Storing Instant Fire - Wooden Matches, Paper Matches, Lighters

Fire seems to be essential on a homestead. We modern humans are spoiled -- it's as easy as flicking a Bic. Keeping a good stash of "instant fire" in long term storage seems prudent (supply chains anyone?). I've been making fire most of my life, as an outdoorsman and country dweller. Here are a few things I've learned.



Wooden Matches
Wooden matches used to be twice the size they are now. I guess once upon a time people used them to light actual fires. Now, people light scented candles.

Modern wooden matches (both strike anywhere and safety types) seem to be made as cheaply as possible, and the heads rapidly  disintegrate with exposure to moisture in the air. Personally I find them useless frustrations, but perhaps they could be stored in their factory sealed box inside closed containers.

Exceptions: Some Web commenters say that UCO strike-anywhere matches are still very good. I seem to recall that UCO lifeboat (safety) matches were quite good as well -- I carried these as a backup in my backpacking days. I still see these in sporting goods stores. So there may be (rather expensive) options for match lovers.

Paper Matches
Most people dismiss paper matches as too small to be useful, but here's a trick: tear or cut off two/three/four right down to the bottom of the packet so they are held together and you've got an actual useful match.

Paper matches age surprisingly well. I have even gotten some wet, left them to dry out, and they still worked. The old ones seem to stay viable forever -- clearing out old houses, I have found wedding/advertising matches in the backs of drawers that must have been 50 years old. They worked perfectly.  I need to test modern paper matches (made cheaper?), but in sealed containers these seem a cheap and viable way to store instant fire.

Butane Lighters
Granted, these have a waste problem, but you'll find Bic's in my pocket and scattered through my gear. And yes, they will work in freezing conditions -- just warm them in your hand for half a minute and shake vigorously.

Long term storage is possible. Here's the rub: exposed to moisture in the air, the manufactured flint will slowly swell to the point where the spring underneath can't push it up to meet the rotary striker. Sometimes you can whack the base hard on a brick and it will come free.

For storage, leave new ones sealed in original packages. Or store them in tripled-up poly bags. I just found a dozen of the non-childproof bic lighters (remember those from the '90s?) that I got for cheap, and they are still good after storage in triple poly bags.

So that's my (long-winded) take. How do you store your instant fire?

That's a great subject. I'm not any kind of full-on prepper, but matches are small and cheap enough that putting away a lifetime supply of them -- if you can find ones that will last for years and decades, is sounding like a sensible precaution.

Good post.  I like matches, but like you, I have found the degrade over time. Has anyone found a good storage option to keep matches viable in the long term?  Perhaps I will need to do some experiments.

I store wooden matches in airtight glass jars.

All those little silica desiccant packets that come with everything might be useful. The crystals can be heated to release moisture and used again. And then added to a pint jar for match storage.

I have found glass with a metal lid or those fancy clamp on glass lid jars if you can get them, to be the best for keeping moisture out. I find that plastic bags or jars don't seal as well for air and humidity, and they get brittle with age.

I wish it was easier to get those extra large pickle jars (gallon sort of size) in my area. Oversized, as in 2 liter or larger, canning jars are super pricey to buy and hard to find second hand. Most tins - like cookie tins - don't seal as well as a glass jar does, but some do. The metal ammo boxes are designed to seal really well, and if you can find a cheap source of them, they'd have benefits for this sort of storage also.

There's a reason for old sayings like, "keep the home fires burning"! Having to start fires from scratch was either expensive, or time consuming. Matches and lighters are super convenient (although we tend to use the refillable BBQ lighters - I wonder if anyone's tried lighting an RMH with one of those?) there are a bunch of more primitive ways to start fires, or more importantly, hold hot coals in a state of suspended animation for hours or days until needed. I think animal horns were used for that process.

Jay Angler wrote:... there are a bunch of more primitive ways to start fires ...

I've played with traditional flint-and-steel (not to be confused with the hot sparking "metal matches" available now). Great experience! I learned a lot and I successfully made fire from found, natural materials.  But you'll notice that as a result I'm even more motivated to store instant fire if possible.

Besides the above, I also keep on hand several of those little 1lb propane bottles, and a couple torch heads for them. The torch heads last basically forever.

I have lots of metal cans from decades ago.

Did you know that bandaids used to come in metal cans?  Those are good for storing strike-anywhere matches.

After many years in many different extreme environments, with a fire being required to live a few times, I use a multiple source kit based solution.

