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Fire - Tinder |
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Bow's Tinder Ball - by
Allan "Bow" Beauchamp
Text & Photos by
Allan "Bow" Beauchamp |
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There are a lot of advantages to this system. I'll explain. I use spruce
sap. I try and find it where it is not full of allot of bark, softer. In
spring it is good. Then I roll it into a nice ball as seen here on a
stone (rolls nice).
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Then I find some materials I will roll this into. In this case it was
cedar and cattail down (you can use a variety of materials here, i.e.
milkweed, poplar bark, cotton grass, etc.) |
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You have two choices here now.
You can roll it into a ball, then break it in half and with the inside,
flip it to the outside and roll this section now in the cedar and
cattail -- that way the inside and outside have been rolled.Or choice
two, just do the one side as seen in these pictures. |
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First, I roll it in to a tight ball, then with my stick I make a hole. |
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I will then select my charred material, in this case poplar char. You can
select from a variety of char and non-char materials for this -- the
choice is yours, i.e. birch fungus, Mullen, inner piths of mushrooms,
etc. However, I have found that in some seasons some materials offer
better choices than others. |
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And then I will put a small piece inside.
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Once this is completed I roll the ball into more cedar and more cattail
down.
This makes it not as "sticky" and more manageable. |
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If you wish you can close the top over as I do sometimes, and I can leave
them in the rain and of course they are very water proof!
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The char will ignite very quickly with any kind of spark at all, whether from
your magnesium stick or using your knife as I do, then glancing it off a nice
rock into your char hole. When you need it all you needs to do is open the
little flap on top and send a spark into the char spot of the tinder ball and in
no time you will have a long lasting, hot tinder pile!
I sometimes place this ball in a clam shell for transporting, and even
sometimes I make "bows bush candles" from these balls, (used somewhat
differently) and I have a little light in the bush!
I hope you enjoyed this!
--Allan "bow" Beauchamp |
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