E-Mail 'Gear Review: Permanent Metal Match, by The Novice' To A Friend

Email a copy of 'Gear Review: Permanent Metal Match, by The Novice' to a friend

* Required Field






Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.



Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.


E-Mail Image Verification

Loading ... Loading ...

34 Comments

  1. I recently came across some small travel size containers of petroleum jelly, 1.75oz & .25oz, which allows me to store the cotton balls dry, separate from the jelly. This seems to be less messy…

  2. I have a really nice one that I got from countycomn.com. The only down side to most if not all of them is that they have zero wind blocking. A good old Zippo is much more wind resistant. Even better is to replace the Zippo insert with a Thunderbird butane “blue jet” insert. Almost completely wind proof.

    1. Butane boils at around 32 degrees F. This means at colder temperatures, the liquid will not vaporize and the lighter will not work. While it is true that the lighter can be kept in your pocket, under very cold conditions you may still not be able to light it. The same holds true for butane stoves.

  3. I had one of these years ago. It was a constant in my hiking kit. Unfortunately I lost if someplace over the years. I’d like to find another one, or even two, but haven’t been able to find a decent one for sale in Canada. Thanks for the article as it has reminded me that I need to renew the search.

  4. Thank you for the article, much information and very thorough. For cotton balls, I use a spoon and smear the Vaseline all over the cotton ball, then put them in an Altoids tin. Six is best for me as eight mushes them together and it makes a bigger mess getting one out. I also agree with keeping the wife happy. Starting this experiment off I smeared the cotton balls in the Vaseline jar. Guess who was not happy with cotton ball threads stuck in the jar?

  7. I melt petroleum jelly with wax in a double boiler setup, a 13oz pj as shown along with 4oz-8oz or more of wax. The wax makes the pj less messy and the pj makes the wax softer.

    Melt the pj and wax and then pour into a gallon sized zip top bag with 125 large cotton balls. While the mixture is still liquid gently squeeze the air out and seal the bag. The cotton balls are absorbent and will be saturated with the mixture. Let cool, turning and manipulating the cotton balls so the mixture doesn’t settle and pool.

    After the mixture firms up a little bit you can let in air and continue to work it to help keep the cotton balls from bunching up into mass. To use the PJCBs just pull off a piece and it will look like the muppet Beaker with the fine fibers of the cotton sticking up. Those fibers take a spark really well and one of the balls can burn for 10+ minutes. If you don’t need that kind of burn time then just pull off a smaller chunk and save the rest of the PJCB for another fire.

      1. Crafty stores often have candle making supplies and you can get some tabs for coloring the PJCBs. I like orange and bright green. Lol

        I buy my supplies at Walmart and depending on the cost of the store brand PJ my cost is four to five cents each. As a young man I strove for making one match fires. The large cotton balls, large not jumbo, can be used to start five to ten fires since you can pull them apart into pieces that will burn as long as a standard strike anywhere wooden match.

    2. I make a poor man’s cosmoline by mixing ~10% petroleum jelly with ~90% wax melted in a tin sitting in boiling water. I mix it thoroughly and brush it on. It helps to warm the item with a hair dryer so that it cools a bit more slowly. Most solvents will remove it pretty well, but you can also rub it off with a rag and it leaves a light oily film. You can play with the ratio to get different characteristics.

      I’ll have to try your mix ratio with cotton balls. I usually use straight PJ for that, but I’m always up for a new trick. Thanks.

  8. Coughlan’s makes a unit that comes with half a dozen or so cotton/wax tinders. I’ve had success with it with or without adding Naptha. It is pretty inexpensive. Makes for a great cache item. Peanut lighters are similar. That o-ring is the key to keeping Naptha from evaporating. Good for long term storage, not so much for regular use, as those o-rings wear out.

    Another great tinder idea, some of the softer lip balm sticks do a good job of embedding in cotton balls and will catch a spark pretty much like PJ does. Easier to carry.

    I like to use empty zip fizz tubes to hold 3 or 4 PJ cotton balls. I tie some floss on them as I stuff them in the tube, making it easy to retrieve them later. Mess free and convenient. I suppose you could use small medicine bottles or some such. Whatever works.

  10. Interesting concept of the permanent metal match, but as with everything it’s not really permanent, requiring a refill of the energy source. IE: if you’re out in the hinterboonies for a couple weeks, you not only need the match but the fuel source.

    Until of course, fraud in da house incorporates the greenie deal into everything, then it’ll all be powered by solar panels and windmills, requiring a 40 ft box van to haul all the crap around needed to start a fire, all lectric powered of course, cause we only got another 10 years left on the world expectancy ya know.

    Pretty soon we’ll have progressed so far that we’ll be rubbing sticks together and trying to make sparks with a couple rocks…..Now that’s progress.. Bwwwaaaahhhhaaaaa
    I really do like the concept though… Thanks for the info, I’m always interested in new things people come up with..

    1. Metal match will still work as a firestarter even without liquid fuel. It is a sparker first and foremost. I’ve used mine without any liquid to start tinder just with the sparks.

