rich59 said:
Paul,
Just spotted your comment about doing your first attempt in a wood. Interestingly enough trying in a wood may be far harder than in a field! I can go down to the local wood, pick up some seemingly dry wood not lying on the floor and attempt to create a coal by drilling. Never seems to work. I can take the wood home to my garden or shed and it works.
A key issue here I think is that under the trees you have a high humidity. Doing it in a dryer atmosphere such as in the open, or in a dry shed is more likely to be successful.
Hi Rich59,
Interesting point because, I brought the bow and drill set home and over the next few days tried some of the techniques that fellow community members suggested - lubricating the bearing block with green leaves, changing the the shape of the drill bit that fits into the bearing block. Even without these changes I did seem to get a lot of smoke much quicker in my garden than I had in the woods. On Sunday 11th September when I made the attempt there was constant drizzling rain and it was quite warm - I am reasonably fit but was sweating buckets while bowing - and am sure you are right that the extra effort was because of the high high humidity.
I have been trying to get back out into the woods to change my selection of woods for the drill set as I know there are a few beech trees around - but due to a Fencing Competition last weekend (that's the swordy type rather than the living hawthorn variety ) and training the previous weekend haven't had the time .
I have been trying to contact a local scout camp to see if I can camp there 'off season' and practice some bushcraft skills but I haven't heard back from them - and I've been sending PMs to Lawrence Dell, who knows some land areas within driving distance of me but I haven't heard back from him.
Grrrrr, need lots of green and a complete absence of Londony stuff !