Jute/wax/leather/ferro/fatwood & a blade!

kgd said:
Darn Doc - you had me all fired up (pun) there. Great idea that looks like it needs a bit of fine tuning. Kind of like a handy-man's version of a road flare. Anxious to hear if simple mods to your original design work like incorporating Big Bunker's nail strengthener and taking care to keep the wax away from the match heads.

BTW - how did the match stuck in a Coglan firestick work out? That looks like a design that could work well with BigBunker's nail strengthener technique.
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The Coghlan firestick worked out fine, but that was quite awhile ago. I think th is correct, some of the 'strike-anywhere' matches are a POS. I think, though, that the nail polish or nail hardener should do the trick.

I will follow up on this, fear not.

th, I don't know what brand they were - I threw the box out awhile ago. Besides, for strike anywhere matches, there aren't a lot of choices.

Doc
 
Okay, I got myself a nice ball of jute twine; now where to I get the wax?

I was thinking of making a waxed jute lanyard for knives or sheaths too so there'd be a bit of emergncy firestarter around besides the main stash.
 
Foilist said:
Okay, I got myself a nice ball of jute twine; now where to I get the wax?
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Well you can always buy parrafin wax at the grocery/hardware store. It's often used for canning, but I found the best way is to ask relatives for old, ugly, clash-with-the-decor candles, and melt them down.

Foilist said:
I was thinking of making a waxed jute lanyard for knives or sheaths too so there'd be a bit of emergncy firestarter around besides the main stash.
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The trouble with this is that the wax will probably rub off on your clothes.

Doc
 
I've never used jute but cotton string works great, after I soak them I cut them into lengths that are just small enough to fit in an old 35mm film container.
I have also dipped cotton balls 1/2 in, meaning 1/2 to 3/4 of the ball was soaked in wax and the rest wasn't. The non-coated part takes a spark easiliy and ignights the rest.

Really all you are doing with the string is making a large wick thin candle
 
Further update:

Last night I drilled 3 holes in the jute/wax bundle to insert 3 new matches, this time they were coated with clear nail polish. I also coated 4 other matches with the polish. Tonight, I tried the separate matches, in advance of trying out the bundle tomorrow (Monday). Only 1 of the 4 matches lit, the other three lost their heads!!!:eek:

I seem to remember reading or hearing some time ago that strike anywhere matches degrade with time. I've probably had these for 10 years, so it looks like they might. I'm going to try and locate some new ones and if successful, will repeat the jute bomb experiment.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
I seem to remember reading or hearing some time ago that strike anywhere matches degrade with time. I've probably had these for 10 years, so it looks like they might. I'm going to try and locate some new ones and if successful, will repeat the jute bomb experiment.
Doc
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I've found this to be true, unfortunately. I've got several boxes of these that are over 10 years old, and half are unreliable.

I've also heard that shellac is the best for sealing matches, I'll search my garage tomorrow.
 
I use shellac on mine. I used wax before and found what most everyone else here has found, that the wax leads to advanced deterioration, or so it seems.

I haven;t tried fingernail polish, but the shellac works so well that I haven;t needed to try polish.
 
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