  11. I bought several of these from the BudK catalog years ago. They are rectangular vs. round as pictured, about an 1 1/2″ high, 1″ wide and 1/4″ thick. I tested one of my units and it would light for around a year (every couple of months tested, not every day). Not bad – a pair of those with lighter fluid can is well worth stashing.

  13. Good article. Of concern in today’s news: HR 127 Gun control….Firearm registration:
    The bill states that the AG, by way of the ATF, will make a system for licensing the possession of guns and ammunition so that we can register each gun with the ATF.

    They want each gun owner to give the ATF the following information:

    Make
    Model
    Serial Number
    Owner’s identity
    Date acquired
    Where it’s stored
    Identity of anyone who it’s loaned to
    They want this info three months after the effective date of the bill if you owned the gun before the bill went into effect. For each gun you buy after the bill goes into effect, the info will be needed the day of purchase.

    Database:What good is a firearms registration without a database, which is also in the bill. The AG will establish and maintain a database of ALL registered firearms.

    That database will be made accessible to all members of the public, all federal, state, and local law enforcement, all branches of the military, and all state and local governments.

    Gun license:
    The AG will issue a gun owner license to possess a gun and ammo. The licensee will be at least 21 years of age, and complete the following —

    Criminal background check
    Psychological eval
    Complete a training course that is at least 24 hours long
    Be insured
    Your license will be denied or revoked if you are found to be psychologically unfit for any number of reasons.

    License suspension: After granted, your gun license may be suspended if you don’t follow the rules. If you don’t have the firearm insurance the AG has the right to suspend your gun license. And if your license is suspended you have to return it and surrender all guns and ammo.

    License renewal:
    In order to renew your license you must continue to jump through hoops. The AG will renew a license if requested by a certain period of time and as long as you’ve gone through at lest eight hours of training.

    Firearm insurance:
    This part doesn’t make a lot of sense to me in that I’m not sure who is giving the insurance out, but it seems like it’s the Attorney General — who I wasn’t aware issued insurance policies. I could be wrong on this.

    Also interesting is that the insurance costs $800. I’m unaware if it’s per gun or total. And to be honest, I wouldn’t put anything past them idiots at this point.

    https://www.concealedcarry.com/law/whats-in-hr-127-nothing-good/

    1. PrepHOU,

      Thank you for the information. As predicted, there will be a bum’s rush of stuff flying at Americans.

      Usually they ask for the moon and “compromise”, taking just a little each time. This time it will be more than a little. Next time even more until there is nothing left to give.

      We’ll see.

  15. The Novice:

    Great article, I have matches in our BOB but this looks like something I need also.

    Thanks for the article,

    Regards and God Bless you and your family,

  16. the metal match vary widely in quality, like everything made in China, if they are told firmly to make something to a Western ISO standard, they do ! otherwise cheap, cheap, cheap.

  17. I had one of these 50 years ago. Probably in a box somewhere. Over the years of moves I lost track of it. One thing I remember, It never leaked or dried out, unlike my Zippos.

  18. Tons of articles on starting/building fires.I’d love to see one on different ways of “carrying” fire..I.E. a smoldering coal/ember…twisted up grasses…hemp rope…etc…

  19. I used to use the petroleum jelly and cotton balls method, but it’s so darn messy, and also the PJ is very sooty and smoky when it burns. I’ve recently changed to a different method that I like better. I was able to purchase 3 boxes of large candles at a yard sale for $20. The candles had been used for table decoration at a wedding reception and were nearly new. They have a light fragrance, but it’s quite pleasant. I have an old enamelware pot, and I can melt one of the candles in it (they’re 5-6 inches tall & 3 inches in diameter) on our wood stove in a few minutes. I dip cotton balls in the melted wax and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. One candle will make nearly 50 fire starters. For ease of lighting, I pull and twist up a “wick” on the cotton ball before dipping. I use a tweezers to dip them. If one were really thrifty, one could separate each cotton ball into several pieces before dipping. These fire starters become solid once cooled (I just stick the tray in the freezer for a couple minutes) and aren’t messy at all. When using a ferro rod to light one of these, you just have to pull up a few fibers away from the cotton ball to catch the spark.

  20. I like make up pad removers better than cotton balls. Make a Al foil boat and smear PJ over the top and melt in the oven. 1/2 pad will be more than enough for a fire. They fit real nicely into a can of Skoal.

  21. Fire straws are easy to make and carry. Just make your cotton and petroleum jelly balls and take a plastic straw cut to what ever length you want and stuff the cotton mix into the straw and seal by heating the open ends of the straw and crimping the melted straw. Makes a waterproof starter that can be carried anywhere. Just clip an end open and pull out the amount needed or use the whole straw ,once started even the plastic burns .

  22. Let me start by saying I am a pack a day smoker and a lover of the zippo line of lighters and matches.
    Zippo is an American/Canadian company.

    I have used a ZIPPO metal match for years and carry them in all my BOB , vehicles and hunting bags.
    They are durable and I have never had an issue with any of them. I use zippo lighter fluid and with normal use the mat h usually last about three days of use.

Comments are closed.