Many years ago I coined the term "NUTs" to describe Natural Uncharred Tinders that will catch the sparks from F&S in their raw, natural, uncharred state. Some of the NUTs (Natural Uncharred Tinders) that have worked for me include: Fluffs: American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare), Common Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum), Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Milk thistle (Silybum marianum). Fungi: Artist’s conk (Ganoderma applanatum), Chaga (Inonotus obliquus), Hoof fungus (Fomes fomentarius), Inonotus munzii, False Tinder fungus (Phellinus igniarius). Leaves: Common Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). Piths: Common Dogbane ovum, Common Milkweed ovum, Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), Goldenrod (Solidago spp incl: Solidago canadensis), Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbita pepo var. ovifera), Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica aka Polygonum cuspidatum aka Reynoutria japonica), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). Punkwoods: Big-Tooth Aspen (Populus grandidentata), Box Elder (Acer negundo), Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides), Norway maple (Acer platanoides), Silver maple (Acer saccharinum), Sugar maple (Acer saccharum), Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides). Others have asserted that the following also work as NUTs: Fungi: Dyer's Polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii), Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea), Oak Conk (Phellinus gilvus), Red-Belted Conk (Fomitopsis pinicola), (Ryvardenia cretacea aka Piptoporus Cretaceous), Shaggy Bracket (Inonotus hispidus). Leaves: Great Burdock (Arctium lappa), Pacific waterleaf (Hydrophyllum tenuipes). Plant fibers: Fishtail palm (Caryota urens), root fibers of Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica).
Great - THANKS ! After I search out the ones available in my area of W. Colorado , USA - And testing --- I surely will use your ideas / list with students in my tipi camp. Mtn Mel , Ret .59-82 USN SERE- POW Inst.
87 strikes, knuckles bleeding, not a single spark landed in the tinder- my typical experience. Thank you for an honest video. Remember folks, if you've never actually done something before, you only think you know how.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"~ Mike Tyson (-: Took me bloody knucks too, then finally I got the char to glow. eep! then I singed my eyebrow when the birdnest blew to flame. crikey!
For what it's worth...I just finished doing the same process with the nettles and had the exact same result you did. Processed the heck out of it, well dried, lots of attempts and all was a no go. Saw the other video from Wilderness Strong and we are definitely doing something different. Thanks for sharing your video!!
@@RedBranchBushcraft The really weird thing is that after watching the Wilderness Strong video, I went through all the same steps you did and had the exact same result. It wasn't until after doing all of this that I went surfing back on UA-cam and discovered your video. I know now that at least I'm not alone in this! :)
Thank you for this video, I have been trying this method for days to no avail and thought I was going wrong somewhere. The above comment regarding nitrating it, gave me pause for thought and maybe wilderness strong weren't necessarily doing anything different it is simply just the chemical composition of the soil was possibly higher in nitrate or potassium or both and permitted more flammability.
Wilderness strong just put out a video on this subject. If you pick dead nettle that's been out in the weather then it's not going to work. You need dried green nettle or green fall nettle. Then try those. The powder of those should work as well.
@@RedBranchBushcraft It could be the coating on the fibers have to come off somewhat through heavy processing. Not sure I need to watch the video again.
I've been processing and drying then processing again , so far no luck , but I should be back again today, I'm working with 2 week harvested and fresh harvested.
maybe try nitrating it, I nitrate (using potassium nitrate) cattail fluff and it works a treat, same issue cattail fluff won't take a spark from flint and steel un-nitrated but once you do nitrate it, it is a wonderful tinder for flint and steel. I have seen stinging nettle take a spark from flint and steel, un-charred and with little processing so it is a viable tinder.
if stuff is fibrous try having stuff on top of stone if bottom does not work and vice versa ... also the other video showed green nettle dried a little ... purpose of drying green spark catcher is to get just enough water moisture out of way while retaining inflammable liquid moisture enough to catch spark ... that is my theory why green nettle worked in other video ... green nettles must have some inflammable liquid substance in it
Mate! Were you inspired by the video of Wilderness Strong? If that's the case: they have a follow up. You are not supposed to use dead, dry nettles. You have to use green ones, take off the leaves, proces to fibres and let them dry. Them process them down further. I tried it several times, also with great burdock (they say that works as well, but then only naturally decayed leaves). Had pretty much the same result as you had with this dry and dead batch. My conclusion so far: not reliable enough for starting a fire with flint and steel (and no char).
