Bowdrill: Fire By Friction Tutorial/Tips (pic heavy)

[Shibari.surfer]

What a great post. made my first bow drill set about 30 mins ago and have been frantically drilling away in the kitchen, coming back in to look at your tutorial then back to the sawing
Hav'nt made it smoke yet but thanks to your post I know I'm on the right track and wont give up. Thanks again.

 

[woodwalker]

HI Shibari,
Glad you liked it. If you need a hand or a break down on the technique then just shout. I also find it interesting that loads of people on this site seem either to learn or practice in their kitchens. If I even suggested doing that, the rest of the people in my house would throw a fit!

cheers
woodwalker

 

[Shibari.surfer]

Hey Woodwalker, Thanks very much for your tutorial and the encouragement. I'm very pleased to announce that tonight i did it (twice ) I'm so pleased Right gonna try and do it a couple more times before bed

 

[woodwalker]

Hurray! Was it your first time?

 

[Shibari.surfer]

Hurray! Was it your first time?

thanks
First time with the bow drill we've(me & my boy) had success with firesteels and various tinders. The first one we made had a hearth of oak but we didnt really get any joy with that. We switched to a hearth of Ivy and produced glowing embers for the first time last night. We're looking to improve on our bow now. Noticed Mors Kochanski suggests a straight bow(?) And we have yet to do it under "field" conditions
Few bits of wood and a length of string! cheapest hobby I've ever had

 

[woodwalker]

Great!

Yeah I read Mors' thing abouty straight bows too. I tried it out, but found I prefered a mild curve in it as it prevented my knuckles smashing on the drill. I understand where he is coming from though - it is much harder to support a bow with a hefty curve in it than a straight one. The most important thing I find is length though, trying to work with bows that are too short is a real pain. Experiment with different sizes.

What drill wood did you use on the ivy?

woodwalker

 

[Shibari.surfer]

I think our bow is on the short side at 2'. We used Hazel for the drill and oak for the bearing block. we'll try a longer bow and experiment with different woods for the drills and maybe different sizes too

 

[woodwalker]

The size of the bow really I suppose comes down to your preference (I wrote above I prefered one as long as my inside leg). If you are a mammoth guy, you are likely to want a larger bow than Mr Small his neighbour.

woodwalker

 

[mayfly]

Thanks largely to inspiration from this thread, I made fire by friction today!

Thanks for the encouragement here :You_Rock_

Here's a photo of my hearth and the story of my afternoon

From the left:
1. First attempt. Lots of stop and start drilling. I got a very small ember but couldn't keep it alight
2. I didn't bed in the drill enough and it kept jumping out, so abandoned
3. I got a nice ember, but my tinder wouldn't take, I think it was too damp
4. I took a break, dried the tinder thoroughly, got a nice ember and this time the tinder took fine - success!!

I was using a bought drill set from Dave Watson . I know some of you think this is fire making by numbers and not the real deal, but I did figure out all the different wood I was using, learnt a lot about how the various pieces fit together, and certainly feel confident I can move on from here to making my own set from what I can find.

Anyway, immensely satisfying and above all fun, big thanks to woodwalker for his original post!

Chris

 

[woodwalker]

No worries, I suppose it is quite a good idea to learn the technique on a proven set, then building your own. Out of interest, what is the wood it is made from and what does the kit comprise of? Just curious.

well done anyways, great effort

woodwalker

 

[mayfly]

Out of interest, what is the wood it is made from and what does the kit comprise of?

It comprises 4 pieces - bow is Ash, hearth (as per pic) is Lime, drill is Hazel and bearing block is Hawthorn.

Chris

 

[woodwalker]

Hi guys,

I've got a bit of free time over the next couple of days, and I thought it might be an idea to expand this thread. I already thought that it could do with exanding, and as someone PM'ed me about some more info yesterday, it seems to be the thing to do.

So, does anyone have any ideas?? I will probably try and do more on constructing the bowdrill set as there aren't that many photos there, or maybe something else??

cheers
woodwalker