Hi folks,
This amadou article seems to bring forth a lot of disagreement among you bushcrafters, I've even had emails from around the world disagreeing with it.
So lets revisit the first sentence of the article: "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 these out yourself as it's all about experimentation.
The article was written to try to encourage people to experiment with the material it certainly wasnt intended as a definitive set of instructions. Some people seem to look for instant results without experimenting which results in a very shallow knowledge base.I am well aware of other ways of preparing Fom. Fomentarius that will accept a relatively small and cool spark from iron pyrites and flint without the need for long processing times. In fact there is a process that will give you amadou which is on a par with the true tinder fungus, and those of you who have tried this material will know how efficient that is with the smallest of sparks.
Well done jonr, you seemed to have worked out what others couldn't. I personally don't have 24 hrs free to sit and watch a pot boil either - what a waste of time!
Over a weekend I always have a fire on the go from 6.30am to around 12.30 pm. I usually have a brew pot bubbling away all day, maybe a game stew, some hide and horn glue and on occasion, some Fomes - often all at the same time. Every so often, I spend around 30 seconds putting wood on the fire and another 30 seconds adding water to the pot, so over a period of 24 hrs I have spent more like 24 minutes making the amadou! I'm also able to teach my students and craft at the same time. I believe it's called time management, or multi-tasking!
Anyway, in my humble opinion, I find the longer the amadou boils, the more the trama layer breaks down, resulting in very fine and fluffy fibres indeed. Please dont take my word for this - experiment yourself!
This amadou article seems to bring forth a lot of disagreement among you bushcrafters, I've even had emails from around the world disagreeing with it.
So lets revisit the first sentence of the article: "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 these out yourself as it's all about experimentation.
The article was written to try to encourage people to experiment with the material it certainly wasnt intended as a definitive set of instructions. Some people seem to look for instant results without experimenting which results in a very shallow knowledge base.I am well aware of other ways of preparing Fom. Fomentarius that will accept a relatively small and cool spark from iron pyrites and flint without the need for long processing times. In fact there is a process that will give you amadou which is on a par with the true tinder fungus, and those of you who have tried this material will know how efficient that is with the smallest of sparks.
Well done jonr, you seemed to have worked out what others couldn't. I personally don't have 24 hrs free to sit and watch a pot boil either - what a waste of time!
Over a weekend I always have a fire on the go from 6.30am to around 12.30 pm. I usually have a brew pot bubbling away all day, maybe a game stew, some hide and horn glue and on occasion, some Fomes - often all at the same time. Every so often, I spend around 30 seconds putting wood on the fire and another 30 seconds adding water to the pot, so over a period of 24 hrs I have spent more like 24 minutes making the amadou! I'm also able to teach my students and craft at the same time. I believe it's called time management, or multi-tasking!
Anyway, in my humble opinion, I find the longer the amadou boils, the more the trama layer breaks down, resulting in very fine and fluffy fibres indeed. Please dont take my word for this - experiment yourself!