I think you technically are there, you are holding your flint to horizontal tilt it up more, your flint must be really sharp to cut those metal Sparks, and really buff up the nettle fibre's ,the woody bits will never light from flint and steel, don't give up ,let the tinder dry for a few day ,you are so close. I'm in the uk and done this successfully a couple of days back.
It's all about trying for me , I won't know what works unless I try. I think it's more of a failure not to try. I have another similar video coming out soon with cypress bark
From what I can tell it real the technical is fine but shown In wilderness strong they would hold the flint closer to the pile and strike an edge. That way the sparks fly into the pile. I try to couple times it works. I have trouble with the tinder sometimes too, but it probably has to do with the time of year I’m picking it, I’m just going to continue to try and I imagine that I’m gonna find something that’ll work when I can tell the videos are real
@@RedBranchBushcraft I haven’t had any work yet I believe they need to be sun rotted maybe I just test them other ways when it doesn’t work for flint and steel. They seem to make excellent ember extenders. I too hope there still away
@@Johnhanddrillthere are many details different ... wilderness strong does indeed do edison way ... he had many stones and his steel could be different and of course technique ... last but not least he uses a primitive mortar and pestle ... my theory is green nettle releases some inflammable liquid which is released when ground into the mortar ... mortar stone probably soaks up that liquid so if too much green nettle is ground part which was closer to mortar was impregnated by that liquid stuff ... it is that natural liquid which burns easily even with low temperature spark ... also stones and steels are different ... fewer sparks will have hotter temperature per spark ... may be when sparks are numerous you need to hit harder to get many or fewer sparks of higher or lower temperatures ... keeping spark catcher material closer to edge probably matters
I first saw this, no char technique on the wilderness strong UA-cam site. I tried Burdock and Nettle both, and had the same result as you I don’t know what he did, that were not doing, but I couldn’t get it to work either.
0:42 Interestingly, the charred fabric caught a spark from the flint not at the doubled area, but at the edge, where there were individual threads sticking out. Conclusion?
@@RedBranchBushcraft I wanted to give you the idea that it makes sense to tear and fold a piece of charred fabric so that the sparks fall precisely on the protruding threads.
Fire is heat. Large objects can soak up a lot of heat before the begin to burn. Smaller, finer surfaces will catch sparks more easily. Most don't notice this because the better tinders (char, chaga, etc) are so willing to burn that it doesn't matter where the sparks land. Only when we're working with less than optimal tinders does this stand out. F&S sparks are somewhat random, but we can tilt the odds in our favor. Edge geometry and firmness of the strike can change things. Also the type of striker: Ti vs Steel vs Pyrites.
I've never understood why people put the char above the flint instead of under it. You can clearly see their are more sparks coming out under it than over it. Maybe the sparks are falling over the top, but seems like it'd work better with the char under the flint, or even just throw sparks onto it from a small distance above the char.
@@RedBranchBushcraft I agree, I have been doing flint and steel for almost three years of daily practice now and the majority of sparks land on top of your stone, if you do slo-mo of you striking you really see how the sparks fall.
hey brother,, it's feb 8th,, just after 11:30 am, i just got an email update from firebox, they say my scout stove is shipping out to me today YAY !!!!, looking forward to getting it, i have some scrap wood set aside, some home made cotton balls and vaseline fire starters ready, don't know if i'm gonna have coffee or bacon for my first burn ??? maybe both ,, i'll let you know what i think, i'm not gonna post a video,, but, hopefully by no later then next monday, i'm in florida,, they are in utah ???