I take an altoids tin, and hot glue a small piece of sandpaper to the inside of the lid. Inside the tin, I put several cotton balls rubbed with vasoline that I have rolled out long and wrapped in a piece of foil. I also put a pack of paper matches, a small votive candle, a mini bic lighter with an o ring, several strike anywhere (which is not true) wooden matches,  a ball of dryer lint,  and some jute cord in there. I always save room for one storm match, and I pack that tin as tightly as I can and still have it close. I then seal the tin in an extra small vacuum sealer bag.

ALWAYS light the candle first. Use the candle to light the tinder, then put the candle out careful and save it. Use the foil from the flameballs to lay out the tinder on the wet ground.

I keep one of these in each vehicle and one in each of my various activity bags. I keep a normal size bic lighter on my person at all times, with a o ring around the fuel button to keep the fuel from being accidently discharged. I don't get into the kits unless I need to do so, which is never.

The smaller propane tanks, the ones for cap stoves, can be separately  stored with a small self lighting benzomatic torch for a very reliable, very easy to use source of fire lighting, if you aren't going to be carrying it. This is pro-mode for car camping or a house based emergency kit.  I use one to light the hardwood charcoal in my egg grill. One canister lasts all season. I can light soaking wet twigs with this. If I only had one source of fire storage, it might be this.

Four questions I ask about my fire storage:
Can I use this method while shivering uncontrollably with my hands stiff and unresponsive?
Do I have the ability to create dry fuel in a rainstorm to use this method?
Can this method be used by anyone with me, or does it require special skills?
Fire can be for long term living, short term survival, martial, or utility purposes. Does my storage support my usage?

Flint and steel is fine for showing off, but I'd make sure to store char cloth (like they did) with my kit if I had to depend on it.  I wouldn't be able to use a fire bow if I was wounded or on the run or freezing or didn't have access to hardwoods.  The magnesium fire sticks that you strike on the back of your knife are neat looking, but are inefficient try hard props compared to a match or a lighter.  Zippos are super high maintenance unless you smoke daily. Due to my terribleness as a boy,  I am expert with a magnifying glass "bug laser", but fire is often needed on a cloudy day. Those flameless "storm proof" lighters are an excellent way to become familiar with regret and loss- like the loss of your toes from frostbite.

If I am not storing a way (knife and saw or hatchet) to process fuel with my fire storage,  I am not really storing fire. I am storing sparks and hope.

To Build a Fire by Jack London is required reading on this subject matter.

Well, time to go make biochar all day!

 

Tim Siemens wrote:Good post.  I like matches, but like you, I have found the degrade over time. Has anyone found a good storage option to keep matches viable in the long term?  Perhaps I will need to do some experiments.

I used to get these for backpacking trips and kept them in the bugout bag:

Coghlan's waterproof matches

But you can make them yourself. Just melt some wax and dip plain wooden matches in it. This keeps the business end dry and safe, and they will last for years even in humid locations. As a bonus, you can do it with strike anywhere matches and then you don't need to worry about the striking surface falling apart (but I can't find strike anywhere matches in this part of the world for love or money, so I actually save empty boxes if they're in good condition).

Phil, I've seen those Coghlan's waterproof matches but never tried them. How do they hold up in the long term?

Thing about "waterproof" matches, is that often the box is not waterproof at all. They are not strike anywhere, and the box needs to be dry to act as a striking surface.

Jeff Lindsey wrote:After many years in many different extreme environments, with a fire being required to live a few times, I use a multiple source kit based solution.

... ALWAYS light the candle first. Use the candle to light the tinder, then put the candle out careful and save it. Use the foil from the flameballs to lay out the tinder on the wet ground.

... Flint and steel is fine for showing off, but I'd make sure to store char cloth (like they did) with my kit if I had to depend on it.  I wouldn't be able to use a fire bow if I was wounded or on the run or freezing or didn't have access to hardwoods.  The magnesium fire sticks that you strike on the back of your knife are neat looking, but are inefficient try hard props compared to a match or a lighter.  Zippos are super high maintenance unless you smoke daily. Due to my terribleness as a boy,  I am expert with a magnifying glass "bug laser", but fire is often needed on a cloudy day. Those flameless "storm proof" lighters are an excellent way to become familiar with regret and loss- like the loss of your toes from frostbite.

Excellent Jeff -- when it comes to wilderness work we are absolutely on the same page.

When it comes to a stationary location like a homestead, the options are greater and the requirements more laid back. And yet we have a lot to do, and quick flame is more efficient with our time. It's an interesting and worthwhile project to understand traditional methods, making fire and preserving coals,  in the down time seasons.

