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The Tinderbox
is made up of five parts.
1) The Tinder
The tinder can be made of a number of
materials: rotten elm wood is good, although many different
timbers seem to work. Collect the soft inside of the tree
that has been worked on by fungi and is very crumbly. Put
this inside a tin with a lid and wire the lid shut. Place
the tin in a bonfire and after 20 minutes or so the tinder
will be done. (When cool!)
Linen placed in a tin and treated as above works but not as
well as the wood.
2) The Flint
A sharp piece of flint, about the size
of a coin.
3) The Strike Alight
Piece of hardened steel to strike the
flint against.
4) The Spunk
A spunk is a small pointed stick, a
little longer than a match, which has a spot of sulphur on
the end. The sulphur needs to be melted carefully in a tin
over a candle then it will stick to the end of the piece of
wood. Chemists will not sell you sulphur because once a man
named Guy Fawkes used it, with two other chemicals, to make
gun powder and then failed to blow up the King of England!
But garden shops have not heard of the "Gun Powder
Plot", so will sell it to you quite readily as
"Flowers of Sulphur".
5) Method
Strike flint onto steel so that
spark falls onto tinder.
When tinder starts to glow use
sulphur tip of spunk to get flame.
Light candle.
6) Box
The box should preferably be made with inlaid silver and
studded with emeralds but mine is of oak and has little
compartments to hold all the bits. A collection of tin boxes
would work. If you are going to use it with the story it
should look old and mysterious.
7) Warnings
Wear safety glasses; flints can damage
eyes.
Do not breath the burning sulphur, the smoke contains
sulphurous acid
(not good for you!)
Take care; burning sulphur can drip and set fire to things
therefore use just a tiny spot on each spunk.
ps
In my experience setting fire to a school can seriously
damage your chances of ever being invited back to tell other
stories!
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