Birch Polypore / Razor Strop Fungus

[Toadflax]

I found a lovely birch polypore yesterday, I'd guess 7-8" across its widest part. It was on a dead birch that must have been blown down in the recent winds, and was pointing up towards the sky - it had obviously been growing in the 'normal' position on the trunk when the tree was upright.

I've gone through a lot of the previous postings on this fungus, regarding making it into a strop but none of them appear to have any pictures of how it should be cut. These aren't pictures of my fungus, but for a strop would you cut out a section like the first blue rectangle (i.e. a horizontal section of the fungus), then take off the upper brown layer and the pore layer at the bottom, or would you take out a slice like the blue rectangle in the second picture (i.e. a vertical section of the fungus)? I think you then dry it and stick it onto a board (rather than sticking it onto a board then drying it).

Also, if you were going to make a natural micropore plaster, I'm guessing that you'd take out a horizontal slice from the pore layer. Or I think I may have seen some people say that you use the upper brown layer as a plaster.

I've also read mixed reports about its effectiveness as a tinder. Given that it grows on birch, there is likely to be an almost unlimited supply of birch bark tinder in the area where it is found.

Any thoughts?


Geoff

 

[spamel]

Slice it fine and dry it and you will get a slow match. The smoke acts like a good smudge to keep insects at bay. For use as a plaster, you are right, use the underside which is like micropore. For a razor, again you are correct. Cut out a rectangle and dry it on the radiator. Cut the top as flat as you can so that you have a nice flat piece for stropping on. You can glue it to a board if you like, but when it is dry it is quite hard, so it's not necessary. If you want an ultra flat surface, once it is dried you can use a coarse file on it and it leaves a fine dust which burns very hot.

 

[John Fenna]

I use polypore tinder an awful lot.
The main reason is because it is so effective, other realy good reasons are 1/ it can live in my tinder kit without degrading, is a renewable resource (I have harvested BPF from the same fallen branch of birch for 3 years now - cant do that with bark!) and where I live there are few good birch trees to get bark from.
Cut thin and2/ wrapped around your char ember then blown up BPF burns hot and long and will light your kindling/feathersticks easily.
As a strop I use a cut end of my current tinder cutting section - sliced in the only way you have not shown!
As a dressing the flesh absorbs liquids very well.

 

[spamel]

The absorption of liquids can be a bad thing though! A quick story, but the guy I used to hit the woods with in Germany once had to rely on BP as a bandaid. We had got out and sat down, I started to use an ember to char a spoon just to get a feel of how much effort is involved. jamie asked to use my spoon knife as he wanted to carve, and it was only then that I realised I had left my FAK at home. I asked if he had his and he had forgotten his as well! We should have decided there and then to not use sharps, but I said to him to be very careful and let him crack on. In less than 30 seconds, he had gouged a large chunk of his hand out, the flesh from the heel of his hand by his wrist.

The blood was flowing, the car was parked about a mile away and we had wandered through the woods. There was a track back to the car that would have took fivteen to twenty minutes at a leisurely pace and a fifteen minute drive to the military medical centre, but Jamie was adamant that this was not gonna spoil our trip and asked me to patch him up with whatever I could. I knew about BP as a bandaid and we used that. It was bound into place with some twisted grass into a string. It staunched the flow of blood and if there was some willow about I'd have given him a bit of bark to chew on a pain relief. As it was he had to grin and bear it!

When we finished our trip, he decided to go to the med centre to get it checked out. The medics had no idea what the fungus was and wanted to remove it. By now, it had formed part of the scab protection, blood had been soaked into the pores and scabbed up so it was a pretty good piece of protection for a cut IMO. The medics wanteed it off though, and after gently teasing it, they decided to rip it off. Jamie is a bit of a big bloke and no wimp, but he said he felt as sick as a dog and nearly fainted at the intense pain as they tried to rip the fungus bandaid off of his hand. They didn't think to soak it first!

 

[Toadflax]

As a strop I use a cut end of my current tinder cutting section - sliced in the only way you have not shown!

I presume that you mean like picture 2, but slicing in from the right hand side of the picture towards the tree trunk (i.e. slicing in the plane of the computer screen ).

Useful to know about the tinder, because there are obviously going to be some offcuts after making a strop. I'm also assuming that for medical purposes, you need fresh fungus (i.e. not dried).


Geoff

 

[John Fenna]

Ay thats the plane I cut in!
Dried BPF absorbs liquids like a sponge!

 

[JonnyP]

Good advice there guys....
Just to show people what is meant by using the polypore as a plaster.....
Use the underside and make shallow cuts with a sharp knife to the size of plaster needed. Next, peel away the outer layer...

Then place as a plaster straight over the wound... It sort of sticks itself, but will need some sort of binding to hold in place like the grass that Spamel mentioned...

 

[Mirius]

Well that would go a long way to explaining why it didn't work very well when I tried to use the top instead of the bottom! Thanks Jon!

