On a recent day trip I came across a nice specimen of horses hoof fungus. (Formes something something....) I took it home and decided to have a crack at making amadou, with the idea of seeing firstly if I could do it, and secondly so if I did manage to make it, then I will carry it when I'm out.
I cut the hard outer skin off while I was still in the forest, so I did not get a picture of it. But here it is on my kitchen work top, ready for the boiling water....
After doing a fair bit of research into making amadou, there appears to be two chains of thought. It's either A: a laborious time consuming event, which requires considerable constant observation, along with many changes of water, mixing in wood ash etc, OR: you can just chuck it in the pan and boil it to death before processing. Needless to say, I went for option two. Always the optimist me.......
Here it is, in the pan, bubbling away.
I sought other distractions for an hour or so. My wife will be pleased to know that I managed to clean the kitchen, empty the dishwasher and fill it again AND consume four digestives and a cup of tea....
Suitably refreshed, I pulled the steaming fungus from the pan after oh I don't know, an hour and twenty minutes? I let it cool for half an hour, then I took it outside to the wood block and bashed it for a few minutes, until it looked like this.
Not pretty eh? So I hung it on a hook to dry, returning every now and then to stretch it out and tease out the fibres. Over night it dried and remained subtle, except for a few spots where I hadn't cleaned off the spores completely. The next day I took it into garage to fluff it up and give it a go on my flint and steel. I used the faithful woodlore to scrape up a little bundle of fluff.
I out it on the flint and got cracking. It took bloody ages to take a spark. I think, having read more on the subject, that this is because the fluff needs to be micro-charred before it takes properly? Either way, after a good while flashing those little sparks it took.
Success!
So now I will carry my new amadou and it will be my primary tinder from now on. No need for char cloth. If I find horses hood fungus I will collect it and turn it into amadou, only now I will do it on the trail. But that's for next time....
Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
I cut the hard outer skin off while I was still in the forest, so I did not get a picture of it. But here it is on my kitchen work top, ready for the boiling water....
After doing a fair bit of research into making amadou, there appears to be two chains of thought. It's either A: a laborious time consuming event, which requires considerable constant observation, along with many changes of water, mixing in wood ash etc, OR: you can just chuck it in the pan and boil it to death before processing. Needless to say, I went for option two. Always the optimist me.......
Here it is, in the pan, bubbling away.
I sought other distractions for an hour or so. My wife will be pleased to know that I managed to clean the kitchen, empty the dishwasher and fill it again AND consume four digestives and a cup of tea....
Suitably refreshed, I pulled the steaming fungus from the pan after oh I don't know, an hour and twenty minutes? I let it cool for half an hour, then I took it outside to the wood block and bashed it for a few minutes, until it looked like this.
Not pretty eh? So I hung it on a hook to dry, returning every now and then to stretch it out and tease out the fibres. Over night it dried and remained subtle, except for a few spots where I hadn't cleaned off the spores completely. The next day I took it into garage to fluff it up and give it a go on my flint and steel. I used the faithful woodlore to scrape up a little bundle of fluff.
I out it on the flint and got cracking. It took bloody ages to take a spark. I think, having read more on the subject, that this is because the fluff needs to be micro-charred before it takes properly? Either way, after a good while flashing those little sparks it took.
Success!
So now I will carry my new amadou and it will be my primary tinder from now on. No need for char cloth. If I find horses hood fungus I will collect it and turn it into amadou, only now I will do it on the trail. But that's for next time....
Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
