two fungi for the price of one

[Tadpole]

I’ve a question for the ‘knower’s of trees’ on here. Local to me I’ve found a tree stump that is soon to be ripped out by builders, who are building a new housing estate on what used to be the site of a few dozen post war Prefabs. The stump is old as the tree was felled 10 years or more ago. Imagine if you can a tree stump where there had been in the past two branches growing out of one low stump. On one branch of the stump, is (was) growing 20 plus cramp ball fungi, and the other stump, some kind of dark bracket fungi. Until this year, I’ve not taken any notice of it, as it was hidden behind a fence. Now the stump is to be removed I’ve harvested the ‘ripe’ cramp balls, and for the first time noticed the leaves growing from suckers near the base of the stump, I’d assumed that, as there was a profusion of cramp balls, the tree must have been Ash or the like, but these leaves don’t look like Ash, more like Sycamore,
Can anyone help with an ident’ on the tree and the bracket fungus. Would it be of any use for a bushcrafter?


My second question is, as I have now enough cramp balls to keep me going for a year or two,



and having just bought the neatest Steel From Mike to go with some flint I have, I’d like to try the flint and steel with traditional fungus tinder so does anyone have any amadou, they are willing to swap for some cramp balls.

 

[dwardo]

It looks like a birch tree stump from here and the fungi looks like horses hoof but pretty old, this would also fit in with the birch. Cramp balls i have found growing on lots of different tree species but mainly on ash and wych elm.

I am probably well out but hey

 

[Ogri the trog]

The bracket looks very similar to one that I harvested last autumn.
Again it was growing close to a post (possibly some type of microclimate going on) and low down - I dried them and cut them open to find that there was a useable trama layer, though I didn't process it like HH amadou (boiling in woodash and pounding flat). Instead I just scrape the trama into a fine fluff and it takes a fint & striker spark very well. The one I found was very knobbly/warty in appearance though with more recent growth appearing on top of and around the older fungus.

Give it a go and tell us how you get on.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[andyn]

fungi looks like a ganoderma, possibly applanatum (Artist's Conk)

As Ogri says, they do have a trauma layer in just not AS good as the one in Fomes fomentarius

 

[Tadpole]

I'll have to go and harvest it tonight. Is it just a case of drying it? and then cutting off the outer hard shell or would it pay to cut off the outer and then leave the brown layer to dry, (I guess pressing it between newspaper will aid drying

 

[IntrepidStu]

I'll have to go and harvest it tonight. Is it just a case of drying it? and then cutting off the outer hard shell or would it pay to cut off the outer and then leave the brown layer to dry, (I guess pressing it between newspaper will aid drying

Oh have you got a shock comming. I'll leave the processing instructions to somebody who knows more. Needless to say, No, its not just a case of letting it dry!!

 

[andyn]

Patrick's article on his method of processing will give you a good idea:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8071

 

[Tadpole]

Patrick's article on his method of processing will give you a good idea:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8071

thanks for that, there I was thinking it might be hard work

 

[Tadpole]

Just an update on my fungus, having read around on this and other sites, I decided to give it ago. However I didn’t have the time to sit and boil my fungus for three solid hours, so I modified the method slightly,

Tadpole’s method
I had a real problem removing the unwanted bits of the outer shell and woody underside of my 'artist’s conk', so after a frustrating hour I ended up with two palm sized bits and dozens of small bits, varying in thickness from a 1/8 to ¼ of an inch.

My wood ash was made by burning a punky log from a cherry tree that had been dead standing in my father in laws garden for 12+ years. (I was hoping to use it for other things, but the wood was just a tad too far gone.)

I added white wood ash to some boiling water and then added the fungus, which I then left over night.
I will say that it did not seem to do much; I mean there was not a lot of change to the feel of the fungus. However as it had rained in the night so I added more watery ash, and some of the charcoal to the mix. I left the whole lot just sitting there for three days.
The fungus had been sitting in the pot for a total of four days, (the water took all the grease off of my fingers when I fished out the bits of fungus) I pounding the black and slippery mass with the end of a log, until it was just under twice the size, and left them to dry slowly, which took two days.
All the bits were very brittle, and much darker than I was expecting. They were not at all flexible, and readily broke if over handled.
That aside, boy do they take a spark.
Even in my unskilled hands, a few flicks of my second best steel (second best only because it is not as fancy looking as my best, and not because it doesn't spark as well, which it does) and the end was glowing. I found that tearing off a fingernail sized piece worked much better than the scraping of the surface, mainly as I could not get the sparks to land on the scraped fluff. Saying that when I did manage to, it burnt hot and quickly, whereas just fraying the edge slightly, by tearing it and not cutting, then using it like char-cloth on top of the flint, I was able to get the fungus to light almost every time.

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This is all from one piece,

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My Opinel Nó 6 is there for scale. The strikers were made by Mike Ameling, and they are blooming fantastic, they drop sparks hot and long. The two lumps next to the striker (on the right hand side), are the thick woody under layers of the conk, I had charred them to see if they would take a spark. I could not get them to light using traditional flint and steel, but they lit really well with my Ferro rod, and like the amadou they burnt hot and for a long time. (a piece about the size of my thumb burn for 15 minutes)

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This should show just how well the amadou burns and lasts, that tiny piece lasted well over a minute, what with me trying to get an in focus shot.

So, thank you all, for your help and suggestions.