A little thing I found out this weekend.
The ground was wet, so I didn't really want to kneel down to blow on the glowing tinder to get it hotter, so I made a pipe.
There was an elder tree nearby, with several 1/2" diameter dead shoots sticking straight up from a near-horizontal branch.
Dead shoots are easy to spot (even in November, when there are almost no leaves left on the tree), since they are usually broken clean off at the tip, have no side shoots to them, and have little or no bark.
I took one of these, about 1/2" diameter and 15" long, and carefully cut through the wood *without cutting into the pith* about 1" from the thicker end. Them I took hold of the pith, and firmly but gently pulled it. This got me a nice long tube. Then I soaked one end in water, so it stood up to the heat a bit better, and used this to blow the glowing tinder into life.
The pith can be used to make fishing floats, or to demonstrate static electricity to (not so) small children.
Keith.
The ground was wet, so I didn't really want to kneel down to blow on the glowing tinder to get it hotter, so I made a pipe.
There was an elder tree nearby, with several 1/2" diameter dead shoots sticking straight up from a near-horizontal branch.
Dead shoots are easy to spot (even in November, when there are almost no leaves left on the tree), since they are usually broken clean off at the tip, have no side shoots to them, and have little or no bark.
I took one of these, about 1/2" diameter and 15" long, and carefully cut through the wood *without cutting into the pith* about 1" from the thicker end. Them I took hold of the pith, and firmly but gently pulled it. This got me a nice long tube. Then I soaked one end in water, so it stood up to the heat a bit better, and used this to blow the glowing tinder into life.
The pith can be used to make fishing floats, or to demonstrate static electricity to (not so) small children.
Keith.