Hey Chris (or anyone else ),<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>The highway flare and dimpled striker from strike anywhere matches are the best. Be aware, that lifeboats snap easily and you have to jab the match in to the striker AWAY from you rather than dragging.<p><hr></blockquote><p>I just finished testing igniting Diamond "Strike Anywhere", Storm "Weatherproof", BCB "Lifeboat", Coughlan's "Wind And Waterproof", REI "Stormproof", and some other brand of waterproof/windproof matches on a flare striker tip, and have some questions.<br><br>1. All in all, it was rather ineffective. Oh, I was eventually able to get each of them to ignite, but it took a lot of work for all but the strike anywhere ones. Some worked better than others: the REI matches took a few attempts. The lifeboats took several. The others all took many. Also, the striker surface wore away as I did this. The useable surface got smaller and smaller, until it was all gone, and would not ignite any of the matches, except the strike anywhere ones. So, why do you say that flares tie for first place as "best" strikers? I get better results with generic cardboard cut-off-of-a-book-of-restaraunt-matches strikers than this. I was using an Orion brand road flare. Are some flare strikers better than others, depending on brand? What brand have you found to be so good?<br><br>2. I keep reading about jabbing the lifeboat matches against the striker. I've tried, and it sucks. I can sometimes get them to ignite after many attempts, but sometimes I just break them. Consequently, I just ignite them the way I do any other match; I grip the match stick between my thumb and middle finger, lay the tip of the match against the striker surface, press it down with the tip of my forefinger and scrape. It works just fine; dependably and reliably. I've never had a problem with jabbing them in real life, because, well, I just don't, but I am curious. Do some people really have a problem igniting lifeboats? And can you really get the hang of the "jab technique" to the point where you ignite them more often than you break them?<br><br>Thanks.