Tinder Fungus

[RAEDWALD]

Sorry to put in so many topics but I have been researching matchlocks and come across things I that make me wonder.

I have seen 'tinderlocks' in that there is a little metal case/tube to carry a piece of tinder that I presume was lit from a matchcord when needed. I have some experience of using dried fungus as portable tinder and it burns slowly with a good coal.

Do people think this was the material used in a 'tinderlock'?

 

[raszpla]

fungus is good for such a system (snap), for example :

 

[cynthialee]

I do not understand how that trigger and lock function. Or is the fire arm pictured incomplete. (I know the match cord is not there, thats not what I mean.)

 

[ahil925]

I could easily be wrong, but it looks like a push button snapping lock. Cock the serpentine, which locks back against the sear/searspring (which the button is attached to), then press the button at the end of the sear to let the serpentine drop into the pan. Neat.

 

[zymurgeist]

Yes the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam says they used dried mushrooms which is a fungus. I'm sure they also used other sorts of fungi as well as mosses, bark, and charred linen. All sorts of things.

 

[RAEDWALD]

Thank you Zymurgeist,

a sharp punch could drill small columns out of a fungus sized to fit into a tinder lock and lit just before firing.