Matches

 

 

 

 

For fire starting I like matches. A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, modern matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. Many people today that enjoy the outdoors use a Metal match AKA Ferro rod for fire making. Ferro rods are ok but to me is cheating and too techno. Its like using a GPS instead of a compass and map.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to use many types. The venerable Ohio blue tips are hard to find now a days, replaced with the green tips that are simply not up to the task of being great matches for the outdoors. I purchased several viles of hand made lifeboat matches which I like real well. I have a few of them left in my Arizona plunder, and the last time I checked they still fire after 25 years.

Personally, I like the green cover – old school MRE matches. The have a longer burn time that the green tip stick matches, or any of the other matches on the general market. And, I have about 3000 books of them in Az.. In SE Asia I have found that “Commando matches” by Phimco ( http://phimco.com/match1pm.html ) are the best for outdoor use. I have seen the Aeta use them as an excellerant to fire home made shotguns, and like MRE matches they will still fire after long periods in damp conditions. I only wish they were strike anywhere.



A few summers ago I was “Home” in Arizona helping my friend Matthew Nunn clean out a shed which was basically a time capsule from the mid 1980s, I found several books of matches in a box of junk and was surprised to see that even after 30 years or so they still fired.
People will argue that lighters or ferro rods are better, well, maybe so but for me I have found that in cold conditions Matches are easier for me to use.  Trying to manipulate a Bic lighter (a zippo is different) or ferro rod with semi frozen hands is not an easy task.