amadou

[seb.h]

So I've been out and harvested some bracket fungi and cut out the amadou.
What would the next step be. I was planning to just let it dry. or is there something else that needs doing?
:campfire:

[Shewie]

You can boil it up with some wood ash for a couple of hours and then pound it with the end of a rolling pin, that should break up the fibres and allow it to take a spark better.

Some folk add Saltpetre (potasium nitrate) but I've not tried that method yet.

[seb.h]

that's what I've seen, great I'll do that tomorrow. I'll have to get my own pan, i'm not sure my girlfriend will be to happy if I use her's

Saltpetre seems like more effort than it's worth, you may as well just get some fire lighters if your gonna do that.

[Bambii]

Theres an article on it on the main website i think.

[Martin]

You could extract the salt petre by boiling down your urine for a couple of days. Just don't tell your girlfriend and everything will be fine. Oh and remember not to use that pan for your porridge for a while. ;)

Hope this helps

Martin

[luresalive]

I use salt peter for my amadou, ( it has been used in similar forms since the 12 century), but try potassium carbonate if you think saltpeter is too much hassle..

[comanighttrain]

never heard of boiling down your urine for SP....i never bothered trying because the method i heard was using dirt from animal sheds and filtering it down then boiling it off...sounded like a lot of smelly hassle.

[Mouldsy]

When I was on a course at Woodsmoke they showed us how to prepare Amadou they just told us to rub it between our fingers as if your fingers were riding a mini bike, the amadou will stretch but be careful not to rip it, you can use it straight away as it doesn't need any prep, the fungus we used was the horse's hoof fungus.

[resnikov]

Horse's hoof fungus are great, I found a wood that has loads of them, they do take a spark without processing them but I am thinking of doing the boiling in wood ash then stretching them, I just need to find a pan like seb.h my wife wont like me using one of hers.

[ghost]

Just let it dry and then fluff it up , see how you get on with that first before you start to do anything else to it. I have been told in the past that you need to do this or you need to add that, i just tried the simple things first and i got it to take a spark by drying it and fluffing it up.

[Adam Savage]

just made a quick video of me, using amadou to get my spark to an ember, and a grass nest, to get my ember to a flame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEDP9-Rb1lk&feature=player_embedded

Sorry for the serious lack of talking as I was doing it. I feel quite chuffed with my first "all natural" tinder and kindling, fire starting, although I did use a fire steel to make the spark. Hope you enjoy.

Adam

[Ben Casey]

just made a quick video of me, using amadou to get my spark to an ember, and a grass nest, to get my ember to a flame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEDP9-Rb1lk&feature=player_embedded

Sorry for the serious lack of talking as I was doing it. I feel quite chuffed with my first "all natural" tinder and kindling, fire starting, although I did use a fire steel to make the spark. Hope you enjoy.

Adam
Nice vid:)

[Adam Savage]

Nice vid:)

Thanks, did you notice I nearly killed the flames, but managed to get them back at the last minute, LOL

[Ben Casey]

Thanks, did you notice I nearly killed the flames, but managed to get them back at the last minute, LOL

I was thinking that I have been wondering all these guys that can boil water very fast if that includes lighting the fire LOL

[Adam Savage]

I was thinking that I have been wondering all these guys that can boil water very fast if that includes lighting the fire LOL

As you probably saw, that video shows 5 minutes from ember to smallish twigs, I added the fuel wood and pot with a pint of water in, after I turned the camera off and it took a further 6 minutes to boil that. So 11 minutes from tinder to tea. Obviously if you have a huge roaring fire that has been burning half the day, the heat would boil that in about 2-3 minutes LOL

[Ben Casey]

As you probably saw, that video shows 5 minutes from ember to smallish twigs, I added the fuel wood and pot with a pint of water in, after I turned the camera off and it took a further 6 minutes to boil that. So 11 minutes from tinder to tea. Obviously if you have a huge roaring fire that has been burning half the day, the heat would boil that in about 2-3 minutes LOL

Your right about the big fire I will try my kelly in the morning I will have to get some tinder first but I havent got a video cam so you will have to take my word for it unless someone else puts a vid on :)

[Adam Savage]

Your right about the big fire I will try my kelly in the morning I will have to get some tinder first but I havent got a video cam so you will have to take my word for it unless someone else puts a vid on :)

LOL, I'll take your word for it, don't worry.