 

[JonnyP]

Well that would go a long way to explaining why it didn't work very well when I tried to use the top instead of the bottom! Thanks Jon!

Lol.....

 

[Toadflax]

Good advice there guys....
Just to show people what is meant by using the polypore as a plaster.....

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Thank you, Jon.


Geoff

 

[Toadflax]

I use polypore tinder an awful lot.
The main reason is because it is so effective, other realy good reasons are 1/ it can live in my tinder kit without degrading, is a renewable resource (I have harvested BPF from the same fallen branch of birch for 3 years now - cant do that with bark!) and where I live there are few good birch trees to get bark from.
Cut thin and2/ wrapped around your char ember then blown up BPF burns hot and long and will light your kindling/feathersticks easily.

I made a strop, and cut the spare fungus into what seemed fairly thin strips and left them drying in the greenhouse to use as tinder...

...but when I tried burning them yesterday, they didn't go terribly well. Smouldered for a few minutes, but just faded away. I'd thought that it would work a bit like cramp balls - glowing but not burning, but maybe I'm wrong. I just tried lighting a piece from a lighter, it burned, but when I blew the flame out and tried to re-ignite it by blowing on the glowing but, it just went out...

...so can someone please tell me how it should be used?

Thanks.


Geoff

 

[rancid badger]

I made a strop, and cut the spare fungus into what seemed fairly thin strips and left them drying in the greenhouse to use as tinder...

...but when I tried burning them yesterday, they didn't go terribly well. Smouldered for a few minutes, but just faded away. I'd thought that it would work a bit like cramp balls - glowing but not burning, but maybe I'm wrong. I just tried lighting a piece from a lighter, it burned, but when I blew the flame out and tried to re-ignite it by blowing on the glowing but, it just went out...

...so can someone please tell me how it should be used?

Thanks.


Geoff

I use it cut into 10mm "chips" then shoved into the end of a cleft stick, lit, blown out and allowed to smoulder. Makes a really good insect smudge if I'm working outdoors but not moving around much. I imagine your polypore has simply absorbed a bit of moisture from the atmosphere in the green house.

A different problem I had, was small beetles-about 3-4mm long actually living in the body of the fungus, tunneling around. I had a couple of large polypore hanging in the garage for about two years-bone dry-went to slice them up for this weekends tenderfoot day, and found they both just turned to dust and a thin "skeleton". I have often found tiny maggots in them and I suppose that these beetles are the grown ups.

I normally dry mine out, then store them in a plastic bag.

Cheers
R.B.

 

[John Fenna]

I slice mine as thin as I can and use it as tinder.
Held close to or wrapped around a bit of glowing charcloth I find it blows up to flame quite easily.
Mine is not treated in any way save having it in my workroom for a while....
I also use it as a strop now and then - slicing it thin sure takes the edge of your blade...the opposite of stropping I guess!

 

[Toadflax]

Thanks - I'll bring it into the house for a bit to make sure it's really dry and then see how it burns. Interesting tip about it blunting the knife when cutting - I certainly found it pretty difficult to cut - then again it was a week or two off the tree so may have started to dry out. Maybe it would have been easier to cut straight after 'harvesting'.


Geoff

 

[combatblade1]

The . The medics wanteed it off though, and after gently teasing it, they decided to rip it off. ]

Bit of a stupid thing to do they could have caused bigger problems.

 

[Mang]

Slice it fine and dry it and you will get a slow match.

Didn't they get used to be made into fuses when treated with salt petré?

 

[bushcraftbob]

Ive also had problems lighting my BPF. I have cut mine in to 8-10 mm thin strips and dried it. It will light if held over the flame of a lighter for about 10 seconds, but takes some persuading! But once lit it does smoulder well and would imagine it would keep the midges away quite effectively.

I will try and slice it very thinly as described by John Fenna and see if I get any joy with that.

Perhaps roughing it up a bit may make it ignite easier?

 

[Big Geordie]

Thanks to this thread I got the urge to collect a real beaut yesterday, about the size of a dinner plate 8 inches across. I sliced it thinly like slices of bacon and sat it on newspaper to dry out in the conservatory.Interestingly I also found it a little tough to cut at first so I switched to a ceramic kitchen knife. That made it much easier.

I have had a look at it this morning, and its still soaking wet. Thank goodness theres no sign of bugs yet or Mrs BG will be less amused.. At this rate I think it might take a week to dry out naturally. Is it best to let it take its time, or should I put a hair dryer on it? The problem is I can't wait to play with it. Mebbe I should dry a little specimen and see how that compares? I intend to rough it up like John suggests, but I'm not sure I could boil it up at home for amadou. How easy is that to do?

George

 

[rrch88]

Has anyone ever eaten it? I found a haven for them today and I read in a book on medicinal mushrooms that theyre quite tasty at a young age, if a little bitter.
Anyone?

 

[alanssaab]

hi , i went for a stroll this morning and got a nice size birch polypore and a monster hoof fungus in the birch woods nearby also stocked up on birch bark for tinder