Fomes Fomentarius Tinder Production

[PatrickM]

There are a few ways of manufacturing tinder (amadou) from the Fomes Fomentarius this is but one. Many would-be alchemists will add in all sorts of things, urine, saltpetre etc try this yourself as it's all about experimentation.



You will find this hoof fungi growing on birch.

Once gathered you need to strip out the layer between the outer case and the woody pores, the remains can be added to the fire so as not to waste it.

Add in some hardwood ash and boil up for around 24 hours on the camp fire. You then can get on with other projects.

This is what you will end up with.

Place on log and flatten with wooden baton.

Flattened out trama layer.

It will then resemble slithers of jerky beef. Leave to dry.

Once dry it resembles chamois leather.

Fluff up surface with flint.

Strike with steel in a downward direction with the tinder on top of the flint.

You now have a smouldering ember for the production of fire.

 

[outdoorcode]

great tutorial, with good pics too. I might give this a try as I have some Fomes to play with.

 

[Doc]

Excellent, Patrick, and thank you. That is exactly what was needed.

 

[lardbloke]

Fantastic set of piccz and a great help all round,
many thanks my frieind, I shall go and set forth my attempt.......

 

[jdlenton]

he's gone and done it again another great post , nice tutorial Patrick thank you

James

 

[BorderReiver]

Wonderful stuff.Thankyou.

 

[happy camper]

great post
just wanted to clarify...do you keep it on the boil for 24 hrs?
also, where did you get your flint and steel? the only flint i've managed to find in scotland, so far, are tiny bits in gravel driveways.

 

[Stuart]

nicley done Patrick

 

[spamel]

Now, you see, I tried this before, but I didn't put wood ash into the water. How much do you put in? The stuff I made will not take a spark from a flint and steel, but the fire stick gets it going.

I've seen loads of FF around here aswell, so I may go and collect one or two specimens for my next trip out.

Cheers for the tutorial!

 

[Fire Starter]

Patrick thanks, thats great....I'll be giving this a try!

 

[JoshG]

Fantastic stuff.

 

[rich59]

Would charring it work as well? Would be a lot quicker.

 

[rich59]

Recently checked out a shelf fungus growing on a poplar. Looked a bit like this one.

http://images.google.com/images?q=t.../AdobeWebGallery/images/ShelfFungus1-1551.jpg

Between the upper dry surface and the vertical pores underneath was a layer of firm material. When I stripped it out and bashed it a bit it became rather like felt. Seemed to me that it was rather like the layer in fomes fomentarius. It would also keep a smoulder going and would light directly from a ferro rod spark.

Is this layer common to all shelf fungi that are polypores? Can you make amadou from others as well as fomes?

 

[bilko]

What a great tutorial.
I have tried this from one of my ray mears books but unfortunately i failed miserably. The problem was being able to get through the hard outer shell. Also i was under the impression that i needed to get the middle layer out whole. I nearly chipped my knife on the shell and even a small claw hammer just made small indentation even with frustrated death blows .

Could you tell me the best time of year to collect the fungus and the best tool ( you found ) for extraction of the middle layer please?

Can't wait to see your collected works

Best
ian

 

[Marts]

Hi Bilko.
The big FF are a bugger to get separated. The last one I opened up I used a combination of knife, laplander and a judiciously applied SFA. It took about an hour to strip out a 9-inch diameter fungus.

 

[Toddy]

Don't laugh, this works. I use these fungi quite often for dye so I cut up lots of them. Use a potato peeler to remove the *crisp* outer skin, and then a small sharp knife to pick out the grooves. The inner core removes easiest if you slice it finely from the edge that was attached to the tree. These thin slices catch and hold an ember really well too. When you have taken out most of the centre the fungi will spread out almost flat to let you slice off the rest of the fibrous grain-like inner material. This will eventually leave you the inner layer, the stuff that's used as amadou. If you find really young F.f. the centre is soft and works as amadou just as it is.

Basically, take thin slices, don't try to break it up by main force.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[bilko]

Thanks Marts and Toddy.
I seem to remember reading about the potatoe peeler somewhere else.
Next time i'm in Knole park i'll get some more fungus i think.

 

[Fenlander]

"Add in some hardwood ash and boil up for around 24 hours on the camp fire. You then can get on with other projects."

I've just been processing some fomes fomentarius, and although not very traditional....I used my slow cooker for the above process. It has worked incredibly well So if you don't have 24 hours to spare boiling it up over a camp fire, give it a try

 

[Toddy]

"Add in some hardwood ash and boil up for around 24 hours on the camp fire. You then can get on with other projects."

I've just been processing some fomes fomentarius, and although not very traditional....I used my slow cooker for the above process. It has worked incredibly well So if you don't have 24 hours to spare boiling it up over a camp fire, give it a try

Excellent: I've been swithering about using the pressure cooker to speed up the dye extraction, I hadn't considered the results on the amadou

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Laurence Dell]

Thanks Marts and Toddy.
I seem to remember reading about the potatoe peeler somewhere else.
Next time i'm in Knole park i'll get some more fungus i think.

I was in Knole Park today deadwoding oak trees for the NT great site just a shame the high visitor numbers spoil it a bit. The Fallow deer are so tame they come right upto you and they didn't even run very far when we started up chainsaws.

I have got half of a very large Fomes to turn into Amadou when I get round to it, sounds like it is going to be a bit of a task.