Fire starters? 🔥 🔥

[dsayer]

Dsayer,
This video may be helpful to you...

https://youtu.be/SMe8dzd0QJA

Thanks! I'm on the bus to work so will watch it now.

BTW, I leave you guys alone in here for a day and come back to see you debating the future and utility of cursive writing?! ff :rotf: BTW, both my cursive and print writing are so terrible, I can barely make out my own notes half the time...

 

[dsayer]

If you think about it.....At the end of the day, you want to start a fire.....Your gun may also need cleaning and you certainly want to keep a fresh prime in the pan.....utilizing that small amount of powder beats wasting it... :hmm:

Seems legit. I'm no expert, but have to imagine those resourceful mountain men thought of this as well.

 

[George]

Find a puffball mushroom in the fall, slice it thin and dry the slices. Mix black powder and water into a wet paste and paint one side of the slices with it, let that dry. Carry the slices with you, drop sparks on the painted side with your flint and steel or by putting the slice in the pan of your flintlock. It will burn with a fzzzzzz and set the puffball afire, give you an ember which you can use like charcloth to start your fire. Described by a Hidatsa Indian as being their method mid-19th century, but it still works in today's world.





Spence

 

[dsayer]

That's pretty cool Spence!

 

[Nativearizonan]

Those puffballs are good sautéed in butter, as well. I would hesitate to cut them up for fire starter if they were of the right slicing age.

Maybe the skin off an old puffball, that had turned brown inside?

 

[Black Hand]

Bracket fungus should work and they are inedible...

 

[George]

I would hesitate to cut them up for fire starter if they were of the right slicing age.

Sometimes you find enough to eat all you want and still have enough to make some fire starters. :haha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhoVBOKjlFA

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

Bracket fungus should work and they are inedible...

I have also charred bracket fungus and used it to catch a spark.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Interesting on the puff balls for fire starter. It has also been a few years since I ate sautéed puff balls. I may have to try that again this summer.

 

[Nativearizonan]

That mushroom video is incredible. There are a few giant puffballs in AZ, up in the mountains, but I've never found them anywhere near that large or that numerous; just enough for a meal every now and then. They are one of the easiest to identify, so one of the first ones I picked and ate. Some other species are fairly numerous at times, but only for short periods in the summer, and sometimes not at all.

I think if I had that many puffballs, I would keep my dehydrator going, and have plenty to make fire with.

 

[dsayer]

I would hesitate to cut them up for fire starter if they were of the right slicing age.

Sometimes you find enough to eat all you want and still have enough to make some fire starters. :haha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhoVBOKjlFA

Spence

Maybe could spare one or two!! That's a lot of shrooms...
Why was that an age restricted video though?

 

[Nativearizonan]

Sometimes you find enough to eat all you want and still have enough to make some fire starters. :haha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhoVBOKjlFA

Spence

Maybe could spare one or two!! That's a lot of shrooms...
Why was that an age restricted video though?

I wondered that too.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Probably because misidentification and ingestion of a mushroom by a child would likely result in death.

 

[dsayer]

Probably because misidentification and ingestion of a mushroom by a child would likely result in death.

Could be...

 

[tenngun]

I love mushrooms, but never gather wild ones. as a nurse every three or four years I get someone who says "I've picked these mushrooms all my life, I cant believe I got a bad one". My advice, be careful with the 'shrooms. I'm even careful handling them.

 

[Black Hand]

Mushroom, of all the wild edibles, can be very dangerous/deadly if you make a mistake. While I have picked and eaten wild mushrooms (Shaggy manes, Coprinus), it is a far better policy to leave them alone...

 

[dsayer]

Morels are the only mushroom I confidently identity and gather.

 

[Black Hand]

There are False Morels which can be/are toxic... https://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/false-morel.html

 

[coloradoclyde]

Of all the fungi that one can eat, I prefer those of the unicellular type...

Preferably mixed with barley or wheat. :wink:

 

[Rifleman1776]

I love mushrooms, but never gather wild ones. as a nurse every three or four years I get someone who says "I've picked these mushrooms all my life, I cant believe I got a bad one". My advice, be careful with the 'shrooms. I'm even careful handling them.

Until you pointed out there are 'false morels' I looked forward to picking and eating morels. Now, I pass on them and any other mushroom I see. Pity. Some are fine eating. But safety is paramount.