@@RedBranchBushcraft i have an update,, my wife and i decided to cook a nice juicy steak that we will share, i'm getting the large grill with it as well, i'm still going to make coffee, i'm a proud , non suffering coffee-aholic :)
@@RedBranchBushcraft sometimes, if you're lucky, horse hoof fungus works without preparation. Also powdered chaga mushroom.But they're hard to find. It is important to me to know many simple options. What is on your mind is always with you. Cattail and punk wood are easy to find and in large quantity, so I prepare them...
Many years ago I coined the term "NUTs" to describe Natural Uncharred Tinders that will catch the sparks from F&S in their raw, natural, uncharred state. Some of the NUTs (Natural Uncharred Tinders) that have worked for me include:
Fluffs:
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare), Common Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum), Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Milk thistle (Silybum marianum).
Fungi:
Artist’s conk (Ganoderma applanatum), Chaga (Inonotus obliquus), Hoof fungus (Fomes fomentarius), Inonotus munzii, False Tinder fungus (Phellinus igniarius).
Leaves:
Common Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).
Piths:
Common Dogbane ovum, Common Milkweed ovum, Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), Goldenrod (Solidago spp incl: Solidago canadensis), Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbita pepo var. ovifera), Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica aka Polygonum cuspidatum aka Reynoutria japonica), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus).
Punkwoods:
Big-Tooth Aspen (Populus grandidentata), Box Elder (Acer negundo), Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides), Norway maple (Acer platanoides), Silver maple (Acer saccharinum), Sugar maple (Acer saccharum), Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides).
Others have asserted that the following also work as NUTs:
Fungi:
Dyer's Polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii), Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea), Oak Conk (Phellinus gilvus), Red-Belted Conk (Fomitopsis pinicola), (Ryvardenia cretacea aka Piptoporus Cretaceous), Shaggy Bracket (Inonotus hispidus).
Leaves:
Great Burdock (Arctium lappa), Pacific waterleaf (Hydrophyllum tenuipes).
Plant fibers:
Fishtail palm (Caryota urens), root fibers of Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica).
Unreal, thanks buddy
Great - THANKS ! After I search out the ones available in my area of W. Colorado , USA - And testing --- I surely will use your ideas / list with students in my tipi camp. Mtn Mel , Ret .59-82 USN SERE- POW Inst.
Cool guys
Thanks Thanks very useful. Have a nice life. Good karma to you.
Chaga is class of superfood/tumor fighting. Save that for tea.
87 strikes, knuckles bleeding, not a single spark landed in the tinder- my typical experience. Thank you for an honest video. Remember folks, if you've never actually done something before, you only think you know how.
Lol, I feel your pain. Cheers buddy
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"~ Mike Tyson (-:
Took me bloody knucks too, then finally I got the char to glow. eep! then I singed my eyebrow when the birdnest blew to flame. crikey!
Nice, I've burnt my beard so many times
For what it's worth...I just finished doing the same process with the nettles and had the exact same result you did. Processed the heck out of it, well dried, lots of attempts and all was a no go. Saw the other video from Wilderness Strong and we are definitely doing something different. Thanks for sharing your video!!
That's interesting, I wonder what we're doing different
@@RedBranchBushcraft The really weird thing is that after watching the Wilderness Strong video, I went through all the same steps you did and had the exact same result. It wasn't until after doing all of this that I went surfing back on UA-cam and discovered your video. I know now that at least I'm not alone in this! :)
I've more coming, mullen, fresh nettles, cleavers
@@RedBranchBushcraft Excellent!!
@@RedBranchBushcraft they add nettle beetle dust or wood ash...
Nice, it's good to try these things for yourself. Enjoyed watching 👍
Thank you
I have heard a while back that the time of the year to havest the nettles is important for you to suceed with flint and steel.
What time do you harvest them?
Thank you for this video, I have been trying this method for days to no avail and thought I was going wrong somewhere. The above comment regarding nitrating it, gave me pause for thought and maybe wilderness strong weren't necessarily doing anything different it is simply just the chemical composition of the soil was possibly higher in nitrate or potassium or both and permitted more flammability.
