“How long can I make it last?”
I use wooden matches for lighting the woodstove, and also the propane stove. For some reason using the kitchen stove’s pilot lights runs through propane much faster than it seems like such small flames should take. I turned them off within the first month I lived in the Lair. Of course you can’t get along without the oven pilot, but I get several times as much time from a propane bottle if I don’t use the stovetop pilots.
But I was blowing through a box of kitchen matches in three weeks – and in those days I used the expensive “strike anywhere” matches because they were “better.”
You know what’s cheaper than even kitchen matches? A Bic lighter bought in a package of 3 at a dollar store. But it’s not safe to use a lighter to light a stove burner, so I use them both and get 2-3 uses out of a match. It’s neurotic, yeah, but really just a game and as you see…
It’s nice to know I can stretch a box of matches more than 4 months, should they become irreplaceable.
Speaking of matches…
Unless you absolutely need “strike-anywhere” matches for some reason, these are much better. They’re a fraction of the price, and they also light much more easily. If you actually strike “strike-anywhere” matches on the box, the box will fall apart long before you run out of matches because you really need to bear down.
I have some of both. Long ago, I glued a small strip of sandpaper onto the boxes. Don’t use many matches these days, since I have an electric stove. I use one of those long nozzle butane lighters for the wood stove and just threw one away that was more than ten years old… because it ran out of gas and was not refillable. Going to miss it come winter… it was the only one without the stupid “child safe” thing. I truly hate those.
ML, I have one of those long butane lighters, got it last autumn for the woodstove, but unless I warm it up first it’ll barely burn first thing in the morning…which is the only time I need it. So I went back to matches.
A self lighting propane torch lasts a remarkably long time when used for lighting a wood stove and negates the need for laying paper/kindling that will light with a match only.
Warm it up? That’s strange. I don’t have to do that, and I’ve used it to light the burn barrel outside in very cold weather. That is… of course, if I can push the thumb hard enough against the “childproof” lever and pull on the trigger hard enough at the same time to operate it. I just bought two more, supposedly easier to use. No thumb lever, but the trigger is so hard to pull it is more difficult to aim than the .357 was with a 7 pound trigger. And the nozzle is so much shorter than the old ones that it will be tricky to use even if I can manage to get it to light.
I’ve priced one of those push-button propane torches several times, R. They’re always too damned expensive, though I’d love to have one. You can also use them to heat up the stovepipe, to improve a cold stove’s draft.
This is an odd topic for what promises to be the hottest day of the year so far…
It’s a good topic for before we need it. Whether it’s flashlights or matches or wood stoves or rat traps, I always learn something from these postings.
Hey Joel even better (cheaper) than one of the push-button propane torches is a regular torch and a Flint Spark Torch Igniter. Simple, cheap…
https://www.amazon.com/Flint-Spark-Torch-Igniter-Reliable/dp/B004JBUKXI
Or you could install a push button igniter…
https://www.amazon.com/GrillPro-20610-Universal-Button-Igniter/dp/B000H1PGMO/ref=sr_1_4?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1466387934&sr=1-4&keywords=push+button+bbq+igniter+switch
Something to think about…
” But it’s not safe to use a lighter to light a stove burner, ”
You’re talking about the Propane, rather than the wood stove? (I have some experience with propane stoves; less with wood stoves … which seem to need a lot of paper to start.)
How are matches safer than propane lighters when trying to light a wood stove? Other than you can drop a match in a mess of kindling in a wood stove, but you nave to ‘hold’ a propane cigarette lighter for an uncomfortable amount of time?
Wouldn’t a BBQ lighter work as well, with about the same lifetime, without burning your knuckles?
Not being critical; just curious!
No, I mean a propane burner. I won’t say I never do it, but it isn’t safe to light a burner on a propane stove with a Bic lighter, because then both your hand and a plastic container of butane – in your hand – is uncomfortably close to a very hot propane flame.
Others’ mileage varies, but I’ve found a BBQ lighter to be large, clumsy (with that child and old guy-proof lock and all) and hard to keep lit on cold mornings. Matches, like Zippos, always work. Unlike Zippos, matches aren’t always out of fuel when you need them.
I use an “empty” propane lighter to light my propane stove. I just use the spark, although I barely turn on the gas or it is too strong to ignite. This is for when I run out of book matches, which work better.