I bought some lifeboat matches that came in a plastic tube container. I put some of these in my survival kits minus the tube. My problem is I cant find a material that will strike these that I can add to my kit. The striker on top of the tube works great but I can't find a material that is similar. I have tried different grits of sandpaper but they either eat up the match or do nothing at all. Any help woun be appreciated.

Get the striker end of a highway flare cap, cut it off, and you have a ready made striker for your matches...<br><br>Also, for a sure fire fire starter, take a highway flare, cut it down to about two inches, plug the cut off end, and you have about 3-4 minutes of fire that will start the dampest wood...<br><br>I love the smell of flare smoke in the morning...

you said you tried sand paper, well I'm not surprised it didn't work because the life bout matches are safty matches(a huge draw gack for a survival match if you ask me)<br>so thy wont work with any thing other than match stirker strip. the striker strip on the tub my look like like some kind of sand paper but I feel sure it isn't, in my survival kit I put a piece<br>striker strip from a normale box of safty matches and I've tested this and it works fine.<br>hope that helps

I've had great success using the striker strips cut from off of other books and boxes of matches with my Lifeboat matches.

The highway flare and dimpled striker from strike anywhere matches are the best. Be aware, that lifeboats snap easily and you have to jab the match in to the striker AWAY from you rather than dragging. I have mine in reserve for real nasty weather. Strike Anywhere matches are becoming hard to find. New ( and stupid ) transport regs make selling prohibitive. They can ignite with enough friction. I treat mine with nail polish ( wax also used) and slip the heads into a small strip of perforated cardboard, much like a ammo belt.

As previously noted, there is an essential chemical in the striker - I used to know, but have forgotten - it may be potassium chlorate or potassium percholrate, or it may be red phosphorus (Great! Now I'm gonna have to go refresh my memory or it's gonna bug me <grin>). In any even, unless it's red phosphorous, the essential ingredient is probably water soluable. I suggest you try the following with your matches:<br><br>Find a strip from book matches or box matches that works to reliably light your matches.<br><br>Hold the strip under running water and rub it gently with your thumb or finger while the water is running.<br><br>Dry the strip totally and try it again. If it works, good. If not, be sure you provide protection from moisture.<br><br>...The more I think about it, the more I think that safety matches are sulfur and potassium chlorate, with glass (silica sand) and red phosporous for the striker... <br><br>Anyway, if you do the test on the striker, please let us know how it came out!<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Tom<br><br>[color:red]Post Script - the strikers should be OK:<br>Safety matches<br>These matches can only be lit by striking on the specially prepared abrasive surface on the side of the matchbox, while "strike-anywhere" matches (illegal in many countries because of fire hazard) can be struck on any rough surface. <br>The heads of safety matches contain sulfur and oxidizing agents such as potassium chlorate with powdered glass, fillers, colouring matter and a binder of glue and starch. The striking surface on the box contains red phosphorus, powdered glass or silica (sand), filler and binder. When the match is struck, the heat from the friction causes a small amount of red phosphorus on the box to be vapourized as white phosphorus vapour. The latter burns spontaneously in air and initiates the decomposition of the potassium chlorate which liberates oxygen. The sulfur ignites and lights the wood of the match. <br><br>The heads of strike-anywhere matches contain phosphorus sulphide P4S3, oxidizing agents, powdered glass to increase the friction and a glue as a binder. Since both phosphorus and sulfur are present on the heads of the strike-anywhere matches, striking these matches anywhere will generate enough heat of friction to ignite the phosphorus sulfide. The train of reactions thereafter is similar to that which is described above.<br><br>TGA</font color=red><br>

Hey Chris (or anyone else ),<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>The highway flare and dimpled striker from strike anywhere matches are the best. Be aware, that lifeboats snap easily and you have to jab the match in to the striker AWAY from you rather than dragging.<p><hr></blockquote><p>I just finished testing igniting Diamond "Strike Anywhere", Storm "Weatherproof", BCB "Lifeboat", Coughlan's "Wind And Waterproof", REI "Stormproof", and some other brand of waterproof/windproof matches on a flare striker tip, and have some questions.<br><br>1. All in all, it was rather ineffective. Oh, I was eventually able to get each of them to ignite, but it took a lot of work for all but the strike anywhere ones. Some worked better than others: the REI matches took a few attempts. The lifeboats took several. The others all took many. Also, the striker surface wore away as I did this. The useable surface got smaller and smaller, until it was all gone, and would not ignite any of the matches, except the strike anywhere ones. So, why do you say that flares tie for first place as "best" strikers? I get better results with generic cardboard cut-off-of-a-book-of-restaraunt-matches strikers than this. I was using an Orion brand road flare. Are some flare strikers better than others, depending on brand? What brand have you found to be so good?<br><br>2. I keep reading about jabbing the lifeboat matches against the striker. I've tried, and it sucks. I can sometimes get them to ignite after many attempts, but sometimes I just break them. Consequently, I just ignite them the way I do any other match; I grip the match stick between my thumb and middle finger, lay the tip of the match against the striker surface, press it down with the tip of my forefinger and scrape. It works just fine; dependably and reliably. I've never had a problem with jabbing them in real life, because, well, I just don't, but I am curious. Do some people really have a problem igniting lifeboats? And can you really get the hang of the "jab technique" to the point where you ignite them more often than you break them?<br><br>Thanks.