05-19-2023, 12:11 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Canada
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Re: Wet torch
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I think wet matches are basically garbage, i don't even know if they woul dry out.
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05-19-2023, 12:19 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Wet torch
Tinder is just combustible material worked into very small pieces (high surface to volume ratio so they heat up quickly from small sparks) and dried. It can be fungus or rotten wood or grass or threads of linen or fine charcoal.
But if it is soaked, its not going to be usable without days in hot sun.
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature Last edited by Polydamas; 05-19-2023 at 12:27 AM. |
05-19-2023, 01:04 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: Wet torch
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As to torches, rushlights, etc. it depends on how much grease or wax has worked its way into the underlying material. A high-quality beeswax or pitch-coated torch might light with little trouble (or as minimal trouble as you get when trying to light a low TL torch using low TL firestarters) after a few good hard shakes or a bit of time to air dry. A torch based on oil-impregnated material might be harder to light because some of the oil got driven out by soaking it in water. After a good, long soak it might effectively be useless. Any torch made from porous materials alone, with no fire accelerant/waterproofing, is going to turn into a soggy mess that won't light until you hit it with a blowtorch or fireball spell. That's going to include most improvised torches, like pine cones wedged into a split piece of wood or a piece of cloth wrapped around a stick. Even if you do get it to light, the flame will spit, hiss and smoke as it boils off the remaining water. |
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05-19-2023, 08:40 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Wet torch
Why don't you point us to a metal tinderbox in a museum collection dated before the 18th century. I will wait, but there are lots of big museum collections with a searchable digital catalogue.
People today often use tins of mints to make charcloth (linen charcoal) but we have cheap sheet steel and aluminum and people before the 20th century did not. So its easy for us to make a watertight metal box. s/19th/18th; I think they had rolled sheet iron by the 18th c.
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature Last edited by Polydamas; 05-19-2023 at 12:22 PM. |
05-19-2023, 12:14 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pioneer Valley
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Re: Wet torch
(blinks) The metalworking technology to make a water-resistant box existed in the BRONZE AGE, for pity's sake. Waterproof, no. But able to handle brief immersion, assuredly.
In any event, dry tinder isn't that hard to come by in most environments. Worst comes to worst, shave off some of your own body hair and use that.
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05-19-2023, 12:20 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Wet torch
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If you just swam underwater, I don't think your hair is going to be dry enough to make good tinder. If immediately after swimming underwater you need a light, you probably are not in a warm dry lush environment where you can easily forage tinder. Edit: here is someone who tried and failed to use human hair as tinder (even with a Bic lighter to ignite it!) https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/...tinder.171033/
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature Last edited by Polydamas; 05-19-2023 at 12:29 PM. |
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05-19-2023, 12:30 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Wet torch
Quote:
Having made and used the wax torches I described above for a night game years ago, they give significantly more light than a candle, can be (carefully) used for signaling, and work even in a very light rain ! For interior use, obviously, you don't want to use torches if you can make candles. Historically, not sure anyone would waste wax that way, I agree with you. For most fantasy games, however, that's a secondary concern to the practicability of semi-water-resistant torches. Last edited by Celjabba; 05-19-2023 at 12:34 PM. |
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05-19-2023, 12:47 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Wet torch
With preparation, it's certainly possible to make a box that handles brief immersion; just start with a decently sealed box (wood or metal) and cover all the cracks with grease. That's not a lasting solution, it's something you'd do immediately before the expected immersion. While you're at it you probably do something similar with all the other things you have that don't like being immersed in water, such as weapons (or else you put them all in box that you seal).
However, it's almost always going to be easier to find an alternative path that doesn't require you to go underwater. |
05-19-2023, 01:15 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Wet torch
An hollowed horn with a stopper is waterproof, at least for a short while. Black powder horn and snuff boxes are 2 examples.
So are ceramic/wood/leather/... containers if you seal the stopper. But all of those share a characteristic : a small opening, suitable for liquid, powder or grain, nothing box-like. Protecting big item from immersion was mostly done by -avoiding going underwater -wrapping the item in oilcloth and leather, and hoping for the best |
05-19-2023, 01:30 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Wet torch
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