So I bought a Hudson Bay style tobacco tin for a tinder box. It's the style that has a burning lens in the lid. Just one quick question. Would you really carry your flint and steel in there like on the picture? Seems to me you would scratch up the back side of your lens. I was leaning toward just keeping char cloth and such in mine.
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Tinder Box
- Thread starter Kelhammer
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I've carried mine like that,never gave it a thought. You could put striker and flint in 1st then char on top.
I might also add, I don't recall ever using the burning glass anyway, I always just grabbed the
F & S another thing I've seen guys do is buy an oval striker and hang it from their belt
I might also add, I don't recall ever using the burning glass anyway, I always just grabbed the
F & S another thing I've seen guys do is buy an oval striker and hang it from their belt
I've always carried my striker on a thong around my neck like a necklace. Or in a tin that didn't have a glass built in. Maybe you could sew a small bag to keep the striker itself in or just wrap it in a real soft thin leather to keep it from rubbing against the glass. Interesting question n I too never thought about that
Simple solution. Just take a chunk of cloth and wrap it around your striker before you put it in the tinderbox. Or cut two pieces of leather to set in there - one on the bottom, then your flint/steel and charcloth/tinder, then another piece on top.
This also helps keep things from ... rattling ... around inside your tinderbox. The more they can move about inside, the more noise you get, and potential for scratches. Plus movement will "bust up" your charcloth more.
Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
This also helps keep things from ... rattling ... around inside your tinderbox. The more they can move about inside, the more noise you get, and potential for scratches. Plus movement will "bust up" your charcloth more.
Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
blacksmithman64
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I have the same thing...I just wrap the striker, char and flint in a piece of scrap cotton fabric-that way I always have the makings for new char! I also have a "altoids"box in my possibles that I keep char in that doubles as a makeshift char cooker. Us blacksmiths just GOT to have our FAAR!
It's not a tinder box, it's a tobacco box! :haha:
These are always listed in the fur trade inventories as tobacco box w/burning lens (steel or japanned). Tinder boxes also show up in the inventories. I wonder, did they come with a striker?
Anyhow... just kidding. I really doubt there was much distinction on the frontier and beyond how people used them.
These boxes (tinder & tobacco) were made in England, and their names reflect what their English customers used them for. No need for a burning glass next to the fireplace. But the Jappaned tobacco boxes have a clue to their intended use written right on them: Bright Sol thro' this your pipe will light, and help Old Age to read and write.
Enough of my rambling... :yakyak: :snore:
These are always listed in the fur trade inventories as tobacco box w/burning lens (steel or japanned). Tinder boxes also show up in the inventories. I wonder, did they come with a striker?
Anyhow... just kidding. I really doubt there was much distinction on the frontier and beyond how people used them.
These boxes (tinder & tobacco) were made in England, and their names reflect what their English customers used them for. No need for a burning glass next to the fireplace. But the Jappaned tobacco boxes have a clue to their intended use written right on them: Bright Sol thro' this your pipe will light, and help Old Age to read and write.
Enough of my rambling... :yakyak: :snore:
Quiet Thunder- on a sunny day try the burning glass. There is a set distance to hold it from the char, keep moving the glass away until you have a tiny dot. It will take about three seconds on a sunny day to get an ember and for me at least that's a lot faster than the flint and striker.
Yes, I make these burning Glasses myself. They are patterned after one in the Museum of the Fur Trade. The end is tied shut with fin wire just like the originals. I have gotten the tinder tube to light in under 2 seconds on a good day, and they are excellent for lighting your pipe.
Jim
Jim
OK, as a novice in firemaking skills I admit I've never seen the rope/brass gizmo at bottom of picture. I assume you focus glass on end of cotton(?) rope to get an ember going? This was a traditional item?
I have to admire someone who can fabricate something like that burning glass.
I have to admire someone who can fabricate something like that burning glass.
Bob, that rope brass gizmo is pretty cool because once you have the end charred it only takes a second or two of focused sunlight from that glass to get an ember back on it. Charred cotton holds a spark pretty fast and all you gotta do it blow on it a little to get it really hot to where it will light a fire. Not only is it a traditional item, it was part of the ignition system in matchlock guns which predate flint and of course percussion guns. some of the gunners would actually have both ends of the rope smoldering so that if the charge in the pan snuffed out the gun end, all he had to do was hold the other end to it and blow to get it re lit.
Bob Krohn said:
The Tinder Tube is just a variation of charcloth. Your rolled up cotton/linen cloth is pushed through the metal tube. You then light the end and get it burning/smoldering. Then you pull it back just inside the tube. It will continue to smolder a bit, and build up some ash on the end. And then it will go out. The next time you want to use it, you push that charred end back out to catch your spark - either from a burning lens or from flint/steel. Once you catch that spark, you then gently blow on it to get the whole end glowing, and use it to start your fire or light your pipe. Then pull it back into the tube again - where it will create some more "charcloth" on the end of it and then go out. The tube also protects that charred end from getting knocked/rubbed off - so you have more charcloth there the next time you want to use it.
A Tindertube is one of the very few documented examples of using charcloth - although it never specifically mentions the charcloth. And it is an obvious adaptation from the early matchlock's matchcord. You do see examples of tindertubes in some pretty fancy "gentlemen's" fire starting sets - flint/steel/tindertube all linked together with find chain. It kept the whole set together in your westkit pocket so you could light your pipe anytime you wanted to.
A few years ago, Mike Galban saw an interesting object in one of those Museum "unknown/misc. objects" drawers. It was a section of deer leg bone that was charred/blackened inside both ends, and had a strip of linen cloth pulled through it - also blackened. The "experts" could not identify what it was and just figured it was from a burn/garbage pit. He took one look and was pretty sure it was an Indian made Tindertube. The village site it came from was mid to late 1600's up in New York. I made one up just to see how it would work. It does work well, but I did not smooth out the inside very well, so I usually have to use an awl to pick/pull the charred end out to use the next time. I just have to be carefull not to knock off too much of that "charcloth" end.
The striker is one of the few documented Scottish styles. It is linked to their dealings with France and Flanders. And it is pretty similar to a Dutch trade style found at a Seneca Indian village in upstate New York that was occupied from 1650 to 1680. That one had that spiral curl on both ends.
The ... toys ... we play with.
Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
Pichou said:
I have not seen any links to those "ram's horn" style strikers being made/used by the Vikings. I have not seen them in any of the books prior to the 16th or 17th centuries. At least so far.
That Scottish one is dated by the Brit museum as ... 18th century. But it specifically mentions the influence came from their dealings with France and Flanders where they were common.
That Ram's Horn variation starts to show up in the 1600's here in North America - and is generally associated with Dutch trade goods.
The similarities between those Scottish and Ram's Horn strikers is obvious. But I have not seen/heard of any links back to Viking times - so far. Most Viking era strikers tend to be variations of the C type, plus one "hitch pin" type collected from the Innuit/Eskimos.
Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
Years ago I used to use a tinder tube for lighting my pipe, can't recall using it to light up a nest though, does it work as well as loose char for starting fires?
I'm thinking you hold it in one hand and form the nest around it an' start puffin' is that correct?
Sure seems like it would be a more streamlined way of carrying firemaking fixin's
I'm thinking you hold it in one hand and form the nest around it an' start puffin' is that correct?
Sure seems like it would be a more streamlined way of carrying firemaking fixin's
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