Matches

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
mosin1932

mosin1932

Well-known member
B of B Supporter
Joined
Nov 11, 2022
Messages
146
Reaction score
542
Location
Southern Oregon
I've found myself using matches, over lighters, with increasing frequency to smoke my pipes lately. All I can find at my locally though is the terrible, thin, and anemic green tipped variety of matches that became ubiquitous somehow.

For some reason the "strike anywhere" variety is nowhere to be found and all I can find online is the cheap green tips or the 50 cent a piece "cigar matches" So for all you match users out there, what brand do you use for a good sturdy match at a reasonable price?

Apologies if this has been discussed before but I couldn't find a thread.
 

Attachments

  • 20240215_141615.jpg
    20240215_141615.jpg
    1,000.1 KB · Views: 4
Strike anywhere matches are restricted in Canada because of their volatility. Most wooden matches in Canada are "box-strike" like the ones you show, the best can be found on outdoorsman or outfitter sites. I personally use Redbird wooden matches, from Eddy Match Co.. They are an inexpensive, reliable wooden kitchen match, it is very unusual for me to snap one of these. I recommend you get yourself a waterproof match caddy, or improvise one for day-to-day pocket use. I have a wall-mounted matchbox case in my den that holds a 250 match box.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0202.JPG
    IMG_0202.JPG
    1.9 MB · Views: 0
  • IMG_0203.JPG
    IMG_0203.JPG
    1 MB · Views: 0
Last edited:
The strike anywhere blue-tips are dang hard to find!! I get my red-tipped strike on box ones at a local grocery store. I buy them in 20-pack cellophane-wrapped packages. I haven't used anything but matches to light a pipe in forever!! FTRPLT
 
When I use matches, I use the diamond green tip ones but the bigger ones that come in a box of like 300 I think. Whenever I happen to see strike anywheres I'll buy them but haven't seen them in a while, think the last place I saw them was at an ACE hardware.
 
D.L.Ruth said:
When I use matches, I use the diamond green tip ones but the bigger ones that come in a box of like 300 I think. Whenever I happen to see strike anywheres I'll buy them but haven't seen them in a while, think the last place I saw them was at an ACE hardware.
Click to expand...

Diamond Green Tip (wood is Aspen, claimed to be from renewable sources…hence “green”) are indeed available out there typically at farm and hardware stores. Ace Hardware, WILCO, etc. But it looks like Walmart might have them. Yes, the large 300 count box has the beefier match that burns longer.

IMG_7753.jpeg

I always liked Swan Vesta matches…but I think those are history.
 
Zeno Marx said:
Doesn't every grocery store in the USA stock those things in the grilling section?
Click to expand...
They stock the “Strike on the Box” versions. The “Strike Anywhere” version is more rare. Some sources say they’re no longer made.
 
Strike anywhere matches always have a tip, usually white or blue, that contains red phosphorous. They are sometimes listed as "survival" matches. Friction or pressure on the tip ignites the red phosphorous compound which lights the regular matchhead. I've lit strike anywhere matches on a window pane, my blue jean zipper, desk tops - can't do that with box-strikes, which are also called safety matches. The last place I recall seeing them for open sale is in camping or outfitting retailers, Cabelas, Northern Outfitters, etc.. I have seen them online but shipping them in Canada is restricted. There are several "how to..." videos online to make your own but I won't delve into that, it's in the realm of The Anarchist Cookbook.
 
Last edited:
I was interested so I looked it up. I’d always heard the ultra combustible white tip was phosphorus. White Phosphorus = Willy Peter…the military slang designation for the super incendiary grenades, mortar shells, etc.

Google says : “The tip of a matchstick contains a mixture of phosphorus sesquisulphide (highly reactive) and potassium chlorate. The head of safety matches is made of an oxidizing agent such as potassium chlorate, mixed with sulphur and glass powder.”

The above is likely part of the reason I wasn’t good in Chemistry. Physics was fine…Chemistry was no so much, if at all.

You know Issac Asimov (scientist & author) wrote a billion books…mostly SciFi. He wrote books about classroom science as well. My favorite was about Physics. In it he explains what’s going on in the stuff that regular teachers only show via math. So he used the math but included stories, descriptions, anecdotes, etc. that brought it to life. His book got me the highest grade in the class on my Physics final exam. Just a fun recollection.
 
Did some more research and found several articles indicating that strike anywhere matches are illegal in UK, Canada, and the USA. I could not confirm this on any gov't site in Canada and I did not search through USA and UK gov't services sites. I did find shipping restrictions for USPS, Canada Post, UPS, Fed Ex, and DHL.
 
Last edited:
I had to make a trip to Lakeview on Tuesday for work and not only did they have an ACE hardware, but it had Strike Anywhere matches! The matches and the beautiful drive almost made up for the fact that the "important" meeting I made the trip for could have been easily summed up in a short email lol.

They were $3.50 a box so I picked up 4 boxes, I figured with 1,200 matches I could finally get a bowl of SPC Plum Pudding lit... I got home, failed to get my wife interested in the whole story of these matches, their disappearance, and the threat of bureaucratic regulations they represent, and went to strike a match anywhere but on the box. After striking them on the back of my jeans and sending a few white tips of burning phosphorous across the kitchen, I started to see the bureaucracy's point lol.

In my opinion these aren't the same formula as the red matches of yore. They definitely made the white tip less sensitive, which is understandable from a transportation safety aspect, but at the expense of its bond to the secondary compound. I remember the occasional tip separation with the red matches, but every green match has resulted in at least a portion of the burning tip flying off somewhere, even when gingerly struck on the box. My hope is that it's a moisture issue that results in the tip separation, the boxes are plastic wrapped, but not sealed. I put the open box in a sealed bag with a large desiccant pack, which will hopefully solve the issue.


matches.jpg
 
Top