by John Carter

Created on: October 22, 2008

Before the days of matches any woodsman or home maker would be lost without a tinder box. A tinder box was a waterproof tin box holding flint, steel and a suitable flammable material capable of easy combustion. The box was worn in the field on a lanyard around the neck like a pendent, or kept on a shelf close to the fireplace when at home. This material was called tinder capable of taking fire easily, and holding a glowing coal for several hours of necessary. Tinder is any material that is easily set alight and used to start a fire. In this sense it is properly called a first fire.' It is reported in a "How To" book written in the early 19th Century that a person could get a fire going in about twenty minutes using this method.

As easily flammable material covers a multitude of sins, but the most effective tinder was made from charred cloth. This was made by taking a strip of cloth of any kind, but usually made of cotton or linen, and setting it aflame. When it is partially burned the fire is put out, and the cloth is allowed to cool. It can also be charred by heating it in a dry frying pan until it is charred. The reason why this works so well is that charring actually covers the cloth with a thin layer of charcoal. Charcoal is naturally porous presenting a large surface area to a spark capable of ignition from any spark that hits prepared tinder.

Tinder is any material that is easily set alight to be used to ignite a fire. Some of the more common materials used for this purpose included dry fungi or mushrooms, dried moss, pine needles, cloth, weeds, or a plethora of other materials. Any fine fibrous material that is finely divided makes a good tinder material.

A common early type of tinder consisted of a length of loosely twisted together cotton or linen and soaked in a saturated solution of potassium nitrate (saltpeter). This could be ignited very easily. Once it was lighted it would burn so slowly that the users of this device called it a slow match. It was this material that was used in a type of gun called a matchlock to make it fire. It was also used for a portable source of flame to touch off cannon.

Another effective form of tinder can be made from dried cat tails. They are harvested just as they are breaking open in the fall. The fine fuzz and seeds attached to the fuzz make highly effective tinder. The spores from a puffball a type of fungi also make fine tinder.

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