Fatwood and birch bark in the old days

[Suffolkrafter]

Most people here will be familiar with the use of fatwood or birch bark as great natural tinders for use with modern day ferro rods or matches.
But thinking back to the days of flint and steel, and further back to the days of friction fire, how much value would birch bark and fatwood have had in fire lighting? Historically, would these have been the valuable fire lighting resource that we consider them to be these days?
I ask because when I limit myself to flint and steel for example, I end up valuing clematis and honeysuckle, horses hoof etc., and birch bark loses its importance.
Would be nice to get insight from the you all.

 

[Broch]

Scraped/powdered birch bark will take a small spark - it depends on whether you're using a spark up or down technique I suppose - but my flint and steel lighting has never been brilliant

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Didn't think it would take a spark. It would have to be a very fine powder I'd have thought. I'll have to try. My flint and steel technique involves safety specs, many fragments of flint, possible blood, and if I'm lucky, a spark. I get there in the end though. A work in progress as always.

 

[TLM]

I sometimes have collected the very thin exfoliating layers from birch bark and used them for tinder, they'll catch Misch metal sparks very well.

 

[Robson Valley]

I live in the circumpolar Taiga.
Interior Cedar Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone to be precise.

We have lots of "paper birch" which has great bark working characteristics.
However, it is not the first choice for starting spark fires. Maybe secondary.

First choice are the highly resinous little dead twigs of spruce and pine.
The ones in closest to the mainstem of the tree will certainly be the driest.
Bull your way into a very dense forest patch will be the driest you will find.

Beat a handful to fine fiber with a rock against another rock. That's tinder.
We have lots of rock. Work on a flat piece.

 

[Kadushu]

Depends who, when and where in history. Anyone with access to gunpowder, or ingredients thereof, may have preferred that for a quick fire. Straw, chaff and hay would've been pretty ubiquitous. I expect saving charred material from fires, or "firedogs", was common practice.

 

[Erbswurst]

Fatwood always was the candle of most people, or the torch, it just recently came out of use. Charred punk wood and tinder fungus was the tinder. Ötzi used pyrite and flint, later they used iron strikers and flint.
In my experience also the thin dry twigs one can find at coniferes are a better kindling than European birch bark.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

I love the idea of grinding spruce twigs between rocks. I'd never have thought of that. I will try it with fatwood shavings, see if I can get a fine enough powder to take a spark from flint and steel.
Gunpowder is an interesting one. It actually reminds me of a scene in the film the Revenant, in which a fire is lit with flint and steel and gun powder, as I recall.

 

[bobnewboy]

Don’t overlook charcloth when used with flint and steel. It takes a very mediocre spark and transforms it into a very hot ember to start your fire bundle off. Charcloth is easy enough to make and compact and easy to transport - just keep it dry.

 

[Robson Valley]

Suffolkrafter: The issue is the surface area to volume ratio. You're trying to raise a piece of flammable material to the ignition point so the more finely divided the better (char cloth carbon fiber). Plus, those conifer twigs are loaded with flammable hydrocarbon resins.

I think that bashing up fatwood to a fibrous powder is a really good experiment.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Don’t overlook charcloth when used with flint and steel

Definitely. I went through a phase of making charcloth, and now have more than I will ever need.

I think that bashing up fatwood to a fibrous powder is a really good experiment

I will let you know how it goes

 

[Kav]

Our Great Plains had plenty of wood for fire- and 'buffalo chips' from the great herds was collected for fuel. I've burned the rare brick of peat from Ireland sent over. With a little forethought it's hard NOT to find good materials.

 

[Robson Valley]

Kav: if you were 50 miles S of Bismarck, North Dakota in 1843, what is your choice of fire tinder?

 

[Tor helge]

They was as important in the old days as now (at least here).
You have to transfer the flame (made by your flint and steel) to something. And birch bark and fat wood is very flammable.
Fomes Fomentarius (tinderfungus) was mostly used to catch the spark, and was also an export article.
Tinder nest was usually made of linen, hemp or grass. Something people had at hand.
Written descriptions of the use of flint and steel in Norway is scarce.
But to borrow fire is mentioned a lot.
It was a lot easier to go next door and get a glowing piece of coal than to fumble with the flint and steel.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Punk wood was probably more important for taking a spark, but perhaps birch bark was used as part of a birds nest or early stages kindling. It obviously has great burning characteristics so I can't imagine it was ignored, but some places just don't produce good birch bark, like the South shore of etive, its rotten before its grown up there

 

[Toddy]

Any dry plant material that rubs into fibres works well, and birch bark is an excellent 'holder' of such material.
From nettle to flax, bog cotton to bedstraw, hemp and fireweed, to the leaves like mugwort, and cattail heads, they'll all work well. Dry bog myrtle, gorse, broom and heather will all catch too.
Scraped birch bark and fomes are kind of traditional, and we know of them because they have proven themselves reliable in our northern climes. Pretty easily found too at least around where I live.

That matters, what is available near where you live ?

I've posted my tinder bundles before, but honestly they really do show just what kind of variety is available and what kind of variety works well. Birch bark is an excellent material not just to catch a spark, but to make a kind of tube to blow that spark up into flame and let you hold it all safely while you do so It doesn't need to be good bark either, the fire's not going to mind if it's dry and splitting.

Tinder bundles

We've had a few threads recently on tinder, and I mentioned in one that I make tinder bundles from the assortment of 'stuff' that I find, forage or have lying around. I've worked the past two weekends demonstrating both natural dyes and firelighting, with a bronze and iron age basis. I cleared...

bushcraftuk.com

 

[Robson Valley]

You would like my front yard. Three 50' bushy spruce trees maybe 16" at the butts. There's lots of different sized rocks to pick from for a hammer and anvil.
Rip off a handful of the driest dead old twigs in near the core trunks of the trees.
A few at a time, bash them into fine fiber. The resins smell good.
Using as many methods as you like, start fires with the tinder.
We won't need a bigger cooking fire, that's not the point.
Sit on the ground and have a beer and ponder what you learned.

 

[Robson Valley]

Bother! With daytime highs of 116F and less, The powers that be have banned campfires until October. All fires any bigger than 50 x 50cm were banned weeks ago, as well. I guess we fool with this later.