I haven't examined the Coughlin's cases up close but I wouldn't call these things cheesy. They're not like the K&M's of course but they seem durable. I'm mostly interested in them as an alternative to film cans for carrying either cotton balls, or other small items. I guess I'll try a vaseline test. They're unfortunately not quite deep enough to hold two CR123A's (123A's are about 33.5 mm long). They should hold two CR2's perfectly well. The only device I can think of that really needs 123's these days is the MSR Miox water purifier, which needs one 123A and some salt. Maybe this match case could hold both. For flashlights I think the Fenix L1P (powered by one AA cell) is a better bet than most small 123-powered lights these days. Maybe I'll post a separate article about it.

I realize there's already been exhaustive discussions of firestarting and there's lots of wisdom from folks much more experienced than me, but I'm sort of missing the point of using actual matches any more. It seems to me that a Bic lighter works 95% of the time and is very convenient, and for the other 5%, something like a Magfire is close to bombproof. Matches work in only a few of the situations where the Bic lighter doesn't. Plus, they break, they get wet, you need a striking surface and that mustn't get wet, it's easy to run out of them, and the strike-anywhere kind can self-ignite from bumping around. So I'm imagining stuffing this case with tinder instead, or maybe just fill it with vaseline and have dry cotton balls or cloth in another container. Does that make sense?