Both. But...…… a long lighter has been in use here for few winters now...the very same one! At the cottage, the same brand gives up the ghost much sooner. Like only a month or two at best! I think the ambient temp affects the fuel cell in the lighter since the temps fluctuate much more drastically at the cottage while the house remains pretty much constant.
I used to use a long lighter, but I’ve been on matches since I moved last summer. The previous owner must have been a match hoarder. I found three coffee cans packed full and a 12”x12”x12” box full of match books, new and wrapped in plastic. No idea how old they are, but apparently if you send 10 cents to the address in Maine to cover postage, you’ll get 110 valuable foreign stamps. All I know is the matches are good and I’ll probably never have to buy matches again.
I wonder if they are the old style matchbooks....that is, they aren't the safety cover? You know? The striking strip is on the same side as the matches? They had to childproof that and put it on the reverse side as people were getting burnt as the rest of the matches would flare up while they lit their smokes!
Long lighter here as well, but doesn't take much coals to get reloads going again. Seemed like I needed more coals with the old Quad stove, but maybe it's the wood I have now. Who knows...
Same here, but we use toilet paper rolls instead. We don’t get many egg cartons, as the kids have a flock of poultry that provides us with more than we need.
copied from web In 1962, the U.S. government safety laws insisted that friction strips be moved from the outside-front of a matchbook to the outside back, which meant the end of the famous phrase “Close Cover Before Striking”. However, by the mid-1970s, the introduction of disposable lighters devastated the matchbook industry.
They’re the old fashioned, use common sense matches. They do have the ‘close cover before striking’ warning. Not that I ever do.
Never knew that. Learn something new here every day. Guess these matches are antiques. Ebay, here I come. Lot of 1000 books of RARE antique non safety matches guaranteed to not burn your house down if you close the cover before striking. Starting bid......
It must have taken a long time to phase the front striker matchbooks out. I remember them and I was born after ‘62. I also remember finding match books in cigarette vending machines. I guess they used to drop a book of matches with the pack.
Got Dropass last night dinger and just grabbed a quick pic off the net. Another one in the garage and usually just light the once in fall as haven't spent any cash on Dinosaur Dung in the last 12 years now. Little 'Titan' here seems to be doing well around the heat.
Yeah, same here. A quarter of a super cedar, a flick of a bic and we have fire. If only the Neanderthals had it so good where would we be today?!?
I save my noodles from my big scrounges, a match would do the job, but the soldering tor h is more fun
After my wife saw a friend using one, she insisted I get one for her. A quick blast on a couple of pine cones and we have a fire. Uses maybe a bottle of propane per year. Electric Start Propane Torch
It used to be nice to just fold a match over and slide it across without ripping it out - one handed. Course you had to be careful not to ignite all the others. We just use book matches here, they're cheap although we did have some stick matches at one point.
Yup. But that was on the new "safety matchbooks" with the friction strip on the reverse side of the matches. How did we ever live through those terrible old style matchbooks? Didn't "Nader's Crusaders" realize the chance we kids were taking while lighting those dozens of cherry and t-bombs? We could've been burnt by a match for pete's sake! Now that I think about it, are the 60's pretty much when snowflakes started emerging? Kinda?