[Ben Casey]

LOL, I'll take your word for it, don't worry.

Your so nice LOL

[Adam Savage]

failing that, I can just wait for news report. haha

[Ben Casey]

failing that, I can just wait for news report. haha

Are you saying I could be a danger? I bet I could get a decent burn in 30 Secs I practised with the petrol but that wouldnt count I presume LOL

[Adam Savage]

Are you saying I could be a danger? I bet I could get a decent burn in 30 Secs I practised with the petrol but that wouldnt count I presume LOL

In a survival situation, if you have fuel, no vehicle, and are in desperate need for hot water...sure it would count LOL

[Lone Wolf]

Horse's hoof fungus are great, I found a wood that has loads of them, they do take a spark without processing them but I am thinking of doing the boiling in wood ash then stretching them, I just need to find a pan like seb.h my wife wont like me using one of hers.

where is the wood you found with horse hoof fungus i've been searching for ages and only found a small one and didnt want to take it would rather let it have time to develop (and it was half way up a tall tree XD)

[Al21]

Hi folks,

A few weeks ago I collected some Hoof Fungus (Fomes fomentarius) and tried following the general wisdom of boiling it for a long time then pounding before reworking it to soften it again. Now, I spent hours faffing with this stuff and frankly I'm less than impressed! I noticed that many here don't bother with all the boiling etc, but just dry it and use it. For the effort I've put in so far I want to be able to click my fingers and it burst into flames! When I get it lit it does burn very hot for a long time, but certainly doesn't take a spark easily.

I came across a vid on t'tube where the vid author had similar problems and ended up roasting the Fomes in the manner of char-cloth. Took a spark very well after that, so I might follow this example. Another interesting video showed Fomes being used as a hearth, which created a very long lasting ember, which again, is on my ToDo experimenting list.

I can't help wonder at the practicality of the lengthy boiling etc, then adding salt-petre etc is really worth it. How many here actually go to those lengths.

One last thing, I've seen several references to false tinder/hoof fungus on t'net, yet I can find no reference to such in Roger Phillips Mushroom book. I did wonder if I made a mistake and I was trying to use the wrong fungi to make amadou, but I don't think I have.

Any feed back appreciated.

Al

[Ehecatl]

The only reference I can find (in me Collins Gem) is Phellinus igniarius and this is listed under similar species as hoof fungus.

M@

[AdrianRose]

Hi folks,

A few weeks ago I collected some Hoof Fungus (Fomes fomentarius) and tried following the general wisdom of boiling it for a long time then pounding before reworking it to soften it again. Now, I spent hours faffing with this stuff and frankly I'm less than impressed! I noticed that many here don't bother with all the boiling etc, but just dry it and use it. For the effort I've put in so far I want to be able to click my fingers and it burst into flames! When I get it lit it does burn very hot for a long time, but certainly doesn't take a spark easily.

I came across a vid on t'tube where the vid author had similar problems and ended up roasting the Fomes in the manner of char-cloth. Took a spark very well after that, so I might follow this example. Another interesting video showed Fomes being used as a hearth, which created a very long lasting ember, which again, is on my ToDo experimenting list.

I can't help wonder at the practicality of the lengthy boiling etc, then adding salt-petre etc is really worth it. How many here actually go to those lengths.

One last thing, I've seen several references to false tinder/hoof fungus on t'net, yet I can find no reference to such in Roger Phillips Mushroom book. I did wonder if I made a mistake and I was trying to use the wrong fungi to make amadou, but I don't think I have.

