Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,035
Triple T asked a question about fungi as tinder in another thread I did. I initially missed that question, but when I did see it I thought I would just do a separate thread on the subject.
The question, if I understood it right, was on the use of polypore or shelf fungus as a tinder material. I do not personally have a lot of experience in this area, because it is a technique that works in drier conditions than I often have in my environment. However, it is a technique I have studied via reading the works of some others. One of whom was sort of a long distance mentor Allan Beauchamp, who in turn introduced me to Rick Marchand, who in his turn introduced me to Blade Forums about a decade ago. Fungi as tinder and heat sources are a subject that Allan is well versed in, and Rick and I have had several discussions on the subject over the years.
It was some of Allans work with fungi that inspired several of my experiments about a decade ago. He put together a photo-literary piece on making a field expedient stove for boiling water from a large chunk of fungus. It inspired me to conduct some similar experiments with punk wood.
These shots were taken about 6 years...or four cameras ago, and I will be revisiting this subject with better equipment later this year, but I think you can see what's going on ok.
I used char cloth for my initial ember, and then the large chunk of dry punk wood to expand it and intensify the heat. I did this by making a divot in the punk wood and placing the embering char cloth into it, then blowing on the ember to expand it much like one would do with a tinder bundle with friction fire.
I have not used this technique to boil water yet, but it does get pretty intense. Blowing on the ember to give it oxygen and make it hotter, it easily got hot enough to ignite dry leaves.
I did use the technique to thaw snow in a canteen cup in Michigan once, but I didn't photograph it because I had been out all day working on some articles for Tactical Knives magazine and much use in the extreme cold had drained the camera batteries.
My main experience with use of polypore fungi is as a field expedient mosquito repellent. I read an article by Chris Janowski on the subject about twenty-five years ago, and have used it with success quite a bit since then. The porous interior has a lot of air flow when torn and it will smolder like an incense. So if you have several of them smoldering around your camp area the smoke wafting back and forth across the area help keep the mosquito nuisance down.
Since we do not have tinder fungus this far south, the uses of polypore fungus as a spark catcher and ember expander is a subject of great interest to me. I am told that when dry enough the fibrous edges of it when torn will catch the sparks from flint and steel and ember from there. So I have several experiments in this area planned for later this year in the drier season...right now we are in one of our wet seasons and about to go into the wettest one...
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The question, if I understood it right, was on the use of polypore or shelf fungus as a tinder material. I do not personally have a lot of experience in this area, because it is a technique that works in drier conditions than I often have in my environment. However, it is a technique I have studied via reading the works of some others. One of whom was sort of a long distance mentor Allan Beauchamp, who in turn introduced me to Rick Marchand, who in his turn introduced me to Blade Forums about a decade ago. Fungi as tinder and heat sources are a subject that Allan is well versed in, and Rick and I have had several discussions on the subject over the years.
It was some of Allans work with fungi that inspired several of my experiments about a decade ago. He put together a photo-literary piece on making a field expedient stove for boiling water from a large chunk of fungus. It inspired me to conduct some similar experiments with punk wood.
These shots were taken about 6 years...or four cameras ago, and I will be revisiting this subject with better equipment later this year, but I think you can see what's going on ok.
I used char cloth for my initial ember, and then the large chunk of dry punk wood to expand it and intensify the heat. I did this by making a divot in the punk wood and placing the embering char cloth into it, then blowing on the ember to expand it much like one would do with a tinder bundle with friction fire.
I have not used this technique to boil water yet, but it does get pretty intense. Blowing on the ember to give it oxygen and make it hotter, it easily got hot enough to ignite dry leaves.
I did use the technique to thaw snow in a canteen cup in Michigan once, but I didn't photograph it because I had been out all day working on some articles for Tactical Knives magazine and much use in the extreme cold had drained the camera batteries.
My main experience with use of polypore fungi is as a field expedient mosquito repellent. I read an article by Chris Janowski on the subject about twenty-five years ago, and have used it with success quite a bit since then. The porous interior has a lot of air flow when torn and it will smolder like an incense. So if you have several of them smoldering around your camp area the smoke wafting back and forth across the area help keep the mosquito nuisance down.
Since we do not have tinder fungus this far south, the uses of polypore fungus as a spark catcher and ember expander is a subject of great interest to me. I am told that when dry enough the fibrous edges of it when torn will catch the sparks from flint and steel and ember from there. So I have several experiments in this area planned for later this year in the drier season...right now we are in one of our wet seasons and about to go into the wettest one...
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