Found 6 boxes at K-mart the other day. They were hidden behind regular strike on box matches. Now I can practice waterproofing them. Any suggestions on type of nail polish, wax or anything else?

I've had the best luck with shellac.

Yep. Double dip them in the shellac. I found it helps to have a pair of tweezers you really don't mind using for this. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I do recommend wrapping a bit of stair tred tape around your container, or carry a sharpening stone rther than a rod. If you do the latter, you might want one with a coarse side for axes and the like, and for striking.

I've never considered them to be worth the trouble. My BOB has 2 butane lighters, magnifying glass, magnesium bar,vasolined cotton balls, 3 wick candle, . Just the sparks from the lighter or the magnesium will light the candle, as will the magnifier. A little "teepee " of fuzz sticks, above the candle, soon dry out enough to burn ok, and then they will ignite larger sticks, no matter how wet.. The Vasolined cotton should of course be reserved for real emergencies, when you get soaked in the cold in some manner.

The matches are a fire hazard to have around the house. If a mouse chews on one, it can ignite the entire box. Just shaking the box can ignite one, and then the rest of the box almost explodes.

I use clear nail polish. The suggestion for shellac sounds good too. I never had much luck with wax. It would flake off in the container.

Regards, Vince

Uh, smole? I use a couple of strike on box match heads, in a bottle cap, to keep the mice OUT of the pantry. I've never seen the mice get to anything within a half foot of the matches, or anything that they had to go over the matches to get to. They don't like the smell in my experince.

I grew up in a house with enough mice to keep four cats fit, trim and leathal. They line the corpses up at my folks bedroom door. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> And yes, they heat solely with a woodstove. For years, we used strike anywheres until they became hard to get, and nothing ever happened.

Here's an old Boy Scout project.

Buy a box (or boxes) of parafin. Melt it in an old pot that you don't want to use for anything else. Get some newspaper and string. Cut the newspaper into strips anywhere from 1 inch to 4 inches wide, depending on how/where you will carry/store them. Roll the newpaper up like a hand rolled cigar and tie some string around it, leaving a tail of string. Dip the whole thing in the melted parafin. While you're at it. dip the heads of the matches in the parafin as well. Now you have safety matches and firestarters. Obviously, hot climates may make a mess of your creation, but we carried them in New England summer climates with no melting.

I tried waterproofing strike-anywhere matches with polyeurithane and it did not work well at all. When struck the matches tend to burn poorly.

I also bought the REI waterproof matches and find them fun to watch burn. They burn very fast from the top down the fuel. Cool to watch but I have yet to try to light a fire with them.

When putting together a very small kit I guess I tend to skip the matches and go with a lighter and a small sparker. I carry a fresnel lens too, but with the number of cloudy days we have around here I'm not sure how much it will help.

Lately, when out with the Scouts, I've just been putting uncoated matches inside one or two of those orange plastic waterproof cases - along with a small piece of emory board (for fingernails) - and making sure I also have a full lighter (Windmill or Storm) and a sparker (Kershaw or Spark-Lite) along with.

I like lighting fires with matches much more than with a ligher or sparker. The shape of the match just makes it easier to reach past the small twigs and get to the tinder. When car camping the long-reach lighters work well too.

The first order of business is to sort out the better matches. I took a box of 250 Strike anywheres awhile back and found a goodly percentage either missing the white tip, or it was very small and actually broke off in striking. Today's strike anywheres are NOT the same chemical compound of before. They were actually used for improvised explosives and the makeup changed. There are anecdotal stories of spontaneous ignitions in matchcases, but cautionary packing with a heads up,down ,up pattern and cushioning on both ends with tinder make this unlikely. The matches are becoming difficult to find because a stupid shipping regulation lumped them with HAZMAT materials and the exhorbitant shippping costs forced many dealers to drop Them. Sealing matches is really uneccessary if you have a truly weatherproof container. Wax in fact will degrade the matchhead over time: and in fact all matches eventually degrade. Various laquers and polishes do a better job, but you must be cautious not to seal them so well they fail to ignite. The NATO lifeboats are sealed for obvious reasons and also require a more vigorous striking method. The fuel in a lifeboat is the head, and conversely a strike anywhere uses the matchstick for extended burning. And I will repeat again my old mantra about safety matches. EVERYONE knows how to strike a standard match. I don't care if your a primordial, undiscovered, indigenous tribe living in some raincloud mountain and the National Geographic helicopter just landed. The things have spread faster than the latest japanese electronic gadget we cannot live without. In our backup firemaking kit we MUST factor in our own incapacitation and figure someone else may have to light the thing.

I think strike-anywhere matches should always be a part of a kit primarily for the reasons that Chris sites.

I have never found any reason to be worried about having them in the house....on the contrary I have found so many reasons to have them that I find it sad that they are not available to all.

How long ago did the formula change? When I was a little kid the matches seem to light via any course surface. Now I have trouble getting about half to light on side walks or asfalt. I still like them and think they should be included in every kit. Just make sure you always have a back up.
<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Long ago, I used to coat the matches in candle wax as I learned in the Boy Scouts. They tend to go bad after a short storage period. Then they will not strike. I gave up on any coating and just keep them in a waterproof match safe and carry other means to light a fire if necessary. In fact I carry 3 methods and can also use primitive techniques if I absolutely have to. I can usually find materials, although usually not all in the same spot! Cheers!

Ive never actually seen a strike anywhere match, because our government thinks they are unsave and we might hurt ourselves. We have strict Australian standards and any imported that dont meet them get sent to a furnace in Victoria and burnt. I know of some that the sticks were 2 milimeters too short so the whole shipment got burnt. (quite an ironic end for a match not up to standard <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> )

Chris,

I agree with your statements about wooden matches (preferably strike anywhere) except on one account: Most kids don't know how to use matches of any sort. I have to teach them (Scouts). For what it's worth, most know how to use a BIC - or at least, how to accidentally burn themselves with a BIC...

Take a random sample of 100 12 - 13 year olds, put them outdoors, and have them do something simple with a match - like light a candle. It's eye-opening.

I can still obtain kitchen matches, but it's getting harder for the reason you stated. And the penny-pinchers (or legal worriers?) have in fact reduced the tips. I have some "vintage" ones and there is no doubt.

Tom

Anyone but you, I'd ask if they were kidding.

Tom, does it ever get to you, what they can't do.

If you are relating polyurethane to shellac, realize that it is a synthetic shellac. Whenever I refer to shellac for a particular project, I mean REAL shellac. In my experience, the synthetics just don't cut it for anything. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Sue

Additionally I have heard that Thompson's Water Seal works. Haven't tried it myself though.

I have just about given up on the idea of matches in a kit. The reason is the number of lights per volume. The small fire spikes are about the size of 3 maybe 4 matches. The ones I'm talking about are the "flint" rod like a Swedish fire steel wrapped about 3/4 around by magnesium. They give you 50 or so lights. The bigger Doan modles give a hundred or so for the volume of 7 or 8 matches. For 20 or so matches either a mini Bic or a full size butane lighter that gives you hundreds if not thousands of lights. not counting the extra space of the match container.

No contest.

All of these other methods have little or no moisture problems.

I figured that was my problem. That is why I specified in my post that I was NOT using Shellac. I was essentially coating the match in plastic and that the air simply couldn't get to the material to help it ignite.

BTW, yesterday I ordered a Solo Camp Lighter from Basegear.com that is an extending lighter. I'm hoping it will do a better job of reaching inside the fire layout to the tinder. I'll let you guys know how well it works.

>>...does it ever get to you, what they can't do...<<

Nah, not with the scouts themselves. Guess that's why we're there, eh?