One or two issues back in Muzzleloader Rex had an article on fire starting with the idea punk was carried in the tinder box. There are accounts of sending a shower of sparks into the tinder box. In any event, sure sounds like the way tinder boxes were used was different, Today I use the box as a storage container for the flint, steel, char cloth, some jute pieces, etc.
Is punk only the dead, spongy inner wood of pine? Does it contain resins that help ignite it? If you caught this punk on fire while it was in a tinder box then wouldn't it all burn up? Did you pull out the live coal and put it on a bird's nest/tinder bundle?
There's probably no existing documentation, just asking for a few thoughts.

Hi RedOwl,I don't claim to be an expert, but I have tried punk. What I did was find the soft spongy wood from a downed, rotten tree and char the stuff in my tin just like cloth. Then I just showered the sparks from my flint onto the charred punk, toke out a glowing ember and put the lid back on the tin. This smothers an other chared punk that caught a spark. Put the glowing punk ember in your birds nest and have at it. One thing I did find out was that you use the flint to hit the striker. That way the sparks go down. when I use cloth, I put the cloth on my flint and strike the flint. Does that make sense?? Anyway way the punk works, but I still like cloth. MJD

well Mark A. Baker wasn't there of course, but he does carry punk and he is convinced that 'those who came before' did too. It does seem to work, and those folks were awful practial. I can't see them ignoring a usable source of tinder.

Well I guess that was sort of my question, whether the punk was used as is or whether it was charred and because it was so common a practice at the time no one bothered writing about it. On a tinder tube you char the rope and after you get a flame you pull the rope/cord back into the tube to snuff it out so the same could have been done with the tinder box. In order for char to be made in the field a tinder box would need a hole that could be plugged with a toothpick, etc- does anyone know if any originals had such a hole???

no evidence of "char tins"-the technology for the tins most use didn't yet exist...char can be made without a tin-think of making charcoal, also the next time you find an old campfire, see if you can use the old black CHARRED wood to catch a spark..cloth can be wrapped on a stick,lit on fire ,smothered with dirt or ? and this is char cloth...as was stated, once the box is closed(air tight)the char will go out..hope this helps,Mitch

Red owl was right when he said they used tinder boxes a bit differently.

First, I know one gent who keeps a bunch of little pieces of char in his tinder box. He strikes the flint and steel and catches the spark in the box. He then takes the ignited char out of the tin and puts it in the birds nest and closes the box.

Now lets look at two way different period examples. First is the combination candle stick and tinder box referred to as a 'go to bed' light. Those were essentially a candle on a round tin. Inside the tin was char, flint and a striker. The older ones (1700s) had a small domed lid that is right handy for keeping the char away from the tinder and steel so it doesn't get smashed up. I think a main reason for that little domed lid over the char was to smother the fire once it was going good enough to light the candle.

Another example. Before that tinder boxes were made of wood. They were frequently one piece of dense wood (oak, walnut, etc) that was hollowed out with two compartments. Tinder in one compartment and flint/steel on the other side. The fire was started IN THE TINDER BOX and transferred out. The remaining fire was smothered with a small wooden lid that fit onto the char.

If we use the words char and tinder as meaning the same thing, it helps understand. We don't keep much of what we call "tinder" in the tinder box anyway...that's where we carry our char and maybe flint and steel. It also helps to understand the concept in that by smothering the fire with an airtight lid, you are essentially making char.

Example online of a wood tinder box:
http://goosebay-workshops.com/MAKING-FIRE-FOOTWARMERS-BRAZIERS

And the combination tinder box candle with the smothering lid inside with round ring lid:
http://www.cg-tinsmith.com/images/Photos/tindboxdampin.JPG

Sparks- THANKS A BUNCH-how most of us light fires has sort of bugged me because you just don't read that much about it.

I still have some Qs

1. The candle light_ I wasn't sure whether char cloth was actually a new invention used to light fires. Is char cloth actually a historically used item?

2. The partially burnt wood from a campfire- I too have wondered whether this was actually the more common practice, just keep the tinder box full of such charred wood, etc. That with punk from pine, pine resin, etc. It seems that the more a tinder box was used, the better the tinder (or charred material) would become.

best "punk wood" I've used is spongy,rotten cottonwood or aspen...

I'm with Mitch on the punk. The ONLY punk I have ever used is from Lombardi Poplar--essentially the same wood as cottonwood. I grabbed a round of the wood and a fistful broke off in my hand. I charred that and it worked fine. Even have a professionally produced video of me starting a fire with it.

I really don't know how long into history char cloth was used. Cloth was scarce and precious. Mrs. Stone says in the colonial times the woman spent between 40 and 60 percent of her time making enough cloth to clothe her family.

I just am guessing that if you smothered enough burning cloth by repeatedly using the same box you could have more and more char. Someone else I know suggested they might have been calling their char 'tinder.' Which makes sense as we don't carry much tinder in our tinder boxes...we carry something to catch the spark. And if what's inside the tinder box is for catching sparks, it's tinder (cuz it's in the tinder box).

Hope that wasn't as confusing as it seems on the re-read.

Sparks