How To Strike A Wood Match Without Breaking It

Point the match head first, into the striker pad at a 25 degree angle. Hold the box gently with one hand and the match at the very end of the wood, gently, with the other. Throw the tip into the pad, softly contacting and striking along the surface. 

Don't hold or stike the match any other way or you'll break many before you have a light.

Also, I avoid runing the match all over the stip, making little marks along and all over the the pad. I use one end and confine my strike to a small area using my methode wholy facilitates this); doing so, allows you to save the pad once the box is empty to make lead free primers for a percussion muzzle loader, primers for casing, or any other aplication where a physical strike force is needed to start the fire of a powder.