- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
I have seen a skill promoted and advocated in many sources including books and video. It was shown to me directly by George Hedgepeth a survival instructor from Michigan. I have also seen it done by Cody Lundin in one of his videos and of course seen it many times done on the forums.
The skill is this. You have 1 paper match left (who the hell carries paper matches in their kit?). You then carefully split the paper match beginning from the bottom of the match and separate it at the sulphur head hence making 2 matches.
I admit its kind of cool to watch, but I also consider it a kind of parlor trick. I submit it to the forums to debate:
If you needed fire and you had just one paper match and striker from the package flap left, would you split the match in two or would you use it as is????
Advantages as I see it:
-you have two kicks at the can in getting your tinder to light
-you can potentially build another fire in the future if you let the current fire you are building go out
Disadvantages as I see it.
-you risk screwing up the split and destroying the integrity of the match when attempting to separate it. This is more likely to occur if the matches are old or have been handled harshly.
-the size of the sulphur head, the chief accelerant for the ignition, is reduced by half. In the best of conditions this may have no effect on the ability to ignite the match. In the worst of conditions, heavy fog/high humidity reducing the size of the sulphur head may contribute to its failure.
My recommendation. I would use the one match as is and spend more time and effort getting really good tinder and kindling. I might even consider collecting punkwood to get an ember going as a failsafe while trying to ignite my tinder. Then again, I have some competence in my ability to perform friction fire if I need to so the one match remaining scenario doesn't seem like an 'end-of-game' decision in terms of ability to make fires into the future.
What would you do?
[The old joke goes something like this:
Person 1 - 'Hey Joe, gotta match?'
Joe - 'Ya, my arse and your face.....']
The skill is this. You have 1 paper match left (who the hell carries paper matches in their kit?). You then carefully split the paper match beginning from the bottom of the match and separate it at the sulphur head hence making 2 matches.
I admit its kind of cool to watch, but I also consider it a kind of parlor trick. I submit it to the forums to debate:
If you needed fire and you had just one paper match and striker from the package flap left, would you split the match in two or would you use it as is????
Advantages as I see it:
-you have two kicks at the can in getting your tinder to light
-you can potentially build another fire in the future if you let the current fire you are building go out
Disadvantages as I see it.
-you risk screwing up the split and destroying the integrity of the match when attempting to separate it. This is more likely to occur if the matches are old or have been handled harshly.
-the size of the sulphur head, the chief accelerant for the ignition, is reduced by half. In the best of conditions this may have no effect on the ability to ignite the match. In the worst of conditions, heavy fog/high humidity reducing the size of the sulphur head may contribute to its failure.
My recommendation. I would use the one match as is and spend more time and effort getting really good tinder and kindling. I might even consider collecting punkwood to get an ember going as a failsafe while trying to ignite my tinder. Then again, I have some competence in my ability to perform friction fire if I need to so the one match remaining scenario doesn't seem like an 'end-of-game' decision in terms of ability to make fires into the future.
What would you do?
[The old joke goes something like this:
Person 1 - 'Hey Joe, gotta match?'
Joe - 'Ya, my arse and your face.....']
