Tinderbox



The tinderbox is used primarily for lighting fires. It is also used regularly in many quests. It is also used to light and relight candles and lanterns, so any player venturing into a dark area such as the Lumbridge Caves should bring one in case their light goes out.

A tinderbox carried in the inventory becomes a Damp tinderbox when a player falls into the water at the 5th level of the Haunted Mine. If examined afterwards it will say: Not so useful for lighting a fire. It cannot be used on a fire or range to dry it out. It can be sold to a general store for 0 coins.

A tinderbox can be bought at most general stores for one coin. It is not recommended to buy one at the Grand Exchange because the cost is coins.

The tinderbox had a graphics update on the 14th of July 2008.

Tinderboxes are very popular among players because they can be bought for 1 coin in the general store and sold for coins on the Grand Exchange. The transactions usually take place in less than 2 seconds. This helped lead to the Personalized Shops update, so that players would not keep buying and storing the infinite item selection, to sell on the Grand Exchange. With this method, a level 3 player could make over 100,000 coins an hour. This is no longer the case, due to Personalized Shops.

The average spawn rate at a general store for the full stock 10 tinderboxes is 9 minutes and 10 seconds. Meaning the first spawn is 10 seconds after all the Tinderboxes have been bought, and one minute per every other Tinderbox.

Tinderboxes cannot be lent.

Tinderboxes can also be bought from Ignatius Vulcan, who stocks 60,000, making it one of the best ways to stock tinderboxes. It is the largest stock of any item in any shop in RuneScape.

Summoning
The tinderbox is also the tertiary ingredient of Pyrelord summoning pouches.

Summoning familiars which can act as a tinderbox but gives an extra ten Firemaking experience for each log are:
 * Pyrelord - Summoning level 46
 * Forge regent - Summoning level 76

Tinderbox Respawns

 * There is a tinderbox respawn on the top floor of Draynor Manor near Professor Oddenstein's machine.
 * There is a tinderbox respawn on the wrecked ship on the north of Harmony Island.
 * There is a tinderbox respawn next to furnace in the eastern wilderness ruins.
 * Searching certain shelves of the Wise Old Man's home gives a tinderbox, possibly book(s) and a message questioning why he keeps so many tinderboxes. This is likely due to Dinoysus's eventual assault upon the Wizards' Tower. Though it is possible to quickly obtain multiple tinderboxes from it, your character will only take one at a time, and only if your inventory has none; this can be easily bypassed through the drop trick.

While this may be arguable, many players believe it essential to have a fair amount of tinderboxes in their bank at almost all times. Tinderboxes are useful for all players, not only new or free players.

Trivia

 * A golden tinderbox is in one of the monuments below the temple in Priest in Peril; if the player uses an ordinary tinderbox with the pillar, the tinderboxes will be switched and the player will get the golden tinderbox instead of the regular one. This is reminiscent of Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones switches a bag of sand with a golden idol to get it.


 * Recently, there was a glitch in which a tinderbox would fly around an Evil Tree. It only happened during the event, it is unknown what caused this glitch, and it has been fixed by Jagex.
 * The sprite of the Damp Tinderbox looks like the original sprite of a regular tinderbox.