I wanted to try my hand at making amadou and for a first attempt, I think it went OK. It works but could be better. I'd found some fomes fomentarius in my travels. When I double checked the ID on a website I found out that it's not uncommon here.
Ihen I got it home I cut off the outer layer (the cuticle) and removed the spores on the inside. What I had left was the trama, which feels like leather or cork.
I tried to get this to take a spark from true flint and steel. My flint came from France and my steel is an old file.
Over several days I tried but it didn't take a spark. I tried fluffing it to make a small pile of fungus lint and it would catch an ember but immediately die out.
I double checked my flint & steel kit with charcloth and chaga and both times got good coals. Then I tried charring the edge of a piece of the fomes. Once I did that, I got an ember within a few strikes of my flint that stayed. So I figured I'd move onto trying to produce amadou by boiling the fomes in wood ash.
Here's a picture. The three pieces near the knife tip are processed amadou. The ones to the right of those are unprocessed and my flint & steel kit are below that.
I took a soup can, poked small draft holes near the base and built a small fire in it. I added eastern hemlock, white pine and chery, but I don't think the kind of wood matters that much. I added more fuel and let it burn down until I had about 1/4 cup of white ash. I dumped that into another can with about 1/2 cup of water in it and strained out any large pieces of charcoal. Then I put the fomes pieces into it and let it boil. After an hour or so, I had about 1/8" of slurry left in the can along with my fomes pieces.
I took them out and skewered them on a stick to dry overnight. I put them near a warm heat source to make drying go faster.
This morning I tested them. They were still messy from the ash and I had to dust them off and fluff them some more. I scraped them again to get more fluff, but after 20-30 attempts VOILA! A coal! I got several.
I'm pretty happy about it for a first try, but I'm sure I can improve the quality. Anyone have any tips? Wash off the ash before drying maybe?
Ihen I got it home I cut off the outer layer (the cuticle) and removed the spores on the inside. What I had left was the trama, which feels like leather or cork.
I tried to get this to take a spark from true flint and steel. My flint came from France and my steel is an old file.
Over several days I tried but it didn't take a spark. I tried fluffing it to make a small pile of fungus lint and it would catch an ember but immediately die out.
I double checked my flint & steel kit with charcloth and chaga and both times got good coals. Then I tried charring the edge of a piece of the fomes. Once I did that, I got an ember within a few strikes of my flint that stayed. So I figured I'd move onto trying to produce amadou by boiling the fomes in wood ash.
Here's a picture. The three pieces near the knife tip are processed amadou. The ones to the right of those are unprocessed and my flint & steel kit are below that.
I took a soup can, poked small draft holes near the base and built a small fire in it. I added eastern hemlock, white pine and chery, but I don't think the kind of wood matters that much. I added more fuel and let it burn down until I had about 1/4 cup of white ash. I dumped that into another can with about 1/2 cup of water in it and strained out any large pieces of charcoal. Then I put the fomes pieces into it and let it boil. After an hour or so, I had about 1/8" of slurry left in the can along with my fomes pieces.
I took them out and skewered them on a stick to dry overnight. I put them near a warm heat source to make drying go faster.
This morning I tested them. They were still messy from the ash and I had to dust them off and fluff them some more. I scraped them again to get more fluff, but after 20-30 attempts VOILA! A coal! I got several.
I'm pretty happy about it for a first try, but I'm sure I can improve the quality. Anyone have any tips? Wash off the ash before drying maybe?
