The other day I found a box of strike anywhere's in the hardware store (inventory glitch, they got a case it was the last one left), so of course they are getting varnished. Last night when I was checking to see if I had enough varnish left in the can to do this, I had an idea so I dipped a couple of cotton balls and let them dry for 24 hours.

Downside: Not very compressable.

Upside: It BURNS!! I brought a match to one of these guys, and it was burning in maybe two seconds, and it kept burning for about three minutes. A nice yellow flame, no sputtering, no drop in flames until just before the very end.

Beats anything I've ever done with a pj ball by approximately 50% burn time and it was throwing more light the entire time; and purell on a cotton ball isn't even close. I took the second one, poured water over it, shook it dry, and it took off almost as easily as the first.

I'm going to let the third continue drying, to be sure, but I think I've found a nice all weather tinder. I'm also going to try dipping some sisal cord.

Now why didn't I think of that? Cool...

Be VERY careful, many varnishes contain things you do NOT want to inhale (drying OR burning, (matches don't matter as much, they're smaller)).

question? how do you varnish a match.? with a brush, or do you dip it in the varnish. If you dip them, do you do the whole match or just the head? Is varnish better than nail polish?

Not trying to be funny, just trying to learn a new process.

When varnish them, I dip one tip first about 3/4s the way down and put it on a rack made out of chicken wire to dry for 24 hours. Then I repeat the process with the butt end. And tommorrow, I'll finish up the current batch by dipping them tip first again then they'll checked on monday for anything odd and left to dry on the rack until wensday. I use oak tone shellac, that way I can tell at a glance is there is a spot that was missed.

And DougM, I know all about the funky fumes. Wheeeeee..... :P Not really. I do this on a room with windows on both ends. One window has a fine in it suck air in from the outside, the other is set up with an exhaust fan. And a third fan is behind me, to vent fumes away.

SHellac now...that's a different story. That ain;t varnish. Shellac, being made from lac bug excrete (you can eat the stuff if you dare, it's safe) and denatured alcohol, should not give off many noxious fumes when burned. Additionally, when the shellac dries, the alcohol has evaporated, and you're left with a coating of lac. I'm not a chemist, so maybe when burned there's some chemical reaction that makes the fumes unsafe, but I'm just reasoning it's relatively safe based on the ingredients. ALso, if you're dipping matches in shellac, you ought to be able to handle them and dip the other end in about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the freshness of the mixture.

Varnish now is different. While I don;t think that lighting varnish-soaked matches is going to harm anyone, including nearby insects or the ozone layer, it stands to reason the fumes would be noxious...and dangerous if burning, say, large items soaked in it.

I was sure that you did, but it's FAR better to be reminded than to learn the hard way.