Natural Amadou - TINDER DOWN - 25 grams (85-4055-20)

25 Grams of Natural Amadou Tinder Down - Horse Hoof Fungus (85-4055-10) 

• The perfect All natural fire lighting tinder.
• Creates an ember from the smallest spark.
• It has an amazingly hot ember!
• Ideal for use with Traditional 'Flint & Steel'.
• Works exceptionally well with Fire Pistons.
• Solar Fire Lighting.
• Ferro Rods - Spark Based Fire Lighting.
• Ideal for use with Pre-historic 'Pyrite & Flint'.
• 25 Gram Bag of Amadou Down.
• Ethically Processed & Sourced.
• Please note this product is not fit for human consumption.

Amadou is a fantastic all rounder form of natural tinder that is ideal for all spark, solar and compression based of fire lighting, such as with Traditional Flint & Steel Tinderboxes, Pyrophoric Alloys, Magnifying Lenses, Parabolic Mirrors or Fire Pistons.

Amadou is a reliable product that can catch a spark with surprising ease from any form of fire lighting method. It will not disintegrate should it become damp or wet and makes an ideal packing material to stop small pieces of fire lighting equipment from rattling around a survival tin or your tinderbox. A single 10 gram bag of Amadou Down should last you many hundreds fires so 25g will last a lot longer!. Please note no other items are included with this listing, any other items seen in the photos are for display and demonstrations only.

WHAT IS AMADOU?

Amadou is made from the Horse’s Hoof Fungus, which has a fine, velvety layer resembling suede leather. This suede-like trama layer is sandwiched between a tough nut-like, outer, layer called the Cuticle and the pores, which are thousands of tiny tubes all packed together. The Horse’s Hoof Fungus is mainly found on dead trees such as the Birch and Beech, and it resembles a horse’s hoof – hence its common name. Amadou is very hard to source, and even more difficult to make well. 

Example of Mark carving a piece of Horse Hoof Fungus.

Amadou was used by our ancient forefathers because it makes excellent tinder able to catch even the vaguest of sparks, it is probably one of the best tinder that can be found in nature. It is has a beautiful velvet feel and is as resilient as suede leather and can be stored indefinitely. Amadou has been used for fire-making for thousands of years, and would have been found in virtually every travellers tinder box because of its great reliability.

THE EMBER:

The ember that is created from the smouldering Amadou is VERY HOT, which makes it an outstanding tinder for ALL primitive fire making techniques such as in Flint & Steel.

This amazing tinder is ideally suited to be used with traditional Flint & Steel, modern Sparking Flints, Fire Pistons, and Solar Ignition, like Parabolic Reflectors or Magnifying lenses. 

Once your Amadou has caught a spark, it will begin to glow and gently smoke. This newly formed ember is very hard to extinguish since it burns so INCREDIBLY HOT. Any wind or breeze that blows on it will cause it to get even hotter!

Once the ember has become established, to your satisfaction, you have more than ample time to place the Amadou ember into the centre of a previously prepared tinder bundle – and then blown into a flame. Whilst Amadou burns very hot it burns at a steady and slow pace; a small piece, about the size of your thumb nail will burn for a good minute or so.