FIRE: Made with only 'Birch Fungus', 'The Sun'.. and a 'TIN CAN'!!

[WolfCrafter]

All you crazy Fire Starters... Has anyone tried this method I found on Youtube?!

Making fire with some tinder, a piece of fungus from a birch tree, the sun and a.. 'TIN CAN'!!
Link..>> Tin Can Firestarter



I don't think we have the weather for it though!

 

[Daegurth]

the can bottom needs polishing. the survival way is chocolate, but metal polish would work. he neglected to mention that, but otherwise, it's a genuine technique.

never tried it though. maybe i'll give it a shot in the summer.

 

[FerlasDave]

the can bottom needs polishing. the survival way is chocolate, but metal polish would work. he neglected to mention that, but otherwise, it's a genuine technique.

never tried it though. maybe i'll give it a shot in the summer.

Chocolate doesnt work. They tried it on mythbusters.

 

[Daegurth]

did they really? i don't remember that episode, and i've seen them all... i'm going to have to investigate now. thanks.

 

[jdlenton]

to be honest I don't rate this method many have tried it and reports vary

chocolate and tin foil as an abrasive polish huumm i cant really see how this works, Ive tried and it didn't. I also believe the fungus used by our American cousins doesn't grow in the uk.

i have however seen one of these used to good effect in the UK I have no idea where to get one in this country though.

 

[WolfCrafter]

to be honest I don't rate this method many have tried it and reports vary

chocolate and tin foil as an abrasive polish huumm i cant really see how this works, Ive tried and it didn't. I also believe the fungus used by our American cousins doesn't grow in the uk.

i have however seen one of these used to good effect in the UK I have no idea where to get one in this country though.

Now that looks better.. 'hhmm.. now where can i get one for £age?!!'

 

[jdlenton]

after a little look Uncle Ray sells em
http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Product/417-Solar-Spark-Lighter/

using these search terms: Solar Spark Lighter
a short search reveals he seams to be the cheapest!!!

I also wonder if you could make one from a shallow tourch reflector?

 

[eraaij]

Yep - and I have a picture from Kochanski somewhere to prove it

 

[jdlenton]

Yep - and I have a picture from Kochanski somewhere to prove it

What ? don't understand

have you seen Mors do this ? the polishing with chocolate and every thing? i would like to see that photos please

 

[Rebirth]

Chocolate does work but takes flippin ages to get a good enough polish.

 

[Chinkapin]

I have one of those parabolic dishes. I have had it for probably 30 years. They were originally sold as a novelty cigarette lighters. I don't smoke, but I found that if you put just about anything flammable in them, they would work just fine. Coincidentally, they work very fast.

By the way, a cigarette is pretty good tinder.

 

[Chinkapin]

JD,

As far as I am aware, Amadou is the best tinder in America and it is the same Amadou or horse's hove fungi that grows in the U.K.

I can't say what the guy in the video was using but we don't have any super-tinders that I have ever read about. Every article that I see here extols the virtues of Amadou.

 

[rancid badger]

to be honest I don't rate this method many have tried it and reports vary

chocolate and tin foil as an abrasive polish huumm i cant really see how this works, Ive tried and it didn't. I also believe the fungus used by our American cousins doesn't grow in the uk.

i have however seen one of these used to good effect in the UK I have no idea where to get one in this country though.

Woodlore:
http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Products/Fire/

cheers

R.B.

 

[Oblio13]

What all these fire-starting methods teach me is not to forget my matches.

 

[Galemys]

JD,

As far as I am aware, Amadou is the best tinder in America and it is the same Amadou or horse's hove fungi that grows in the U.K.

I can't say what the guy in the video was using but we don't have any super-tinders that I have ever read about. Every article that I see here extols the virtues of Amadou.

Chinkapin,

It´s not amadou he is using, it´s chaga, Inonotus obliquus, this only grows on birch trees, looks like a blackish burnt piece of wood and is an excellent tinder working without any treatment (except for drying) with traditional flint and steel and fire pistons.
Real ´Amadou´ is made by processing the inner layer (trama) of the horse hoof fungus Fomes fomentarius

There is some confusion about this due to the fact that both fungi are called ´tinder fungus´ so in short:

Fomes fomentarius: Horse hoof fungus, it´s also called false tinder fungus in the US

Inonotus obliquus: Chaga, also called true tinder fungus in the US (I have also come across the less formal names of sh.t fungus and bear cr.p fungus

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Chinkapin]

Galemys,

Thanks for the clarification. One last question: How do they compare, assuming that the Fomes has been "processed," correctly, and they are both dry? Is one better than the other, and is it significantly better?

 

[Galemys]

Galemys,

Thanks for the clarification. One last question: How do they compare, assuming that the Fomes has been "processed," correctly, and they are both dry? Is one better than the other, and is it significantly better?

They both perform fantastic for a natural tinder, capable of taking a spark from flint and steel and smouldering for a long time. Both are on the top of my list together with cramp balls (Daldinia concentrica, a blackish, hard fungus, according to internet these are found in the US as well but I haven't heard any American about them).

Chaga is scarcer and harder to find than horse hoof fungus, at least in England and here in the Netherlands, I don't know about North America though. As far as I know it only grows on birch. Birch trees can have a lot of blackish growth deformations that look like chaga on the outside but these are normally of a different colour on the inside and don't have the quality of taking a little spark and smouldering forever.

The burning qualities of both species depend on the specimen though, I never process my Fomes fomentarius and some of them will work straight from the tree if dry enough, some won't.

Chaga:
http://images.google.nl/images?hl=nl&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-06,GGLG:nl&q=chaga&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
It looks burnt on the outside but it's the orangy/yellow inside that you need for tinder. The best parts feel a bit spongy/corky, the harder parts need a little more persuasion to get them to smoulder (scraping these harder parts to dust works quite well).

Chaga is also sold as a herbal cancer medicine (you can make it into a kind of tea).

Hope this helps, cheers,

Tom

PS
I haven't tried polishing with a chocolate bar but toothpaste and a piece of cloth works quite well, although it takes some time. Make sure to use a can that doesn't have aluminium coating though for this will not finish to a shiny polish. I have also succeeded in using a torch reflector as a parabolic burning mirror, so yes they work

 

[Chinkapin]

Toothpaste contains diatoms, which are microscopically tiny sea creatures that have a skeleton made of silica. In places, the diatoms lived and died by the billions and all that remains are their tiny skeletons, which settled to the bottom of the sea. In time that sea bottom was uplifted and we have deposits of what is called diatomacious earth. Silica is extremely hard and will therefore polish almost anything. But, since it is so tiny, it does not leave visible scratches.

In regards to polishing the bottom of a pop can, the can would need very little polishing as it would have been very shiny when new and that part of the can is well protected. I expect that the chocolate bar is "cleaning" it from oxidation more than polishing it.

 

[dwardo]

No matter how shiney the can we are missing one key ingredient SUN!

 

[ragamuffin]

i use king alfread or a bracket fungus i found at a country park. can't remember what tree it came from. its also a knifestrop fungus.