Talk:Punk (fireworks)

Camel poop?

That was vandalism. I removed it. Dave6 ^talk 05:34, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it was necessarily vandalism; more like misinformation. When I was a kid, rumor had it that punks were made of camel crap. I've no idea where that story got started, but it was "common knowledge", so to speak, among my cousins and friends and a subject which tended to come up at least a couple times every fourth of July. I did a cursory Google of it but was unable to find much relevant info. The fact remains, however, that it is untrue. Perhaps someone else could find some information regarding this misconception and include it in the article? Sneakymarco 02:49, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Yup, "common knowledge" in me own mis-spent youth as well. Numerous cultures in the historical (wagon-train pioneer) American West and modern Middle East use(d) cow or buffalo (or camel?) dung for fuel, so it's not all that far-fetched. If I find time, I'll go looking for references... __Just plain Bill 03:57, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

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I removed the reference links since they had nothing to do with punks and were just advertisements. Sexybobo1 (talk) 06:39, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Punk for various kinds of tinder

The word "punk" is used for various kinds of tinder / fire-carrying materials, including dry, rotted wood, the fibers of Fomes fomentarius, cattails (which can can be lit and burn slowly much like big thick versions of the fireworks punk described in this article, or soaked in fat or wax and used torches, or turned into a fluff that makes great tinder).

It might make sense to combine these along with this page into a more general punk-as-tinder article. What do people think of this? Or would it be better to add separate links to the punk disambiguation page? (Actually I think I may do that for now as the more conservative approach.)--Ericjs (talk) 04:56, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Fragrance Industry

In the fragrance industry, which I have been a part of since 1986, it is SOP (standard operating policy) to keep your key ingredients secret, which may be why most books on how to make you own incense are farcical, to say the least.

I have been to an incense town in China and what I saw being used in two locations, using two different methods was definitely not any kind of poop, camel or otherwise, but I did not ask materials were on GP (General Principles). It would have been like asking a merchant their wholesale price for an item, when I'm a retail customer of theirs. You just don't do that. I wish I had asked though, because I've wondered about that ever since.