Thus, around the turn of the seventeenth century, it was the arms manufacturers who discovered another use for old discarded musket parts and pistols. Skilled master craftsmen converted broken firearms into interesting tools for making fire.

The earliest portable mechanical lighters were based on flintlock pistols. A small gunpowder charge was plased in the barrel, lighting a fabrick wick.

Flintlock lighters, or “tinder pistols” were widely used in wealthy homes before the development of reliable matches.