How to Waterproof Matches
From WildernessWiki.org
Contents |
Why fire is so important
In a survival situation, fire is paramount; your overall goal is to be rescued. Fire can purify water, make food edible, help in the construction of tools, keep animals and insects away at night, give your location and presence away to rescuers and keep you warm in cold climates. Matches are one of the easiest sources of fire around, virtually anyone can use them and be successful with a small amount of knowledge on basic fire building.
Materials
- A box of matches N.B. these must NOT be safety matches (as it will be difficult to waterproof the strike patch on the side of the box. Make sure you use old-fashioned matches that can strike on any rough surface.
- A teacandle
- An A4 size piece of aluminium foil
Method
1) Lay out your foil over an area that has no fire risk
2) Light the tea candle, these can be bought very cheaply at supermarkets, allow it to heat up until you have a good sized pool of melted wax
3) Dip as much of the match as possible into the wax, try to get atleast half way
4) Blow on the wax covered portion to help it harden, when this is done repeat step 3 as fast as you can so that there is two layers of wax 5) Repeat for as many matches as you want 6) To light them, simply scrape off the wax covering the tip, and strike as usual
Note: to completely waterproof matches, the whole match must be covered in wax, otherwise water will slowly travel up the wood from the other end, this type is mainly just showerproof
Test and Results
