Editing Tinderbox (section)

{{Short description|Container for fire-starting materials with flint, firesteel, and tinder}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Old tinderboxes.jpg|thumb|right|Sheet Iron tinderboxes. English, 18th and early 19th C.]]
[[Image:Tinderbox.jpg|thumb|Pocket tinderbox with firesteel and flint. This type was used during the Boer War due to a scarcity of matches]]

A '''tinderbox''', or '''patch box''', is a container made of wood or metal containing [[flint]], [[firesteel]], and [[tinder]] (typically [[char cloth|charcloth]], but possibly a small quantity of dry, finely divided fibrous matter such as hemp), used together to help kindle a [[fire]]. A tinderbox may also contain sulfur-tipped [[match]]es.

Tinderboxes fell out of general usage when friction matches were invented.