PROJECT 36

WATERPROOFING MATCHES

Matches are an easy way to make fire, but wet matches are useless, and since anything worth doing is worth having a redundant method, we are going to show two easy ways to keep your matches dry. One is traditional and uses wax, and the other is easier and uses fingernail polish.

Material:

•   Matches

•   Candles / Block of Paraffin Wax

•   Clear Fingernail Polish

•   Newspaper or a piece of cardboard

Tools:

•   Double Boiler

Procedure Method 1:

Materials for Wax Method

1.     Melt the wax. If you have a candle in a jar, you can melt the wax by burning the candle and then blowing it out, but melting a block of wax in a double boiler is more efficient.

Dip into wax

2.     Dip your matches in the melted wax

Cool on cardboard

3.     Let the individual matches cool on some newspaper or cardboard to catch drips.

4.     To use these matches you need to scrape the wax off the tip with your fingernail. You also need to store them in a way that keeps the wax from rubbing off due to excessive movement.

Procedure Method 2:

Materials for fingernail polish method

1.     Paint the match heads with fingernail polish. (1.1. They need to be thoroughly covered, but not globbed over excessively.)

Brush on and let dry

2.     Let the matches dry. This takes little longer to dry than the waxed matches.

3.     The good thing about fingernail polish matches is that they don’t need any special treatment once dried.

Lessons Learned:

From the earlier projects it is pretty obvious that fire is one of the key skills to learn if a person wants to be independent.

It’s not just about what to do with the fire, or even how to build a fire, but also part of the lesson is being prepared to make a fire.