Match safes

Yeah it would be a neat item for a survival necklace.:thumbup:

I am so happy they dont have a store near me. I would be broker then I am now, and in there for hours. Waay to many cool little items. Like county comm!!
 
That is a cool site, a firesteel 1/2 inch by 1 foot?!?!?!? Awesome!:D

Just ordered a couple of 3/8 x 4 inch firesteels and a large pill fob, it's the same size as the fob on the end of the steel so I may even make my own.
 
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My lingo is not going to be correct so please forgive me, plumbing materials is not my expertise, come to think of it I don't have an expertise!HA Anyway, I saw someone that had used small pieces of PVC in various sizes with screwed in, or screwed on end caps or inserts made of PVC too.....if memory serves me had one for tender and one for matches, or combined both....can't remember? Don't know if it worked good, but seems like it should and would be lightweight as well? What do you guys think?
 
j williams said:
Yeah it would be a neat item for a survival necklace.:thumbup:

I am so happy they dont have a store near me. I would be broker then I am now, and in there for hours. Waay to many cool little items. Like county comm!!
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Doesn't much matter when the Internet brings it right into your home:eek:!
Got my stuff tonight, in fact, more stuff than I ordered. There were a few extra capsules (not the tiny ones either) and a full sized spring wire clip carabiner. All the capsules look nice, as do the match safes. One already has been weighted with pennies and is sitting at the bottom of a jar of water. I got some of the red and purple spring wire clips, which may be handy attached to one of the match safes for secuing to something in your bag and for visibility.

The match safes are pretty nice. For that kind of money, it looks like a pretty viable, crush-proof container. The bottoms are over-sized and appear to be nickel plated or chrome plated ferrous metal. Amazing. I don' think I have a magnet......... FOund a magnet on the fridge! Non-ferrous base but it has some mass and makes the case stand up ans it stable. Samples from my remaining Ohio Blue Tip stock and some newer Diamond brand strike-anywheres were a fuzz long and the cap crushes the tips if screwed down tight. Three minutes and a pair of wire-cutters resolve that issue. If you're using one for tinder, no sweat. The o-rings may be under-sized because they engage the threads instead of the smooth surface just before the threads. A larger o-ring is no problem to locate since I will be buying "spares" anyway. The knurling is uniform and not so aggressive as to destroy a match-head. I want to test one but these are Christmas gifts. Wouldn't be right to let someone trust their life to one though if I did not test it, right?:o Service was excellent, by the way.:thumbup::thumbup:
 
Ordered one of the matchsafes, a 3/16 X 2" ferro rod and a whistle that doubles as a zipper pull today. Will do a tiny review when it arrives.
 
I also have trouble finding strike-anywhere matches here in Kentucky, so I always get a few boxes of Blue-tips at an Amish-owned general store whenever I am in Amish country. Those stores are also a great source of kerosene lamps and parts and Deitz kerosene lanterns. The cheap orange plastic match safes from Wal-mart seem good enough to me, and they are easier to open than some metal ones I have tried. One more tip: Along with the Blue-tips, I put in a couple of trick birthday candles. They make great fire-starters and can be used over and over. The trick is getting them to stay out since they relight after being blown out. Dip them in water.
 
I either use military left-overs or the cheap orange ones with the O-ring that you can find at the dollar store. Those dollar-store match holders actually work pretty well; I sealed three of them in a one-gallon milk jug full of water overnight and the matches were totally dry in all of them.

I stick some cotton balls on top of the matches to reduce the rattling and give me dry tinder as well. I try to use strike-anywahere matches whenever I can, but I've heard at least two reputable stories of them lighting when they were packed loosely and rubbed each other, and the oxygen inside was enough to turn the match safe into a small pipe bomb. I've never experienced this myself, don't really want to, but I've heard it from sources that I trust on more than one occasion.

So yeah, the dollar-store match containers work fine. The matches are for when all other means of fire-starting have failed, anyway.
 
cgover said:
.....so I always get a few boxes of Blue-tips at an Amish-owned general store whenever I am in Amish country.......
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That worked until they quit making Ohio Blue Tips.:grumpy: Not sure which general store you go to, but if you get as far north as Kidron, try Lehman's. They carry what I believe are Diamond brand matches but in a Lehman's box. Used to be where I went for my Blue Tips too. Last few trips have yielded other brands. As you said - great place for other stuff too. Dietz kerosene lamps - very cheap, real Alladin lamps - expensive, wicks, mantles, the works. It's a trip we try to make every couple years.

http://www.lehmans.com/

Nice folks to deal with too. If you're within 100 miles, it's worth a trip whether you are looking for something specific or just want to amuse yourself. If you visit this forum, you will not leave there without buying stuff.
 
i got one of those matchsafes from a very generous friend here on the forums ;)

here are some pics, i've been carrying it in my cargo pocket for the last several days. i couldn't strike my matches on the knurling, so i glued a bit of 800 grit to the bottom. i also stuck a piece folded up in with the matches in case the paper rips or something (its wet-dry though, so it should hold up to moisture)

i think its cool that the O-ring is glow in the dark, but i don't really know how useful that would be...

