Using his index and middle fingers on his bow-hand he takes up the slack from
the stretching cordage, which secures the cord’s grip on the rotating spindle.
Pressing the hand-hold down harder with his other hand, Jeff increases the speed
of the bow-draw. Whitish-buff smoke emanates from the socket as more char pours
into the notch. After a few more seconds a hint of bright red color emerges from
the notch as the char reaches approximately 800-degrees Fahrenheit and
spontaneously combusts.
 |
Tinder Nest -- Brown Rot (good for ember) on White Rot
(good for flame) and moss |
 |
Success! |
Now it was time to add the coal, or fire-egg, to a nest of fuel from which it
could hatch into fire. Earlier in the day Jeff had kneaded some dry sagebrush
bark into a bowl-shaped mass. He then filled the depression in the middle of
this bark nest with shredded bits of red-belted conk (Fomitopsis pinicola).
On top of this a pinch of flowering cattail fluff was added to ensure a gentle
gradation of fuel sizes so that the coal could grow hot enough to produce flame.
 |
Stone oil/fat lamp with fungal (Red-Belted Conk) wick. |
Using a thin stick to separate the coal from the confines of the hearthboard,
while cradling the coal on the thin piece of bark, Jeff transfers the ember to
the nest. Blowing gently on this tinder bundle, the coal engulfs the fuels and
produces flame in just a few seconds. A spark was planted inside me at that very
moment.
Bow drill fire-making tinder is but one primitive use of polypores. Recently
I’ve focused my efforts on a variety of fire-making ways, from flint and steel
(spark-based) to fire plow (lateral friction--as Tom Hanks demonstrated in the
movie Castaway) to bow drill and hand drill (rotational friction), among others.
Having experimented with a few thousand combinations of woods available here and
the central coast section of California (my former residence), I find myself
yearning to include lesser-tried natural materials--which brings me to the pyro-properties
of polypores. The most common sizeable conks around here are red-belted conk (Fomitopsis
pinicola), hemlock varnished conk (Ganoderma tsugae), and artist’s
conk (Ganoderma applanatum), of which all are currently (August)
blossoming in a burgeoning bouquet of baby buttons on stumps and downed logs.
Also, i was sent some birch polypore (Piptoporus betulina) and tinder
fungus (Fomes fomentarius) from Ohio to experiment with.
I have already explained the bow drill process, which can be seen in the
accompanying photos. Aside from being used as tinder, certain polypores can also
be used as hearthboards (see photos). Compared to other esoteric hearthboard
materials (rock, shell, antler, bone) that I have used, shelf fungi work better
by far. These polypores have generated coals in conjunction with a wooden
spindle: artist’s conk, red-belted conk, birch polypore and tinder fungus.
Casual observation indicates that these fungal hearthboards produce hotter,
longer-lived embers than those derived solely from wood.
 |
Starting the "Bush Stove" (Artist's Conk) |
In general, the amount of effort required to produce fire by utilizing shelf
fungi as hearthboards and tinder is less than that expended using wood. I
suspect this is the case because shelf fungi can dry out more quickly than wood,
since the pore layer (from which the mushroom’s spores fall from) provides a
conduit for the quick evaporation of moisture. One might also consider the diet
that certain members of this mushroom family enjoys. As shelf fungi infect the
trunk of a tree, it either digests cellulose (the substance that plant cell
walls are made out of), leaving a brown rot, or cellulose and lignin (the glue
that holds plant cell walls together), creating a white rot. I’ve had more
success doing bow drill and hand drill on species that digest cellulose and
lignin to produce a white rot (e.g. red-belted conk). Cellulose is comprised of
glucose molecules linked primarily by glycosidic bonds. When metabolized, it
decomposes into fatty acids, which are said to be volatile.
The hand drill (see photo) is structurally similar to the bow drill, but the bow
and hand-hold are replaced by your strength. Bearing down on a longer, thinner
spindle requires more stamina and power in order to achieve a coal in this
manner. However, the intrinsic mystical simplicity of “rubbing two sticks
together” and creating fire, without the technological evolution of the bow,
strongly endears me to this method of friction fire. To date, I’ve only used the
artist’s conk as a hearthboard successfully with hand drill. How amazing it
would be to drill an ember on a shelf fungus while it remained attached to the
host tree!
 |
Boiling water on the Bush Stove. |
On to Part 3...
(Part 1
Part 2
Part 3)
Text and Photos Copyright by Storm
www.stoneageskills.com |