(As an aside, I once read that trappers in the North would have a well-build woodshed with a small wood stove in addition to the main cabin. At -50 if the main cabin caught fire, they had a ready survival shelter to go to. I'll bet the woodshed had matches in a jar and an old pot to make tea in as well.)

The boy scouts (USA) used to bundle a few wooden matches together, then dip them in wax a few times.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Phil, I've seen those Coghlan's waterproof matches but never tried them. How do they hold up in the long term?

I bought a bunch when I was still in high school. I used some to light a fire in a snowstorm at 9500 feet in autumn of 2004, so those would have been 25-year-old matches. The box had been stored in a metal can with a screw-on lid.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
Butane Lighters
Granted, these have a waste problem, but you'll find Bic's in my pocket and scattered through my gear. And yes, they will work in freezing conditions -- just warm them in your hand for half a minute and shake vigorously.

Long term storage is possible. Here's the rub: exposed to moisture in the air, the manufactured flint will slowly swell to the point where the spring underneath can't push it up to meet the rotary striker. Sometimes you can whack the base hard on a brick and it will come free.

I much prefer the butane lighters with a piezoelectric ignition for exactly that reason. I've never had one where the sparked failed before the lighter ran out.

That said, if I wanted a guaranteed - light anywhere, under any conditions - firestarter I would probably go for a magnesium ferro rod. I bought a couple of large chunky ones from amazon a few years ago. They have a lovely soft metal. You can make a pile a metal shavings in a few seconds with the spine of your knife, and then a strike will ignite the pile. They are more work than the convenience of matches/butane etc... but I trust that with time and care I would always be able to get that initial spark going.

I remember a time when "blue tip" matches were manufactured to high standards, and you could light it by scraping your thumbnail across the tip. And if you weren't adept in that art, the striking surfaces on the box had some real depth to it. I think they're just printing it on there now for show. And try to light one on, say, the side of a rusty fire pit ring, and if the match doesn't snap in half, the head will disintegrate. I think you're right...they're made for lighting frou frou candles nowdays, not useful at all in a working man's (or woman's) kit.

I wish we could go back to the days when most dudes carried a Zippo in their pocket. Heavier, but much more sustainable. Also a great introduction to how simple machines work.

I have a couple of my dad's lighters from when he was in the Air Force, one of them has the old Strategic Air Command logo on it. I may have to give it the once over, buy some new flints, and put 'er back into commission.

j

Jim Garlits wrote:I wish we could go back to the days when most dudes carried a Zippo in their pocket. Heavier, but much more sustainable. Also a great introduction to how simple machines work.

Guys who work in oilfield facilities sometimes carry Zippos (smokers) since Bic type lighters are banned (spark hazard).

Re sustainability, I wonder if a Zippo could run on high-test homebrew alcohol?

Michael Cox wrote:That said, if I wanted a guaranteed - light anywhere, under any conditions - firestarter I would probably go for a magnesium ferro rod. I bought a couple of large chunky ones from amazon a few years ago. They have a lovely soft metal. You can make a pile a metal shavings in a few seconds with the spine of your knife, and then a strike will ignite the pile. They are more work than the convenience of matches/butane etc... but I trust that with time and care I would always be able to get that initial spark going.

Michael, do you mean the magnesium blocks with the flint striker on the side? I played with those many years ago and found them a frustrating gimmick that required ideal conditions. Perhaps they have improved since then?

I do have a few of the Ferrocerium flint striker rods in various kits as the last layer of backup. They throw a big, hot shower of sparks and last a long time. The kindling has to be correctly prepared though, or commercial kindling balls used. I'm told you can feather out the wick of a candle and light it with a ferro rod but haven't tried it yet. For storage, they are vulnerable to degradation by moisture and especially sea air -- that's why they ship with a layer of paint on the outside. Ferro rods would work well to light wood stoves and such on a homestead -- light kindling in a tuna can and slide it under the larger stuff.

I've messed around with magnesium blocks and ferro rods. Magnesium burns at over 5k degrees F, so whittling off a few shavings into a nest of tinder will almost always produce results unless the tinder is wet. It works well with steel wool and a 9v battery, too. Just shave the magnesium into the steel wool, and touch both sides of the battery against the steel wool.

That said, a lighter is much more compact and there's nothing to fiddle with.

j

If you really want good, old fashioned, wooden matches, try Zippo or UCO - both make bigger, water/storm proof ones, with an extended head. Even UCO's regular ones are longer and fatter than Diamond's. Then again, there are quite a few different 'forever strike' ones, like these: https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Keychain-Waterproof-Anywhere-Survival/dp/B077TXJ2NJ/ref=asc_df_B077TXJ2NJ I really love the carabiner ones, but some are just downright pretty, too.