That's something I didn't consider
Wilderness strong just put out a video on this subject. If you pick dead nettle that's been out in the weather then it's not going to work. You need dried green nettle or green fall nettle. Then try those. The powder of those should work as well.
I've been trying those to, video on the way
@@RedBranchBushcraft It could be the coating on the fibers have to come off somewhat through heavy processing. Not sure I need to watch the video again.
I've been processing and drying then processing again , so far no luck , but I should be back again today, I'm working with 2 week harvested and fresh harvested.
maybe try nitrating it, I nitrate (using potassium nitrate) cattail fluff and it works a treat, same issue cattail fluff won't take a spark from flint and steel un-nitrated but once you do nitrate it, it is a wonderful tinder for flint and steel.
I have seen stinging nettle take a spark from flint and steel, un-charred and with little processing so it is a viable tinder.
Fresh nettle is next on the list
if stuff is fibrous try having stuff on top of stone if bottom does not work and vice versa ... also the other video showed green nettle dried a little ... purpose of drying green spark catcher is to get just enough water moisture out of way while retaining inflammable liquid moisture enough to catch spark ... that is my theory why green nettle worked in other video ... green nettles must have some inflammable liquid substance in it
Not that I'm aware of
Mate! Were you inspired by the video of Wilderness Strong?
If that's the case: they have a follow up. You are not supposed to use dead, dry nettles. You have to use green ones, take off the leaves, proces to fibres and let them dry. Them process them down further. I tried it several times, also with great burdock (they say that works as well, but then only naturally decayed leaves). Had pretty much the same result as you had with this dry and dead batch. My conclusion so far: not reliable enough for starting a fire with flint and steel (and no char).
Yes, wilderness strong, I've seen that video to, I've tried the freshnettles and two weeks nettles and old nettles, none have worked
@@RedBranchBushcraft Yup, same here.
I think you technically are there, you are holding your flint to horizontal tilt it up more, your flint must be really sharp to cut those metal Sparks, and really buff up the nettle fibre's ,the woody bits will never light from flint and steel, don't give up ,let the tinder dry for a few day ,you are so close. I'm in the uk and done this successfully a couple of days back.
Have you tried to saturate those fibers with ash?
Not yet, it's something I have been thinking of
lots of kudos for polishing a "failing"... thank you for that.
It's all about trying for me , I won't know what works unless I try. I think it's more of a failure not to try. I have another similar video coming out soon with cypress bark
@@RedBranchBushcraft jepp... and thats what maks videos like this so valuable.. keep up the good work..
Cheers buddy, that's a great comment
From what I can tell it real the technical is fine but shown In wilderness strong they would hold the flint closer to the pile and strike an edge. That way the sparks fly into the pile. I try to couple times it works. I have trouble with the tinder sometimes too, but it probably has to do with the time of year I’m picking it, I’m just going to continue to try and I imagine that I’m gonna find something that’ll work when I can tell the videos are real
The only thing that worked for me was cramb ball fungus , I went through so many things
@@RedBranchBushcraft I haven’t had any work yet I believe they need to be sun rotted maybe I just test them other ways when it doesn’t work for flint and steel. They seem to make excellent ember extenders. I too hope there still away
@@Johnhanddrillthere are many details different ... wilderness strong does indeed do edison way ... he had many stones and his steel could be different and of course technique ... last but not least he uses a primitive mortar and pestle ... my theory is green nettle releases some inflammable liquid which is released when ground into the mortar ... mortar stone probably soaks up that liquid so if too much green nettle is ground part which was closer to mortar was impregnated by that liquid stuff ... it is that natural liquid which burns easily even with low temperature spark ... also stones and steels are different ... fewer sparks will have hotter temperature per spark ... may be when sparks are numerous you need to hit harder to get many or fewer sparks of higher or lower temperatures ... keeping spark catcher material closer to edge probably matters
@einsteinwallah2 yes, it's a hard one
I first saw this, no char technique on the wilderness strong UA-cam site. I tried Burdock and Nettle both, and had the same result as you I don’t know what he did, that were not doing, but I couldn’t get it to work either.