Any feed back appreciated.

Al

Seriously pal don't bother. I've tried processing Amadou many times and the effort that is put in when offset against the return makes it less that useless.

I'm probably going to get hammered by the traditionalists for having said that, but if you treat it the same way that you would to create char cloth then it is infinitely better.

I've spent years studying flint and steel techniques and in my humble opinion am very proficient at it (sorry if that sounded big headed) and there are so many other tinders that pound for pound effort wise work better than Amadou.

All the best

Ade.

[Adam Savage]

I agree. Not the easiest tinder material to process or use. It needs to end up looking and acting a little like suede, then to take a spark it needs ruffing up by dragging the edge of your blade across it a few times.
As for the false hoof fungi, the only other I know of is artists conk, which still produces usable amadou. I say usable, it's just the same as fomes in practice.
When I've made it, I cut it into thin slices, let it dry naturally for a couple months, then soak it in boiling water for about 20 minutes, change the water out and do another 20 minutes, then beat it on a rock with a rubber mallet (I know, kinda cheating using a rubber mallet), then let it finish drying properly again. Never added any saltpeter to it, but hear wood ash beaten into it works well.

[Al21]

Thanks for the replies about this folks, much appreciated!

The Phellinus igniarius is on the same page as Fomes fomentarius in the Phillips mushroom book, and unless local variations are such that they can look like each other I don't really see them being mistaken.

I think I should have twigged it being less than wonderful when reading the lengthy process involved and then adding chemicals. Never mind. I'll try using it more or less straight from the tree and the charing method as that as that looks promising and fairly simple.

Thanks again,

Al

[luresalive]

Amadou is very simple to make, all you need is a simple woodash lye solution, I don't bother with horses hoof and just use artists conk..here's a link to my blog to see how I make the solution..

http://buzzardbushcraft.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/traditional-amadou-preppart-1-lye.html

(hope thats ok mods)

[Al21]

Thanks for posting the link LA, much appreciated! Curious to know why you don't bother with Horses Hoof Fungus, care to enlighten us?

I've spent more time recently than I should have looking into this and thought the collective might like a summary of my findings. Now I'm no expert and this is a distillation of information gathered from the Internet, so whether you treat this as the final answer or 'I heard it from a bloke on the Internet' type knowledge that's up to you, but:

True Tinder Fungus is 'Inonotus obliquus', which in most of the UK is about as rare as hens teeth, but can be found in Scotland. There's a huge amount written about this because of its medicinal properties, but it is supposed to readily take a spark when dry and requires no other treatment before use.

False Tinder Fungus seems to be Fomes fomentarius we call Horse Hoof Fungus and preperation seems to vary between use as is to long complex proceedures.

It also seems to be the case that various other bracket fungus like Artists Conk (Ganoderma applanatum) can be prepared and used in the same way Horse Hoof Fungus is treated. I'm currently thinking I'll give LuresAlive's lye treatment a go, but the more I look the more the char-cloth style charring appeals to me. I'll post again with results when I have them, but, again, I must warn you that as a card carrying member of the feet for hands gang, my results will be far from definitive. :)

Al

[luresalive]

The reason we tend to use ganoderma is simple,there's very little horses hoof here in Northern Ireland!! Charring will work well, even just drying it out and carefully fluffling it up before putting a spark to it will also work well, but we find the wood ash solution to be a good way of getting a reliable ember..just remember to use hard wood for the ash not conifers.. do let us know how you get on.

[Al21]

I should have guessed it would have been a simple answer like that, cheers!

Thanks for the tip about using hardwood to create the ash. In one of the pieces I read the author said to use the type of wood that the fungus was found on to create the ash for best effect, they were the only one to say this so it might not be essential. Using hardwood makes sense though, so I'll be sure to follow your advice.

Cheers,

Al

[Shiver]

Great article, thanks for sharing!