firemaking doodad?

[shortbow]

Thanks Rod. Your post reminds me of a show Ray Mears did. He started a fire with char cloth one night. Next morning, he drug a piece of charcoal from the fire ring, snapped a few sparks from his flint and steel into it, and had a new fire in minutes.

Birch tinder wise, we have lots of birch around here, and I've been searching for tinder fungus for a couple of years now, but haven't found any yet. In these parts it's called chaga, which means bear s--- which is exactly what it looks like. I understand it is easier to find a few hundred miles farther north.

Cheers.

 

[Minuteman]

I have used charred punk wood from a rotting maple tree in my side yard to catch a spark for a fire. The pileated woodpecker had dislodged a piece the size of half a loaf of bread. I stuck it in a steel paint can( burned out of course) stabbed a hole in the lid and charred it just like making cahr cloth.
Holds a spark better than cloth 'cause it burns in as well as across the surface. Theres also resins in the wood that seem to make it burn hotter than cloth.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Tinder fungus tends to form on live trees that have been damaged, and looks like scar tissue. Its outer coat is usually black, and ugly looking, as opposed to the smooth white bark you associate with Birch trees. Look around areas where trees have blown down, and smacked into other trees. Take a hand axe or hawk with you to chop this scar tissue down, and examine it. You also can find tinder fungus growing on birch tree stumps in some locations. It has a tan-brown color to it, and does look like S*** .