Went to visit the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences today. Interesting museum, one that I've visited quite often. There was an interesting temporary exposition on primitive tools and some DIY areas. Some of 'em "learned" how to make flint tools ("learned" between brackets because that isn't a skill you acquire in a 5 minute course). Others learned how to throw spears effectively, how to make leather flexible,... Most of 'em were somewhat aimed at children, but I thought they were most interesting.
The one I found most informative, was how to make fire with basic tools such as a rounded piece of flint, a piece of marcasite or pyrite and some fungus.
It really works like a charm, too. Definitely something I'll be trying in m backyard one of these days.
Basically, you crumble pieces of the fungus/spunk into a somewhat brownish and powder-like substance. Hold the piece of marcasite next to it, and strike it with the flint. The motion you do with the flint is somewhat in between knocking on the marcasite and stroking the sides of it, you get a hold of it rather quickly. The fungus catches a spark rather easily and with a few slight blows, the glowing spreads. If you have enough of the glowing fungus, just scoop it up, put it in a bowl of tinder such as dry grass, blow and it catches fire like a charm.
It really was a fire I was able to make in less than 2 minutes.
I loved to learn about these old methods, didn't know about the fungus as tinder either... Probably nothing new for many among you guys, but I thought I'd share it anyway.
I looked at youtube and found a vid that pretty much demonstrates what I'm talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNwNpXYFig
It takes quite some strikes for his tinder to catch a spark, but his marcasite doesn't seem to be generating a lot of sparks altogether. He also holds his stones rather high, we were tought to keep the marcasite on the ground next to the fungus. Less distance to travel for the spark, hence less time for it to cool and disappear.
Found a scientific article on the process too. For those interested, you can always mail me for the pdf. I was able to download it for free using my university's account.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1003802432463?LI=true
Well, I'm glad to say I tried it at home now. Finally!
I did run into some problems, but I'll tell when I develop this story.
Last fall and during winter, my dad and I collected firewood here and there. On some of the wood, some of the fungus/mushrooms that I might need were present so I broke some off and dried them. Now that they were dry, I was ready to give it a try.
Here's what I used: some dried out grass, the 'shroom, a piece of marcasite and a piece of flint (the eroded side is towards the camera, don't use this 'cause that won't work).
Step 1: Cheat. This is probably not how cavemen did it but anyway. At the museum, they used cheese graters to grate the spongy material off of the mushroom. Cavemen didn't have it. I didn't have one available with which I wanted to grate mushrooms, so I just sliced little slabs off of the mushroom with my Case jack knife. Mistake one: this is not ideal. A powdery substanse like the one you get when you grate it would be better. It catches the spark far more easily.
The spongy material catches the spark way better than the more dense foamy structure:
Ok, now for the hard part. Striking the piece of marcasite/pyrite with the piece of flint. Mistake 2. Since I didn't have an adequate piece of flint at my disposal, I used a not-so-good piece that I had in the house somewhere. (Why do you have that in your house? Well, for those of you that don't know it yet: I collect fossils, rocks...). Why is this not so good? Well, it didn't have very sharp corners so it wouldn't make sparks very well. The brownish flint doesn't spark as good as black flint. Next time I'll be bringing some black, sharp flint with me from one of my fossil hunts, that'll work better.:thumbup:
So I tried for quite a while without a lot of success. I did get sparks, but the 'shrooms didn't catch them. The problem is the motion you need to make and the distance between the 'shroom gratings/flakes and the pyrite/marcasite. The closer your piece of marcasite is to your 'shrooms, the better the reaction since the spark won't have time to cool. The problem is that you always knock the 'shrooms away with your flint...
FINALLY though, one of the sparks caught one of the pieces of shroom and it starting giving some smoke. I quickly covered that piece with other slabs of mushroom and started blowing some air in between the slabs very softly... Smoke!
When I had enough smoke from the 'shrooms, I quickly made a small bowl with the dried out grass and poored the smoking 'shrooms in it. Close the 'bowl' and start blowing softly...
And keep blowing... Well, that took longer than I remembered. At the museum it was more like "poof, fire!" whereas I was almost out of breath at this point.
Awww yes! Fire, finally... Maybe mistake 3: the grass was quite thick and smoked for a good while before lighting up. Maybe other types of grass smoke less and burn more? I don't know...
And that was that. A lot of prep and time spent for 10 seconds worth of fire. But it was worth it. I got a good idea of what works and what not, and what might work better in the future. Good practice :thumbup:
Of course if you'd need a fire when you're lost... you'd need dried out mushrooms of a certain type, flint, marcasite/pyrite and dried out grass at your disposal. And a container to collect your 'shroom dust into. And something to make the 'shroom into dust in the first place (sharp piece of flint? Some kind of makeshift grinder with a stick or rounded rock?)
It's good to know that it could work, and hey it's fun to do too...
I hope you guys enjoyed it. I know I had a blast :thumbup:
