Making and using Amadou - is it worth the effort

[smojo]

I have access to a reasonable amount of horse hoof fungus. I've seen vids on how to make Amadou and it seems long-winded and faffy for the apparently small amount you get out of it. I've never used any but is it really worth the effort? Can you use it to take a spark and is it as good as char cloth or even better?

 

[dwardo]

Depending on how well it turns out its a great tinder. Burns very slow and hot.
I have done a few batches and usually give it all away. Nice to know how its done same as other bushcraft skills but if I light a fire its a bic for me and feather sticks.

 

[British Red]

I have access to a reasonable amount of horse hoof fungus. I've seen vids on how to make Amadou and it seems long-winded and faffy for the apparently small amount you get out of it. I've never used any but is it really worth the effort? Can you use it to take a spark and is it as good as char cloth or even better?

Its muwch better than charclth and useful when you have dull sparks or limited heatr. Its invaluable when using iron pyrites and flint and very good in a fire piston.

 

[Toddy]

I think it's worth the bother. Do it when the fungus is still fresh off the tree and the crispy shell comes off much more easily.
It's a no waste thing though, not just the amadou layer, because it all burns, the inner tubular structure takes and holds and burns slowly, and that means that you have time to make fire, time to carry fire, time to work.

M

 

[mountainm]

Depends on your overall aim. If it's just to light a fire then there are far simpler ways of doing it these days. If it's historical reenactment or experimentation then the fun is in the journey.

 

[Stevie777]

It's Ideal to keep these skills going, but for quick practical use, i would go with charcloth. One pair of Jeans would make you enough Charcloth to last a lifetime. Also, chaga is the perfect tinder fungus and you dont have to go through all the "Faff" that comes with amadou.

 

[Toddy]

Different things though, and very different properties.

Charcloth burns through really quickly, and so does chaga. Fomes though; it catches from cool sparks, and the main fungus burns slow.

M

 

[mountainm]

For quick and practical I would go for cotton wool and vaseline, or a squeeze of Meths on some cotton wool.

 

[forrestdweller]

if i remember correctly "OETZI"" used this stuff... ?!

 

[Stevie777]

For quick and practical I would go for cotton wool and vaseline,.

That's what i use. one spark and you have fire. surely that's all it's about.

 

[mountainm]

That's what i use. one spark and you have fire. surely that's all it's about.

If a fire is your only goal. But people don't climb mountains because they need to be at the top of them. Like I said before. Sometimes the journey is more fun.

 

[British Red]

That's what i use. one spark and you have fire. surely that's all it's about.

Why not just take a bottle of petrol and be done?

For some using things found in the woods, improving our knowledge, knowing more, buying less is what its all about. Cotton wool and Vaseline is fine, but its a bought product, like a pack of firelighters. Fine if that's what you want, but hardly "what its all about"

 

[mountainm]

Why not just take a bottle of petrol and be done?

For some using things found in the woods, improving our knowledge, knowing more, buying less is what its all about. Cotton wool and Vaseline is fine, but its a bought product, like a pack of firelighters. Fine if that's what you want, but hardly "what its all about"

That largely depends on if you also use salt petre.

 

[British Red]

Agreed, and if you do whether you have a nitre bed.

 

[Zingmo]

My experience was that amadou is a real pain to make.

That is evidence that when it was commonly used, woven cloth must have been considered too valuable to char into tinder.

Z

 

[bambodoggy]

I found it really easy to make and process and that it works really well. I hardly ever use it as I have a lighter but I'm glad I've made it and if practicing the old ways it's a cracking tinder....one of the best I think and really not that hard to make......unless you make it hard as some I've read about do lol

 

[Toddy]

I was 'demonstrating' bronze age fire technology…it's fun, I get very well paid to play and I explained about the amadou…and this big burly fellow with a plummy voice, all dressed in the required 'bushcraft' uniform, roundly told me off in public. "It was not a simple process !! it took three days boiling in stale urine to make a decent amadou"…:roll eyes:
He didn't even recognise that the wee piece I had sitting glowing away quietly to itself in a split stick poked in the ground, was part of the same fungus
He didn't accept that the stuff that came out of my dyebath could be gently teased open into a chamois like layer of wonderful textured amadou that would take a cool spark never mind a hot one.
He'd heard one way of how to make it and that was the be all and end all of it.

So, I politely told him, and the audience that was standing bemused around us, that he was not only mistaken but he was rather limited in his outlook. If you can only do something one way you're in a rut. We're here because our ancestors didn't get stuck in ruts, but competently kept learning
But hey ? what do I know, I'm just a little middle aged housewife

Mary

 

[dwardo]

I was 'demonstrating' bronze age fire technology…it's fun, I get very well paid to play and I explained about the amadou…and this big burly fellow with a plummy voice, all dressed in the required 'bushcraft' uniform, roundly told me off in public. "It was not a simple process !! it took three days boiling in stale urine to make a decent amadou"…:roll eyes:
He didn't even recognise that the wee piece I had sitting glowing away quietly to itself in a split stick poked in the ground, was part of the same fungus
He didn't accept that the stuff that came out of my dyebath could be gently teased open into a chamois like layer of wonderful textured amadou that would take a cool spark never mind a hot one.
He'd heard one way of how to make it and that was the be all and end all of it.

So, I politely told him, and the audience that was standing bemused around us, that he was not only mistaken but he was rather limited in his outlook. If you can only do something one way you're in a rut. We're here because our ancestors didn't get stuck in ruts, but competently kept learning
But hey ? what do I know, I'm just a little middle aged housewife

Mary

Never tried the boiling it in urine and ash for several days thing, the urine being from a Welsh dragon and only boiling on a full moon for several more days.
Has worked fine either sliced finely and dried or boiled in ash to make it a little more pliable.

I tend to find I use the more natural and nice ways to make fire in summer where as at this time of year I need warming and a bruu!

 

[British Red]

Its amazing how certain people can be about stuff they have read about or watched on a YouTube video isn't it .

He'll tell you next that a swan can break a mans arm

 

[mountainm]

Dogmatic adherence to hearsay. The human brain is hardwired to stubbonly defend the unproven fact on the basis of faith in its origin and disbelief that it could have been duped into believing anything false. Putting itself and it's owner into the tricky position of arguing the absurd with a vehemence and passion worthy of the most devout and zealous fundamentalist.