It's a tough one
Try punk wood and rub white ash onto it. It works, I've done it many times, even with flint and pyrite.
Nice, I'll write it down
you have tons more patience then me,, i would've stopped and thrown the nettle into a fire that i started via other means
Lololo, Ii like trying stuff out, see how it works. This took way to long to be practical. But I'll find something else that will work easier
0:42 Interestingly, the charred fabric caught a spark from the flint not at the doubled area, but at the edge, where there were individual threads sticking out. Conclusion?
its luck where the charred fabric catches really. its hard to control the sparks
@@RedBranchBushcraft I wanted to give you the idea that it makes sense to tear and fold a piece of charred fabric so that the sparks fall precisely on the protruding threads.
Fire is heat. Large objects can soak up a lot of heat before the begin to burn. Smaller, finer surfaces will catch sparks more easily.
Most don't notice this because the better tinders (char, chaga, etc) are so willing to burn that it doesn't matter where the sparks land. Only when we're working with less than optimal tinders does this stand out.
F&S sparks are somewhat random, but we can tilt the odds in our favor. Edge geometry and firmness of the strike can change things. Also the type of striker: Ti vs Steel vs Pyrites.
Jep, fresh dry Nettles😉
Yes
I've never understood why people put the char above the flint instead of under it. You can clearly see their are more sparks coming out under it than over it. Maybe the sparks are falling over the top, but seems like it'd work better with the char under the flint, or even just throw sparks onto it from a small distance above the char.
If you hit the steel of flint the sparks are more likely to go up, hit flint of steel and sparks go down More , a lot of different techniques
@@RedBranchBushcraft I agree, I have been doing flint and steel for almost three years of daily practice now and the majority of sparks land on top of your stone, if you do slo-mo of you striking you really see how the sparks fall.
Cheers buddy
hey brother,, it's feb 8th,, just after 11:30 am, i just got an email update from firebox, they say my scout stove is shipping out to me today YAY !!!!, looking forward to getting it, i have some scrap wood set aside, some home made cotton balls and vaseline fire starters ready, don't know if i'm gonna have coffee or bacon for my first burn ??? maybe both ,, i'll let you know what i think, i'm not gonna post a video,, but, hopefully by no later then next monday, i'm in florida,, they are in utah ???
have both!!
@@RedBranchBushcraft i have an update,, my wife and i decided to cook a nice juicy steak that we will share, i'm getting the large grill with it as well, i'm still going to make coffee, i'm a proud , non suffering coffee-aholic :)
Nice!!!
How about Punk wood uncharred?
Not a bad idea, I'll add it to the list
Dead common burdock leaves. Roll and fluff them up. Take a spark in no time
Cheers buddy, It's on the list
Correct, think the nettle has to be freshly dried and processed.
Cheers buddy
praparation cattail with wodash or Pattash in hot water
I've heard of that, but I'm trying to find something that you can use without anything else
@@RedBranchBushcraft sometimes, if you're lucky, horse hoof fungus works without preparation. Also powdered chaga mushroom.But they're hard to find. It is important to me to know many simple options. What is on your mind is always with you. Cattail and punk wood are easy to find and in large quantity, so I prepare them...
Great plan, I do the same. I love experimenting with stuff, I've nettles and cleavers drying at the minute
In the video he had trouble lighting the nettles he had harvested in winter.
It's tough alright
I'm surprised. I've seen videos of even green dried nettle taking a flint and steel spark.
I found it very difficult
@@RedBranchBushcraft Yes, I'm no expert. But saw a few vids, wanted to try it myself.
How did it work for you?
@@RedBranchBushcraft Nettle is perfect with a bowdrill ember, but I'm trying quartz, steel and nettle. No success yet.
The best thing I took away from this journey was how to get amazing birds nest material from plants but no luck with flint and steel
The video is real but just continue to try
Cheers buddy
tried and failed too. burdock was a no go too.
Same