Before the match was invented in 1826, flint and steel was the prevalent method used to start a fire. Taking a piece of flint, quartz, pendantlite, marcasite, or other hard iron pyrite, one can strike a piece of these minerals against a high-carbon steel (e.g. a file or older knife blade). The mineral tears off small particles of the metal, causing these pieces to heat up and hopefully land on dry tinder (mind your aim!). Traditionally, a char cloth was used to catch the hot sparks. Char cloth can be made by burning a piece of cotton fabric while it lay inside a reasonably air-tight container. The cloth blackens as it burns incompletely and readily catches fire when introduced to an intense heat source.
There may be ways to primitively craft an easily combustible, charred material, but one can turn to the gastronomic workings of the fungus gnat larvae for an effortless flint and steel tinder alternative. Probably anyone who has left dried conks in a bag for months can attest to the ravages that hidden insects can inflict on a poor, defenseless polypore and the subsequent powdery debris that settles to the bottom of the bag. Recently I collected some dried sulfur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus) fungi that had enjoyed protection from the elements by growing on the underside of a large, slightly elevated log. I was demonstrating flint and steel to school groups at the time and thought these specimens could prove useful. After storing the sulfur shelf in a basket for a while I noticed small piles of whitish powder accumulating on the floor. Upon inspection I discovered small holes running through the fungi (and many more fungus gnats flying around my place than usual). Thinking that this powder might burn, I cranked out a few hand drill embers and placed them on top of the powder. The embers steadily engulfed the new fuel, extending the lives of the coals (hence the oft-used term in primitive circles, coal extender).
Considering this success, I wondered if the sulfur shelf, in its whole, intact, unprocessed condition, would catch a spark and grow a coal. Well, not only did the sulfur shelf catch sparks easily and burn quickly, but blowing on the polypore and even smothering it would not put it out—I found this out by discovering the extinguished (not!) fungi fully engulfed in flame on my front steps 20 minutes after I supposedly put it out! Only dousing it in water would lay the fire to rest. Tinder fungus and birch polypore also work well in this manner. It was very satisfying to have a nine-year-old girl from inner-city Seattle successfully make fire with flint, steel and sulfur shelf later that week. |
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The Author With Red-Belted Conk and Hemlock Varnished Conk
 Polypores also generate a by-product that is useful to these efforts. White and brown wood rots can be ground up and applied to a friction-fire generated coal in order to extend its life, giving a person more time to construct a tinder nest in which the coal will hopefully be blown into flames. Wood infected with brown rot burns slow and doesn’t create flame by itself. Preliminary trials that I have conducted show that brown rot is more effective than white rot as a coal extender. When an ember is placed on a chunk of white rot, the wood bursts into flame. Perhaps some of you can enlighten me as to why this might be the case—I’m not up on the specific roles that cellulose and lignin play in the combustion of wood. This has important foraging implications in primitive or survival situations. We get 92 inches of rain per year here, and up to 160 inches just 50 miles to the west. Imagine yourself in such a wet environment, in need of a fire. You are searching for dry fuel—all wooden surfaces in the forest are useless. But dig into a log, especially a rotten log (which is infinitely easier to dig into), and pull out some fluffy, dry, punky, white wood...congratulations, you’re warm!
Even the pore layers of shelf fungi have a luminescent use. If you look closely at the photo of the stone oil lamp, you can see the brown lump of a wick that sits in the fuel (be it rendered deer fat, asphaltum or olive oil). This wick is a piece of red-belted conk, whose pore layer siphons the liquid fuel into the flame that dances atop the fungal mass.
Lastly, we come to the conk stove. Simply place a burning coal on top of any large conk and watch the fungus slowly become engulfed in flame. Better yet, procure a piece of hollow elderberry or bamboo stem and blow gently on the burning mass, and watch the fungus quickly become engulfed in flame. Then set a pot of water directly on the conk and voila, it boils within ten minutes.
I hope this article has warmed you to the possibilities of extending your love for primitive skills toward Kingdom Fungi and discovering their role in our pre-historic relationship with our environment.
There are many ways to attach a handle onto tools. Wanting to expend the least amount of energy possible in stone age endeavors, I use vast amounts of energy experimenting with various techniques. Some work, others would work (if someone else performed them...). Here’s one method that I prefer because, well, I have little command of carpenter-ic common sense, a weak grasp on thinking and planning ahead, and little patience for crafting fine notches that snugly, custom-fit a randomly-contoured stone blade.
It all begins with The Stick. I chose a hank of Big Leaf Maple because it is soft and therefore easier to split with stone age tools.
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We all love to take photographs and keep a record of what we've done and where we have been. Michelle Jones has written this article is for those starting out into photography so that you can get the most from your camera and what you are trying to capture.
I used Hazel wood. Choose the
thin long shoots of wood which i would think are a couple of years old.
If you don't catch anything at first don't worry. It may just be a case of
changing a few things.
Most bushcrafters know that Birch bark is fantastic for fire lighting
because of all the oil concealed within it. This tutorial guides you
through the process of extracting that tar from the bark.
Now we could bung a label on (which should always say they type of wine and when it was bottled). I suggest you cross-reference to a book of recipes and notes so that when you get a cracking wine you can recreate it. We are going to add a little something to the presentation of the wine by putting a foil cap over the neck. First we drop a foil cap (available for a couple of pence from a wine shop) over the bottle neck.
Right, we now have clean, fined and filtered wine. We pour it into clean (yes and sterilised) bottles with a funnel. We need to cork it. Its possible to put corks in with a mallet. I use a corking gun and waxed corks that do not need to be soaked (plain corks do)
Well, the finings have worked – the wine is beautifully clear.
As soon as I'd finished my Paracord Bracelet, I'd decided to write a tutorial on making one. A good thing considering the majority of the responses since I posted it were asking me how to do it! Here goes.. You will need approximately 3 metres of paracord with the ends already sealed/melted, and something to make a temporary knot - a twist tie or piece of string should suffice.
I have been asked a number of times recently to provide some advice of guidance on the best way to sharpen an axe. Whilst I am always happy to provide input, I thought that it might be worthwhile to put together a tutorial on the basic techniques. The techniques used in here are intended to provide not only a sharp axe but also a safe and efficient axe.
There was a period in my life where I lived out of a pack for months at a time and this was one of my staples.
I like to coil it like a rope on a stick and bake it over hot coals...
There are many different ways you can make a berry picker but this is just a design i came up with which uses a packet of kebab skiewers and some discs of wood.
The whole kit took less than three hours to finally pull together — though that really overlooks by far the most time-consuming aspect, the preparation of materials. In fact, preparation has two components, actually. The first is the selection of materials. The second is the actual preparation.