Teasel cut green for hand drill

[Rabbit leg]

If I cut a teasel plant while it is green, will it harden into a hard stem for use as a hand drill or is it too premature and just break down?

Why don't I just try?
I have found 3 in a square metre. Nothing else around. Searched for dead last year's. None.
I very rarely find them so I don't want to hack one down if it is not going to be of any use. If there were plenty of them, then yes I would.

Thanks.

 

[Woody girl]

No experience of teasel stems for what you want but I'd leave it on the root untill dried myself. Collect the heads and plant up the seeds so you have a ready supply in future.

 

[Toddy]

I'm in agreement with Woody girl, but if there are three stems, then you could take one and try it. Let us know how it works ?

.....and if you can wait for a month or so, and mind me, I'll send you some mullein seeds and you can grow some of those which are really good for the job
I used to say there were none round here, so I bought some seeds, and now they're like foxgloves and figwort, sprouting in every planter I have

M

 

[Rabbit leg]

Thanks for the replies.
I later found some dead teasel so went back and cut a green one.
It dried perfectly. After a day in the sun, a thin silver skin appeared which was removed.
It works better than the old dead/last year stalks. As a hand drill.

Interestingly the flower/seed head and it's stem went soft and didn't dry properly. Which is what I expected of the whole plant.

Thanks for the mullein seed offer (or was it code for drugs), I have plenty of stalks but I don't find it too easy for the hand drill. Sourced in the French Alps at 2000m.

 

[Rabbit leg]

It was originally a plant question but now more relevant in the fire section.
I can't see an option to relocate?

 

[Toddy]

Thanks for the replies.
I later found some dead teasel so went back and cut a green one.
It dried perfectly. After a day in the sun, a thin silver skin appeared which was removed.
It works better than the old dead/last year stalks. As a hand drill.

Interestingly the flower/seed head and it's stem went soft and didn't dry properly. Which is what I expected of the whole plant.

Thanks for the mullein seed offer (or was it code for drugs), I have plenty of stalks but I don't find it too easy for the hand drill. Sourced in the French Alps at 2000m.

No, just mullein though the dried leaves make fair tinder for holding an ember to blow into flame.
I'd never seen it round here and folks were expounding about how it was the ideal fire/hand drill, so I thought I'd give it a go. I find that I can easily get three lengths out of each flowering stem. Mine are grown at 60m above sealevel in the soggy cental belt of Scotland, nothing like the sunny, airy heights of the Alps. I can't dry them outdoors, put it that way.
It's very good I find. It certainly works well, but though I usually grow teasels I don't have any this year and haven't tried those. I will remedy that next year though

 

[Rabbit leg]

That's interesting. I may be up Scotland way this summer. I didn't consider that it wouldn't be dead and dry in the field.

I am only really interested in materials that I can use on the day or can be dried on the go in a day or two.
Mullein, although not easy for me, can be found in the Alps and used almost straight away. Hence the difficulty. Often found around marmot holes. It is also the only plant that I fiind in the area that stays standing up after the winter snows have cleared. So dead standing. The hearth is the problem.