Fomes is good stuff. It's hard to cut out the inner layer neatly though...patience, a good sharp knife and an old breadboard help
I use a potato peeler to take off most of the thin, hard, crispy outer layer, then I pick off the little shards that are left with a sharp knife.
Then I start cutting out the fibrous inner part which makes up the bulk of the fungus. This layer will cut up incredibly finely and once it's alight it will happily glow away, it doesn't blow out but won't burst into flame either.
The layer directly under the crispy bit *ought* to be the felty layer that's kept intact (if possible, it's not easy to cut it out) for catching sparks on. The rest of the fungus I just cut up small and use to hold a glowing ember, I usually add it to the bag of fire tinder.
When I'm teaching I hollow out a little bowl shape, maybe a cm deep and about the size of an old penny wide in the flat underside. If you can get a glowing ember into this it'll keep it burning for literally hours, it'll eventually burn it's way through the fungus but it's how folks used to carry fire around; just tie on a string and keep the air moving around it.
For dyeing I open up the fungus, usually three hand sized ones will dye enough wool for a dozen hanks...sorry no real equivalents
..... I need to do some weighing......I generally just use either an iron or a copper pot for the dyebath and boil the stuff up for a couple of hours then strain and bring the wool up to temperature in the dye liquor. I'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S. technology
I have photos, I'll pester one of my technical reference manuals to post them tomorrow. The colours are soft, dark greens....quite bushcrafty really
and eminently suitable for medieval clothing.
Thanks for all of the information folks...... it's a good idea......pick one fungus every so often and we all throw in our tuppences worth.
Cheers,
Toddy
