Commercial source of true tinder fungus??

kgd

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
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Doc Canada gave me a chunck of true tinder fungus and this stuff is like magic as a coal extender and also works perfectly with a Fresnel lens. I just tried it with the Fresnel just a moment ago using one of the cheap coglans survival tools (Lens, whistle, non-functional thermometer combo) and it took about 10 s to get a nice coal on the tinder fungus. Rick (Magnussen) says you can get it to take a flint spark too. I haven't tried that yet, but will. I'm just waiting for my KSF firewallet to clear customs and was hoping it would be in this weekend. Oh well, next weekend for sure.

Anyhow, this stuff has a lot of benefits to it that are similar to fatwood. As a chunk it is relatively compact, dense and easy to flake off into to useable pieces. Throw a knob of it in your pack or fire kit and it will last a good deal of time. I think it is more robust overall than char cloth and will certainly shed moisture better than char cloth would.

Doc will tell me to just find my own, but finding a birch tree this far south is difficult if not impossible unless I go about strolling though peoples lawns where they are valued to some extent as an ornamental tree. If I were at a good birch woodlot I would definitely collect my own, but alas I am not. Does anybody sell this stuff? Has anybody thought of selling this stuff?

Might be a good little side venue for Storl to add to his fatwood supply...hint hint....
 
kgd said:
Might be a good little side venue for Storl to add to his fatwood supply...hint hint....
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Yeah yeah, I'm working on it. :p

I've actually been trying to find a good supply of it for a while now. I can find some small chunks myself on trips to the Smokies, but that is hardly enough to sell regularly. I'm going back up there in a few weeks, so maybe I'll get lucky and find enough to be able to offer it through the store.
 
There is a place in Siberia that sells it, but I suspect their minimum (5000 Kgs) it too much? :)
 
The problem with buying chaga for tinder is that you are competeing against the chaga as medicine prices. If it didn't have such well known medicinal properties we could probably buy it for next to nothing.
 
saxon said:
The problem with buying chaga for tinder is that you are competeing against the chaga as medicine prices. If it didn't have such well known medicinal properties we could probably buy it for next to nothing.
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Huh, didn't know it had other uses. Now we just need to wait for Doc-Canada to pop in and teach us. :)
 
The main use besides for tinder is as a tea for the treatment of cancer. You can read several things about it on the net. The Russians that were sent to the Gulags used it to treat many things. That is where the big money is for the chaga collectors.
 
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I have 3-4 large pieces (one as big a a loaf of bread).... it goes for big bucks on ebay... but I'm not selling it.

True tinder fungus makes an excellent tea with many vitamins and other medicinal properties.

KGD... there are substitutes for tinder fungus that can be found around here. Come on out my way and we'll go on a hunt.

Rick
 
Hey k, screw the Tinder Fungus, use punky wood like we did when you were here. It's ubiquitous, and the 'smouldering' (for want of a better word) grows in size faster than Tinder Fungus (Inonotus obliquus).

Doc
 
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