How to carry a live coal

To carry a live coal you need something often called punk. Punk is simply, dried decayed tinder. You will also need something to carry the punk in after you put the coal in, something that won’t burn, and has a limited amount of oxygen, but it must have some oxygen.

Cattail heads work great, they will burn for an hour (ish) and if you carry several more cattail heads you can use one to start the other and carry fire for as long as you have cattail heads.

Dry moss, some fungus, and some mushrooms can work to carry fire as well. The best fungus for carrying fire is fomes formentarius, its common name is tinder fungus, and now you can guess why. Wrap that up in some green leaves with your coal / ember and you now have fire in your pocket.

Other Fungi that work are Phaeolus schweinitzii and Birch Fungus.

We need to grind your tinder up so it burns better. If a Birch tree is available or some other tree you can strip the bark from the tree whole, get yourself a piece about 6 inches wide and 2 feet long. Place your tinder in a nice pile about a third in the piece of Birch bark you just peeled off, put your coal in the fire, roll your bark around it like a cigar and again you have fire in your pocket.

fomes formentarius -

Phaeolus schweintzii -

Birch Fungus -

cattail heads -