What is Tinder & What is Kindling?

[Tiley]

OK, but being devil's advocate, what is the substance that converts a spark into an ember called?

Cramp-ball fungus (Daldinia concentrica) - obviously, Mr Advocate!

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Sometimes simple things can become very complicated by overthinking.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

what is the substance that converts a spark into an ember called?

Heat !

 

[Erbswurst]

Isn't heat some kind of energy, somehow?

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Isn't heat some kind of energy, somehow?

True enough, heat isn't a substance but.................

 

[Erbswurst]

C'est pas grave!

 

[Potatohead]

Careful with that, with an axe you can leave some of them in the woods.

You have obviously witnessed or heard tale of my limited ability with said axe

 

[Potatohead]

Going back to the original post, I've always understood that 'tinder' converts an ember to a living flame and 'kindling' allows that flame to become a fire. It may be over simplistic but it strikes me as clear and readily understood.

+1 from me.
Even as an engineer i find keeping things as simple as possible leads to less errors.

Albeit, I may have lost the initial thoughts of this thread. Apologies if i strayed a little. I find the above to sum it up quite well.

The english language, as much deliberated in this thread, does however lead to some interesting and perhaps enlightnening reintepretations.

Im quite enjoying reading along. Also having a keen interest in those with the time and patience to keep the older methods alive.

I guess the definitions of tinder and kindling can be swayed slightly in ones own mind, dependant upon what methods you choose to employ to raise an ember or spark?

 

[Erbswurst]

Even natives don't use languages properly. But if we want to make a science out of something, what we are doing in this forum, we need to agree about termini technici. If we don't do that, we can't communicate effectively.

Tinder catches a spark from flint and steel. Everything else is kindling in my opinion. Tinder is the tinder fungus, and everything with the same characteristics.

 

[Urdasein]

Hi.

I don't overthink too much the concept of kindling and tinder: it is an empirical stuff unrelated to science. tinder is the first stuff, kindling comes in second. Whatever you use.

HOWEVER

- the steps of combustion process (heat raising, drying phase, flame, embers...)
- the triangle of combustion
- the surface / mass ratio related to the heat transfer process

Those things are related to formalized science and should be studied in depth IMHO.