Bushmoot Bowdrill

[Seoras]

I have been playing around with a slight variation to the Group Bowdrill technique.

I know many of you will have tried this or read about it but I will be looking to incorporate this method into the Group/Family Bowdrill classes at the Bushmoot this year.

I got the idea from watching a You Tube video from the Main Primitive Skills School.

No bow is required as there are loops or toggles on the ends of the cord. Many of you will have seen the large bearing blocks I use at the Bushmoot, this is replaced by a smaller double handed block.

The cord is attached to the drill piece with a Clove Hitch and wrapped around as in the Egyptian technique.

One person holds the block and two others on the cord.

Here you can see a close up of all the wraps with the Egyptian technique. You get a slight wobble as the drill beds in but after a bit it runs smooth.

A coal was gotten pretty quickly on a damp morning.

And flame soon after.

Using the Egyptian method you do not get the drill piece pinging out so much and there is no bow to get in the way. One adult can hold the bearing block and the kids can then pull the cord.

So hopefully another one everyone can try if they want at the Moot.

Cheers

George

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

Looking forward to having a crack at that with the kids at the Moot George.

Cheers

 

[coln18]

Nice one to keep in the memory bank for next time we are out

 

[Tony]

Cool, that looks like fun

 

[Seoras]

Just gotten five sets of this made up by a friend of mine (Mat Howes). He is a dab hand at splicing ropes to make adjustable loops on amsteel rope. The loops can be adjusted to lengthen or shorten the rope or to insert handles into them (handles will be good for the kids).

This is a very hard wearing rope so it wil be interesting to see if the ropes last through the Moot.