Let's start by positing a couple of things: First: the lower the temperature, the less likely it is to scorch the wood or the tobacco. For that reason, a torch lighter should never be used because the fuel temperature is simply way too high. Second, we don't want a fuel to impart a chemical taste/smell to the tobacco. For that reason, paper matches should be shunned because the matches themselves are impregnated with a chemical substance to keep them from burning too rapidly and singeing your fingers. That said, let's agree that some of us have more highly developed senses of taste and smell than others, and aren't particularly sensitive to the taste imparted by paper matches, so if they're ok with you, go right ahead.
Now, as to other means of lighting your pipes. Let's start with the beeswax impregnated hemp string. It's likely the purest light you can get. Beeswax is organic, and really doesn't impart a significant taste to the tobacco. Ditto for the hemp. When I'm sitting in my easy chair, I keep a smoker's candle going, and use it to ignite my hemp string, which burns at a temperature below 250C. That's the lowest temperature you're going to get. Now on to the Zippo lighter, preferably with the pipe insert, since it aims the flame a bit more directly into the bowl. Lighter fluid (naphtha) burns at a slightly higher temperature than hemp, 575F or 301C. The Zippo fuel in the black can is a more refined form of lighter fluid, from which most of the sulfur and other chemicals which impart an unpleasant taste to the tobacco have been removed. That said, there are some among us who still find the taste of the fuel to be unpleasant, but again, that's a matter of personal choice. You can minimize the taste of the fuel by waiting one or two seconds after striking the light, and if the smell/taste doesn't offend you, you have a relatively low temperature fuel. Next up the ladder is the wooden match which, once the fuel on the head burns off, relies on wood as its fuel. Wooden matches burn at a temperature of 1100F or 600C, quite a jump upward from Zippo Fuel. Some of the top grade matches, such as Swan Vesta, have cedar sticks, but that's a matter of personal preference, and if the cost doesn't deter you, have at it, but a conventional wooden match will do the job quite nicely. By the way, cedar splints, if you can get them, work quite nicely. On the top rung of our ladder is the butane lighter, which burns at 3590F or 1977C, and that's a really high temperature, so the best advice I can give you there is to be careful. By the way, the torch also uses butane, but it mixes it with oxygen in a particular way that really jacks up the temperature, and that's why they should be shunned for pipes. Hope this information is helpful.
