I've used strike anywheres that I wax dipped for years. However, this evening I did a quality control test on my box of spares. Once I flicked the wax with my nail, I got one out of 15 to strike off the box, and I had four that didn't strike even on the box. I guess I need to mourn the last of my strike anywheres.

My question is, since I've always waxed in the past, I think I'd like to try varnishing the normal style of kitchen matches. What have people found works best- nail polish? wood shellac? model gloss coat? It has to be able to strike on the box striker, obviously, and cheap. I'd love something small, I don't have a huge amount of space.

I used to use wax all the time, but my last coating job produced soft tips on most of the matches. Why I do not know.

I have changed to using Shellac, full-strength. A quick dip and layout on skewers to dry. These have been much better so far, and strike on the box or on a nice rough surface. I tossed several in a bucket of water for upwards of 3 minutes and they all struck fine on a terracotta pot.

The shellac is thinner too making more fit into my matchcases.

I am not absolutely certain this will work for strike-on-the-box types but I would at least try it.

I don't know about matches, but I have been using a lot of shellac the last couple of years, and I find that the results of real natural shellac is far superior to synthetic shellac. Bullseye is the only one I've found, don't know about others.

Sue

I have also heard about using Thompsons Water Seal works. Haven't tried it myself though.