Amadou

[antzy]

Anyone tried this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomes_fomentarius

 

[Celt_Ginger]

Yes. It makes very good tinder. there lots of ways of preparing it, from simply cutting it into slices right up to boiling it in ash for 24 hours etc etc etc. I've not tried all of the many methods of preparation so i can't comment on them all. Try a few methods and see how you get on.

 

[iamasmith]

Still looking for it, got some Artists Fungus but let it dry out too much before finding out how to prepare it (needs a lot of boiling with wood ash when prepared).. love to find some.

 

[antzy]

found one the other day - I'll dry it out and give it a go - dryish already, I fancy the cutting into strips and beating flat

 

[Toddy]

Get the hard shiny skin off it while it's still damp.
It's a pain in the neck to do when it's dry.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Zingmo]

I have a few of these in the garage at the moment. I have been trying to peel one. This thread has a good description of the process. I have found one trick that seems to help and that was to smash the hard outer shell before trying to peel it off. Danny was good enough to send some of his finished amadou and I can vouch for it being fanatstic tinder. Every time I have tried it the first spark catches and then the ember grows.

Definitely worth giving it a try.

Z

 

[Andy T]

been lucky ive just found alot of this on a stump in my father in laws garden

 

[Toddy]

Lucky man
If you just take what you need just now, and persuade the rest of the family to leave the rest alone, they might well get bigger yet

Seriously, the biggest one I've had to cut up was over a foot wide and deep.
It's still getting used and it's been being used for over two years now. Brilliant

cheers,
Toddy