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.