Tinder
Tinder is easily flammable material used to ignite
fires by rudimentary methods. A small fire consisting of tinder is then used to ignite
kindling. Anything that can be ignited by a
match can be considered tinder. Materials commonly used as tinder include:
* Dry
pine needles,
leaves or
grass*
Birch bark
*
Cloth,
lint, or frayed
rope (if made from
plant fibers and not treated with
fire retardant)
*
Char Cloth*
Cotton swabs or
tampons
*
Paper,
paper towels,
toilet paper, etc.
* Punk wood or
charred wood
* Some types of
fungus*
Bird down* Small
twigs (poor tinder but commonly available)
* Fine-grade soap-coated
steel wool* Shaved
magnesium or other
alkaline earth metals
If a fire is to be lit by sparks rather than matches, char cloth, punkwood, fungus or down are commonly used to catch the sparks. However, fungi should be selected with care as some release toxic fumes on
combustion.
Char cloth can be made by placing plant-based
fabric (usually
cotton) in a
tin box into a campfire; like
charcoal, it is the product of anhydrous
pyrolysis. It is very fragile, and should usually be prepared only in small quantities.
Embers of burned paper, leaves and other sheetlike materials are easily carried off by air currents, where they can alight on other objects and ignite them. In outdoor campfires, paper can be wadded up to reduce this hazard; wadded paper also burns more quickly.
Magnesium is sold in stores in shaved or bar form. Shavings burn white-hot, are impossible to smother with carbon dioxide or sand, and can ignite even wet kindling. Solid bars are impossible to ignite under normal conditions (and difficult even with a
welding torch), and are thus very safe to carry. Magnesium powder and shavings are
pyrophoric (they oxidise rapidly when exposed to the air). It is dangerous to carry pre-shaved magnesium — at best, it loses potency, at worst, it can spontaneously ignite and is then nearly unquenchable. Magnesium bars are sometimes sold with a length of
ferrocerium cast into one edge.
*
Tinderbox
