Matchbox strikers

[Fizzie]

Question / theory to bounce of you all

Saw the idea mentioned on Pinterest of gluing a strip of sandpaper to a matchbox to make it easier to strike matches.

Theory sounds good, so I'll give it a go.

Tried a bit of 400 grade, but no joy, as it just wore the head of the match (Redheads) down without any spark

Swapped over to 800 grade, so much smoother, but that destroyed the match head even quicker

What's going wrong here

I thought the idea of the match striker panel on the side of the box was to just scratch the surface of the match head, so the the phosphorus was exposed, which would immediately ignite?

Is the striker chemically impregnated in some way to assist ignition?

Can anybody "shed some light" on the problem

[Troopy_03]

Matchbox strikers contain red phosphorous and some kind of glue. Actually a trick we used to do when we were kids, was remove the paper with the striker on it. Place it brown side down on a piece of glass, and light it. When the striker has burnt away, you get a dark brown gummy material left on the glass. We used to get a bit of the stuff on a finger tip, and slowly rub it between your finger tips. Magically smoke was produced from your finger tips. I don't advise doing this however, as one time I did it, the brown stuff suddenly caught fire and burnt the sh1t out of my finger tip  .

I think the sandpaper trick used to work on old style matches, before the invention of safety matches. The old style ones were the ones you saw in movies, where the tuff guy struck the match by flicking his thumbnail across it, in a kind of cigarette lighter action.

[austastar]

Hi,
    Yep, and the could self ignite from friction in the box.
Bit of a pocket rocket problem.
Cheers

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[edz]

Question / theory to bounce of you all

Saw the idea mentioned on Pinterest of gluing a strip of sandpaper to a matchbox to make it easier to strike matches.

Theory sounds good, so I'll give it a go.

Tried a bit of 400 grade, but no joy, as it just wore the head of the match (Redheads) down without any spark

Swapped over to 800 grade, so much smoother, but that destroyed the match head even quicker

What's going wrong here

I thought the idea of the match striker panel on the side of the box was to just scratch the surface of the match head, so the the phosphorus was exposed, which would immediately ignite?

Is the striker chemically impregnated in some way to assist ignition?

Can anybody "shed some light" on the problem

You Bored Fizzy....
Dont take the striker paper off a FEW matchboxes and line the insides of a golf ball size masking tape ball, then gently tightly fill it with trimmed match heads from lots of match boxes and sealed in with several more wraps of tape ..  Then throw it on the floor ..   
You end up with  a golf ball sized rocket with Lots of flame jetting out of the weakest part of the tape winding, trailing lots of smoke zipping around the garage trying to set fire to anything it hits ....   

[Bird]

how hard is it to strike a match up there?

[sharkcaver]

bolt bombs anyone 

Made a bolt bomb from a 32mm bolt as a kid once....only did that once 

[austastar]

Hi,
     22 shells with match heads inside and crimped closed at random distances under 1m on tram lines causes a lot of confusion.
303 shells?  We weren't game to hang about to watch!
Cheers

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[ATC]

bolt bombs anyone 

Made a bolt bomb from a 32mm bolt as a kid once....only did that once 

Were not allowed to talk about the stuff we did as kids.
Nowadays that Shit will get you a visit from the fun police


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[prodigyrf]

Redheads were no good if they got wet so you took Greenlights camping but now there's 
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Packet-of-25-Dickhead-Dickheads-Matches-by-Dick-Smith-Australiana-Man-Cave/202336367017

[Rumpig]

bolt bombs anyone 

Made a bolt bomb from a 32mm bolt as a kid once....only did that once 

good times..... though thinking about it now, it was a pretty dangerous thing to do. Had a few land on people's rooves, that made us run before they came outside...lol.

[Fizzie]

You Bored Fizzy....

No mate - busy packing to spend a week up at Coochin Creek

I'm told , that filling a match box to the brim with cut off match heads, wrapping it tightly in tape, tossing it inconspicuously into a camp fire, then standing back practising your innocent expression could also be "fun"

& what would any of you people do if your kids got up to the same tricks today