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siguy said:
....i also stuck a piece folded up in with the matches....
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Just make sure your abrasive and match heads are well insulated from one another.:eek:

Now, I know you're not a dummy, but many of us, regardless of how intelligent we all think we are, have had little strokes of genius,... which might as well have just simply been a "little stroke," wherein we learn a hard lesson as to why "no one else ever thought of that.":o

No matter how bad the beating is that I am taking regarding anything stupid that I (might) have ever done myself, I always have a little "get out of jail free card;" "hey, at least I never set the outhouse on fire." Man, I 'm glad my brother doesn't get on forums.:D
 
The two K&M match safes I ordered arrived Friday, very nice stuff! I ordered a brass and a green anodized aluminum. Tried out a strike anywhere match on the knurling of the brass and it lit first strike. Looks like they'll be a nice fit for the kits.
 
jeff, good point. i should specify that i folded it up so that the abrasive is only on the inside. nothing for the matches to rub on the but the smooth paper backing.
 
cgover said:
One more tip: Along with the Blue-tips, I put in a couple of trick birthday candles. They make great fire-starters and can be used over and over.
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That's a great idea, I've been messing around with tiny slivers of fatwood, cotton balls, etc. that fit in the match safe to act as dry tinder. I'll try these out.:thumbup:
 
Mike Fitz said:
The two K&M match safes I ordered arrived Friday, very nice stuff! I ordered a brass and a green anodized aluminum. Tried out a strike anywhere match on the knurling of the brass and it lit first strike. Looks like they'll be a nice fit for the kits.
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They are nice arent they..... I really like mine.:thumbup:
 
My matchsafe from going gear came in today. Not a bad unit for the price. The threads are a little rough, but they will break in with time. I like how it stands up nicely. Plenty of room inside. My O-ring is not glow in the dark, but it really doesn't matter to me. Not as high quality as K&M, but decent for the price. It will hold a mini-kit of mine.

The whistle/zipper pull is ok, but not real loud.
 
Another Vote for K&M :thumbup:- Got a large brass, and threw my tad gear life capsule back in the drawer - much more capacity, and rides a lot better in my pocket than an altoids tin.

Got a small brass as well - and I use it strictly for matches.
 
I think I'm missing something here. These metal match safes seem all funky and nice but look like they hold about a dozen matches. I bet they probably weight about the same as the heaviest lighter I own, a Zippo. And when my Zippo has only about a dozen lights left in it I think of it as pretty much exhausted and in need of refilling. If I compare them against any of my butane lighters it apears even more strange. That's not to say I don't sometimes carry matches 'cos I do. I put about a dozen of them in one of those old SD memory card flat plastic cases. That's not completely immersion proof without a bit of tape, but it is tiny, flat, and with a tiny weight penalty. So what's the appeal of carrying these metal things?
 
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baldtaco, i carry mine mostly because i find matches more pleasurable to use and because lighters malfunction, run out of fuel, etc.

i had my trusty zippo in my pocket two weekends ago doing my survival practice overnighter, and when i tried to start my fire, i discovered that the zippo wouldn't light. it was too cold for the fuel to evaporate properly. i broke out the firesteel, and got the fire going that way. matches would have worked fine too.

lighters are convenient, and there are waterproof lighters, but i like as much redundancy as possible without getting in the way, especially with a thing like fire.
 
siguy said:
baldtaco, i carry mine mostly because i find matches more pleasurable to use and because lighters malfunction, run out of fuel, etc.

i had my trusty zippo in my pocket two weekends ago doing my survival practice overnighter, and when i tried to start my fire, i discovered that the zippo wouldn't light. it was too cold for the fuel to evaporate properly. i broke out the firesteel, and got the fire going that way. matches would have worked fine too.

lighters are convenient, and there are waterproof lighters, but i like as much redundancy as possible without getting in the way, especially with a thing like fire.
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That is strange. I find Zippos to be the most reliable lighter at altitude or in cold. I guess you must have been somewhere way in excess of anything I have experienced.

As for the redundancy thing, well yeah, I get that too. Hence why I mentioned sticking some in the SD card case. What I'm not understanding is the amount of case for such a weedy and ineffectual amount of content. It just seems to be another of those “more power” things without any performance gains. I can understand the container is stronger but is that really required? The only thing that I can think of that would justify that would be some EE scenario and needing something you could smuggle up your arse. Still, that is tenuous at best, and I still think you'd want to get all that knurling off it, or better still make it from plastic. Confused?
 
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