horse hoof fungus
- Thread starter grip
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two ways used in Lithuania to prepare horse hoof fungus:
1. Boil it up in ash for a few hours, then leave it in the same water for a few months to ferment. Dry it ant it's ready to go.
2. Use saltpetre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate). This speed up process very much, but involves chemicals. Use a hand full of salpetre for a 1 litre of water, put sliced (chopped) peaces of horse hoof fungus and soak it for 3 days. Take i out and dry it.
This greatly improves tinder quality, especially 2'nd method. We use saltpetre a lot in Lithuania, so no problem to get it, I don't know how about in UK. 1'st method is more traditional for flint and steel fire starting, it was still recorded during first world war, when old people hesitated to pay for matches. They were so used to light a fire with flint and steel, the "modern" match method needed some time to take over...
Said it all, I have never tried any of these methods myself, so I'll do a little experiment in a few weeks to sum it up.
1. Boil it up in ash for a few hours, then leave it in the same water for a few months to ferment. Dry it ant it's ready to go.
2. Use saltpetre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate). This speed up process very much, but involves chemicals. Use a hand full of salpetre for a 1 litre of water, put sliced (chopped) peaces of horse hoof fungus and soak it for 3 days. Take i out and dry it.
This greatly improves tinder quality, especially 2'nd method. We use saltpetre a lot in Lithuania, so no problem to get it, I don't know how about in UK. 1'st method is more traditional for flint and steel fire starting, it was still recorded during first world war, when old people hesitated to pay for matches. They were so used to light a fire with flint and steel, the "modern" match method needed some time to take over...
Said it all, I have never tried any of these methods myself, so I'll do a little experiment in a few weeks to sum it up.
