Hi all,
after some searching in my hometown I found a supplier of bamboo thick enough (± 8 cm) to try using as a bamboo fire saw. I split the pieces & practised one morning with Rob Hofman before taking some pieces of bamboo to the Dutch Bushcraft meeting in Apeldoorn at 4-5 november. There we gave an experimental workshop in both the bamboo fire saw and the fire thong method. Because we both hadn't had any luck with creating a coal with these methods the main aim of the workshop was getting to know these relatively unknown techniques a bit better by showing the principles to the ten participants before they could try them out themselves. I am very pleased to say that some of the participants managed to get a glowing ember out of the bamboo fire saw (and in doing so have beaten Rob & me to it!).
During our initial morning of practice, Rob and I already had discovered that the saw must be positioned very steady, that the hole needs to be rather large to prevent clogging and that after 'warming up' with long strokes, you must concentrate on a short stretch of the saw with intensified vigorous strokes and by adding a lot of pressure, thicker smoke will rise in seconds. After that, persistence seems to be the key word.
At the workshop we also learned from those that were succesful that there must be enough room in the tinder nest for the ember to form.
For the Dutch or Belgian people interested in these methods, I have made a sort of review articles (in Dutch) on both these two friction fire methods and also on the fire piston with notes on historical distribution, pictures, how they work, links & a kind of tutorial. If you are interested, PM me and I'll mail you a copy.
Tom
PS The fire thong was also briefly tried during the bushcraft meeting at Apeldoorn using hemp & flax rope or rattan as thong on a piece of wood (lime and elderberry). It resulted in some cases in smoke just before the thong broke.