I vac pack my matches (on the box separate from strike anywhere), but my backup is flint and steel.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
Michael, do you mean the magnesium blocks with the flint striker on the side? I played with those many years ago and found them a frustrating gimmick that required ideal conditions. Perhaps they have improved since then?

I do have a few of the Ferrocerium flint striker rods in various kits as the last layer of backup. They throw a big, hot shower of sparks and last a long time. The kindling has to be correctly prepared though, or commercial kindling balls used. I'm told you can feather out the wick of a candle and light it with a ferro rod but haven't tried it yet. For storage, they are vulnerable to degradation by moisture and especially sea air -- that's why they ship with a layer of paint on the outside. Ferro rods would work well to light wood stoves and such on a homestead -- light kindling in a tuna can and slide it under the larger stuff.

This is the style of my preferred one.

Amazon - ferrorod

Long, good heft in the hand, and made of soft metal that is easy to make flakes from. I've used other rods that have much harder metal - they still throw sparks, but are smaller, less comfortable to work with, and feel like a gimmick. They wouldn't be my first choice to reach for.

In a situation where I was worrying about "storing fire" (which I presumed meant outdoors and potentially exposed to the weather) I know that I can wipe my rod dry on my clothes, spend a few seconds making shavings and know I will get the initial spark going. It's a trade off of certainty over convenience of something like a lighter. The kit with my ferrorod would always include my bushcraft knife, and with that I can made a feather stick from available wood.

Michael Cox wrote:This is the style of my preferred one.

Amazon - ferrorod

Very interesting! A ferro rod with a lot more magnesium so you can scrape and spark off the same rod. Thanks for the link!

I keep Vaseline and cotton balls in my camping gear, and some paper matches from the army. Never fails

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Michael Cox wrote:That said, if I wanted a guaranteed - light anywhere, under any conditions - firestarter I would probably go for a magnesium ferro rod. I bought a couple of large chunky ones from amazon a few years ago. They have a lovely soft metal. You can make a pile a metal shavings in a few seconds with the spine of your knife, and then a strike will ignite the pile. They are more work than the convenience of matches/butane etc... but I trust that with time and care I would always be able to get that initial spark going.

Michael, do you mean the magnesium blocks with the flint striker on the side? I played with those many years ago and found them a frustrating gimmick that required ideal conditions. Perhaps they have improved since then?

I do have a few of the Ferrocerium flint striker rods in various kits as the last layer of backup. They throw a big, hot shower of sparks and last a long time. The kindling has to be correctly prepared though, or commercial kindling balls used. I'm told you can feather out the wick of a candle and light it with a ferro rod but haven't tried it yet. For storage, they are vulnerable to degradation by moisture and especially sea air -- that's why they ship with a layer of paint on the outside. Ferro rods would work well to light wood stoves and such on a homestead -- light kindling in a tuna can and slide it under the larger stuff.

Something to be aware of is there are a lot of imports that the "magesium" is instead an alloy of metals mostly aluminum and nearly totally worthless for fire starting.  A good ferro rod and real magnesium is effective.  Be aware the ferro rod and the magnesium can corrode and become ineffective over time even if they are good stuff to begin with.

Most survival stuff recommends the Doan brand magnesium blocks because they are US made and supposedly pure magnesium.  Just looked and here is the message on it so probably needs to be ordered soonest.  "SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
Our owner has retired and the shop is closed. All remaining stock to be sold thru our website only."

C. Letellier wrote:Something to be aware of is there are a lot of imports that the "magesium" is instead an alloy of metals mostly aluminum and nearly totally worthless for fire starting.  A good ferro rod and real magnesium is effective.  

I believe it! I pinched a quarter cup of magnesium flakes from the lab when I was in high school. Holy crap that stuff burned hot! (Don't tell Mr. Archer.)

so all that time in Girl Scouts we wasted dipping matches in nail polish was for naught huh. (who knew).

here people use matches a lot more often (not everyone has an automatic lighting stove-- or even a stove, and we also have the nice big matches everywhere since barbecue in South America is such A Big Thing....) so our matches tend to be a bit better-- but force of habit dictates that I still keep them in an altoids tin in my first aid kit.

Tim Siemens wrote:Good post.  I like matches, but like you, I have found the degrade over time. Has anyone found a good storage option to keep matches viable in the long term?  Perhaps I will need to do some experiments.

In my experience, they degrade from exposure to humid air. Perhaps storing them in a glass jar with one of these little dehydrating packets would do the trick. Yeah, I know. Not terribly convenient when you go backpacking...