Please identify
- Thread starter Sundowner
- Start date
Definitely birch polypore,very useful fungus can be used for fire lighting as a strop for your knife and as a plaster incase you cut yourself,and many more uses.
It's not really a tea type fungus (despite the sudden rash of folks advising it; it's no chaga, iimmc)
You 'can' chew a bit of it to kill hunger or to ease a sore throat, but it's not something done for the pleasure. It can be used as a laxative and historically it helped eliminate worms.
It's a blooming good elastoplast, and it's a really good knife strop though
Extends a coal well too.
If you do dry it be careful, it's usually eaten hollow by insects in short order.
M
You 'can' chew a bit of it to kill hunger or to ease a sore throat, but it's not something done for the pleasure. It can be used as a laxative and historically it helped eliminate worms.
It's a blooming good elastoplast, and it's a really good knife strop though
Extends a coal well too.
If you do dry it be careful, it's usually eaten hollow by insects in short order.
M
rancid badger
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Yep Birch polypore, useless for anything edible and stink when you dry them out but great once dried for firelighting, certain aspects of leatherworking and used as a strop material for sharpening.
I often use them whole or halved after drying as improvised "mosquito coils", just light up a corner, get an ember going and it'll burn for ages depending on size. Smells better than shop bought coils and probably just as effective
I often use them whole or halved after drying as improvised "mosquito coils", just light up a corner, get an ember going and it'll burn for ages depending on size. Smells better than shop bought coils and probably just as effective
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You're welcome
Cross posted with Rancid Badger….who's ideas are sound and I'm going to nick
While it's fresh, you could try doing the elastoplast thing with a strip of it. It lets you see just how to remove the strip cleanly and it'll let you see how well it actually wraps and binds around a finger.
Since you'll have cut into one anyway then, try chewing a wee bit, about the size of an almond will be enough for you to see what it tastes like, etc., and oughtn't do you any harm.
That same fungus will give you thin slices to dry (try to put them under something that'll dry them flat so that you can strop agin it more easily later) and you could try lighting a bit and seeing just how long it holds.
It's one of those that if you're trying to light a fire, and it's not the best of weather, or you're practicing, that you can get it alight from your ember/coal before you start trying to blow the rest up into flame. If it doesn't succeed, you'll still have a glowing ember (put the lit slice into a bit of cleft stick just shoved into the ground, that'll let the air keep it alive) to have another shot. A slice is pretty stable and handy under a hearth board for collecting the 'coal' from a firebow.
It's not generally a rare fungus, so it's a pretty good one to practice things like that with cubs and scouts.
M
Cross posted with Rancid Badger….who's ideas are sound and I'm going to nick
While it's fresh, you could try doing the elastoplast thing with a strip of it. It lets you see just how to remove the strip cleanly and it'll let you see how well it actually wraps and binds around a finger.
Since you'll have cut into one anyway then, try chewing a wee bit, about the size of an almond will be enough for you to see what it tastes like, etc., and oughtn't do you any harm.
That same fungus will give you thin slices to dry (try to put them under something that'll dry them flat so that you can strop agin it more easily later) and you could try lighting a bit and seeing just how long it holds.
It's one of those that if you're trying to light a fire, and it's not the best of weather, or you're practicing, that you can get it alight from your ember/coal before you start trying to blow the rest up into flame. If it doesn't succeed, you'll still have a glowing ember (put the lit slice into a bit of cleft stick just shoved into the ground, that'll let the air keep it alive) to have another shot. A slice is pretty stable and handy under a hearth board for collecting the 'coal' from a firebow.
It's not generally a rare fungus, so it's a pretty good one to practice things like that with cubs and scouts.
M
Too late ��. Just made a bucket of tea. Letting it cool till the man with the honey comes past ���� But thanks again.....off tomorrow looking for chaga. Fancy it Steve? ��
From what I have read about using it for tea the idea appears to be that you have to keep boiling/simmering it especially when using dry unlike a normal tea where you let it stew.
Making a strop I like to use the whole fungi cut into a block rather than cutting strips that then need to be stuck to a board. I tend to keep one at home one in the van and another at work. The block fits nicely in the palm.
As a plaster it's best to use earlier on in the season when the pore tube layer is thinner, later in the season it gets quite thick and loses it's self adhesive feature plus it's not as pliable. Works really well and cleans the cut nicely to boot.
Making a strop I like to use the whole fungi cut into a block rather than cutting strips that then need to be stuck to a board. I tend to keep one at home one in the van and another at work. The block fits nicely in the palm.
As a plaster it's best to use earlier on in the season when the pore tube layer is thinner, later in the season it gets quite thick and loses it's self adhesive feature plus it's not as pliable. Works really well and cleans the cut nicely to boot.
Nice idea on the block though I admit I don't stick the strips to anything, I just made sure I dried them flat.
I haven't found a problem with loss of adhesiveness, but then, it's so wet here that they're always damp and always available.
Lanarkshire is sodden wet
M
though I admit I don't stick the strips to anything, I just made sure I dried them flat.I haven't found a problem with loss of adhesiveness, but then, it's so wet here that they're always damp and always available.
Lanarkshire is sodden wet
M
