads.i also keep a bit of the striker off the box glued to the inside of the cap and a couple birthday candles in the jar also.

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i also tried the old trick of sealing up a box in wax,face all the heads the same direction so you won't chip them when you cut a bundle off the pack..BIG TIP--don't get the wax real hot or it will flow out of the seams of the box even if you wrap in in foil!..otherwise a fun project and no i have not tried out any of these yet.

I have some penley matches work well can be found at albertsons and online.

Lee

In the nicest fashion possible, don't do this. It is an old idea that has the signal disadvantages of:
1) Not suitable for hot climates.
2) Some varieties of match soak up the wax and become unstrikable.
3) They can become very difficult to separate at cold temperatures (wax goes hard).

A better trick is to dip the matches one at a time into nail varnish. Allow them to dry and then put them in a metal match case. This also makes them burn better.

Note* Les Stroud states in "Survive" that plastic is unsuitable because there is a small chance of static causing matches to ignite.

when i did this a couple years ago i put the box outside,under a seldom used old canoe.it's out of the weather on the overturned seat.i'll wait until the snow melts back--who knows when--and fetch it out and see what i have.my real match supply is kept dry and safe in a "modern way"..

I have looked for them locally. Cannot find them yet. My current supply? I ended up having to buy a couple of boxes of them on evil-bay.

At our grocery stores, matches are sold where they sell the tobacco products. Check there.

All I have been able to find are strike on box matches. I know there are outrageous shipping charges on the strike anywhere matches. Apparently too costly to be shipped to our state, priced reasonably at the stores, and still make money on them.

I see them now and then at various places. Not always where you might expect them to be though.

I have tried the trick of covering the individual matches in wax and was not real impressed with the end result, although it did work. It seemed like the wax penetrated the match heads and when I went to strike them sometimes the wax would come off and take much of the match head with it. I would say about 1 in 3 of the matches I coated in wax did this. In fairness to this technique I only tried it once and with no more than a few dozen matches.

I can't say that I ever tried soaking them in water after coating them to see if I could dry them out they would still strike. I do know that a friend of mine coated just the match heads and some of those got dunked and would not light. I am guessing water got to the match head through the stick somehow.

I pretty much went to a butane lighter in lieu of matches. Seems simpler to me.

The wax idea seems messy too. I think I might be inclined to use my vacuum sealer in lieu of coating a box of matches with wax, if I wanted to try and store some longer term. But, my inclination is to buy a handful of butane lighters instead.

This photo of member Schwert's set up has always stuck in my mind. Shellac-dipped and stored in a metal case. Those are such nice match cases.

Shellac is good for the heads because it is easily worn away by friction but it adds very little extra fuel. Wax is good because it seals the wood from absorbing water and provides fuel so the match burns longer and hotter but it makes the heads harder, sometimes impossible, to strike.

I have seen wooden matches with the heads dipped in shellac and the sticks dipped in wax and wrapped in wax saturated cotton string so they burned like a candle. Seemed like the best of both worlds but complicated to produce. This when lighters are cheap and easy.

I happen to like Lifeboat matches. They burn a long time and are sealed against moisture. I still like a Bic but the lifeboat matches are proven and effective alternative. And nobody says you cant wind a little waxed cotton string around the stick so they burn extra long.