Any successes with a fungus friction fire ?

[eddieb]

Hi all,
I'm wondering if any of you have had a successful friction fire using fungus and which fungus?
I have zero chaga fungus near me to try the friction fire where you rub it along a blade of dry wood but I wanted to know if anyone has tried this method with another fungus in the field straight from the bush?

 

[crosslandkelly]

I've only used cramp balls with a flint and steel to get an ember, but I had to dry them out before I used them. I would think any fungus would be too moist to use as you describe, without first being dried out. Horseshoe fungus should be fairly common in your area, and is quite flammable. Also look at Birch bark dust.

 

[Toddy]

Fomes fomentaria makes the most beautiful spark catch 'cloth', but even the pieces of shell can work well.

If you take off the hard shell (do it fresh, it's blooming hard work once it's dried) leave some of the corky liner on a biggish piece, and use that as your hearth.
I've gotten a good ember from a fresh one, still damp, just off the tree, using that method. It doesn't quite give a dusty coal, but it gives a real hot bit of an ember that you can pack with stuff like mugwort and scraped birch bark, thistledown, etc., and blow up into a flame.

The birch fungus, it was piptoporus betulina, but I think the name has been changed.....it comes off the tree very wet, makes a great elastoplast if you peel the surface....but if you dry slices of it, then it 'can' be used as a hearth. Hard going I found, but I did get an ember/ hot patch enough to blow into flame with tinder.

 

[Limaed]

Yes - I’ve successfully hand drilled into a piece of Chaga. It takes couple of days to build up the muscle memory and so you don’t trash your hands. It’s the only thing I’ve successfully used for hand drill.