Correct birch bark for fire starter?

[hughtrimble]

Good afternoon,

I recently collected some birch bark from a couple of young trees on my land, and whilst it did catch from a firesteel eventually, it took a heck of a lot of striking to get it going (I routinely light Vaseline cotton balls on the first strike), we're talking minutes of striking here.

Is it too young? Or when it's peeling itself off like this, is it perfect? Rob Evans Bushtool for scale.

Any suggestions at all would be much appreciated.

Hugh

 

[Toddy]

Did you crumple it up, make it into a nest ? maybe with dry grass or reedmace ?

M

 

[bobnewboy]

I find silver birch seems to work best, but maybe that's because its very easy to find in my area. Did you scrape the surface of the bark into a light powder before trying to spark it? Its very important to increase the surface area like that, but also because it releases the turps which is contained in the bark. That is what makes it very flammable and easy to light, but also means that it takes forever to rot away. It should work even if it isnt perfectly dry.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Janne]

You need to crumble it up, as it is the edges that catch fire best.
The birch you are using is a variety I am not familiar with. Ornamental?

 

[Toddy]

It looks like very young paper bark.
That will work, but it needs crumpled up or shredded. It's too thin really to scrape some dust together from it.
I usually mix that kind in with other tinders that catch easily (like reedmace fluff, bog cotton, fluffed mugwort, even dried grass) in a kind of teacup sized nest and spark into that. That said, if you pile up the other stuff on top of some of the paper bark sheets it'll wrap easily around your glowing bundle into a thick cigar that you can hold to blow through to make it flame

 

[Janne]

If you want a tobacco free ( healthy) spliff, maybe you can use birch bark?

I am not a user so I do not know.

 

[juliojordio1983]

You want the really thin outer layer that's dry and wispy and almost looks seethrough, this stuff takes a spark easily. Look for little wispy bits you can pull off by hand, rub a handful between your palms over a surface and the bits that fall through will light easy.

 

[hughtrimble]

Did you crumple it up, make it into a nest ? maybe with dry grass or reedmace ?

M

Crumpled up and scrunched into a nest, but no other tinder - I was trying to see how good it was solo. Definitely needed crumpling!

 

[hughtrimble]

I find silver birch seems to work best, but maybe that's because its very easy to find in my area. Did you scrape the surface of the bark into a light powder before trying to spark it? Its very important to increase the surface area like that, but also because it releases the turps which is contained in the bark. That is what makes it very flammable and easy to light, but also means that it takes forever to rot away. It should work even if it isnt perfectly dry.

Cheers, Bob

No scraping of any sort, just crumpled into a nest-like bunch. I'll have a crack at scraping it, though it is extremely thin. Thank you

 

[hughtrimble]

You need to crumble it up, as it is the edges that catch fire best.
The birch you are using is a variety I am not familiar with. Ornamental?

Silver, unless the nursery they were sourced from was fibbing.

 

[hughtrimble]

It looks like very young paper bark.
That will work, but it needs crumpled up or shredded. It's too thin really to scrape some dust together from it.
I usually mix that kind in with other tinders that catch easily (like reedmace fluff, bog cotton, fluffed mugwort, even dried grass) in a kind of teacup sized nest and spark into that. That said, if you pile up the other stuff on top of some of the paper bark sheets it'll wrap easily around your glowing bundle into a thick cigar that you can hold to blow through to make it flame

I'll have a crack at scraping, but as you say, it's incredibly thin.

 

[hughtrimble]

You want the really thin outer layer that's dry and wispy and almost looks seethrough, this stuff takes a spark easily. Look for little wispy bits you can pull off by hand, rub a handful between your palms over a surface and the bits that fall through will light easy.

Another method I'll try, thank you. These are just about as you described in terms of really thin and almost seethrough. But I'll try your 'sieve' method and see what comes of it. Cheers

 

[Lithril]

Silver Birch works well although the Silver Birch in the UK isn't a patch on that in Finland, I was amazed at the difference.

 

[Janne]

Silver, unless the nursery they were sourced from was fibbing

Does not look like any Silver Birch I have seen...

I looked it up snd it looks like Chinese Red Barked birch.

 

[hughtrimble]

Does not look like any Silver Birch I have seen...

I looked it up snd it looks like Chinese Red Barked birch.

It certainly does look like it could be that, but is it not rather hard to tell when they're this young? Silver birch saplings are often reddish in colour (if what I've seen have indeed been silver birches!).

To help ID them, they've been in place for around two years and are now maybe 10-12ft tall, and were perhaps waist height when planted.

 

[juliojordio1983]

If you find rubbing between your palms doesn't produce much except a ball of bark, try tearing or cutting it into very thin pieces, as I find the more surface area the spark has to catch, the easier it is. If you can separate the layers to single layers, especially the outer layers, even better, its the outer, thinner, drier bits that I look for. I'll collect birch bark whilst out walking, and when home ill do this over the kitchen side, and all the tiny pieces go in my tinder box. I have zero issues getting a spark to catch. Maybe its because I've stored it somewhere very dry and warm, maybe that helps by the time I come to use it, I'm not sure.

Edit to add; They do look a bit red those Hugh. Certainly differ from the young Silver Birch up here. If its peeling off, and it is a silver birch, it should be spot on....

 

[Stew]

I think comparing against cotton wool can give you a warped sense of ease / difficulty. Cotton wool being so fine, it catches with extreme ease.

Done correctly I would expect birch bark to go quickly too but at times not so instant as cotton wool - certainly not minutes!

As a comparison, have you ever tried to use a ferro rod to light paper or fine wood? Again, done correctly I wouldn't expect those to be minutes either.

Maybe try this bark lit from a match / lighter to get a feel for it with an easy ignition source?

 

[hughtrimble]

If you find rubbing between your palms doesn't produce much except a ball of bark, try tearing or cutting it into very thin pieces, as I find the more surface area the spark has to catch, the easier it is. If you can separate the layers to single layers, especially the outer layers, even better, its the outer, thinner, drier bits that I look for. I'll collect birch bark whilst out walking, and when home ill do this over the kitchen side, and all the tiny pieces go in my tinder box. I have zero issues getting a spark to catch. Maybe its because I've stored it somewhere very dry and warm, maybe that helps by the time I come to use it, I'm not sure.

Edit to add; They do look a bit red those Hugh. Certainly differ from the young Silver Birch up here. If its peeling off, and it is a silver birch, it should be spot on....

I'm off on a camp out this weekend, so I'll give it a crack. Still got a bunch with me to keep trying it as a non-manufactured source (much more satisfying!) so I'll give your suggestions a go.

It certainly does look red! Janne could very well be correct.

 

[hughtrimble]

I think comparing against cotton wool can give you a warped sense of ease / difficulty. Cotton wool being so fine, it catches with extreme ease.

Done correctly I would expect birch bark to go quickly too but at times not so instant as cotton wool - certainly not minutes!

As a comparison, have you ever tried to use a ferro rod to light paper or fine wood? Again, done correctly I wouldn't expect those to be minutes either.

Maybe try this bark lit from a match / lighter to get a feel for it with an easy ignition source?

Agreed on cotton wool (especially coated in vaseline) being a bit of an unfair marker. I typically light feathered pine sticks after just a couple of strikes, so I've been somewhat spoiled with ready catchers of the ferro's sparks.

Good point on the lighter. Off to try.

 

[Robson Valley]

Much older birch bark is multilayered. We try to separate those layers as every layer is saturated with the waxy 'suberin' and very flammable.
It's very hard to get a chunk of it up to ignition temperature. Just shredded like spaghetti isn't good enough. Like a feather stick.
You have to delaminate the stuff.