Easiest bow drilling

[rich59]

I am not the world's expert at bow drilling. Sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn't. (I would much rather hand drill.) I find bowing fairly hard work and it gives me sore fingers after a while. My bow string tends to stretch and wear out quite quickly.

What is the optimum setup in terms of ease of use and stability of the equipment?

I have tried various sizes of spindle. If it is bigger than about a half an inch then it seems to be a lot of work to get it to smoke. If it is a thin as a pencil then it is very easy to get smoke, but the depression in the hearth board wears quickly and the quantity of punk can be small.

If I put any significant pressure on the bearing block (in my case usually an old ice cream scoop) then the bow string tends to slip unless I increase the tension a lot - leading to stretching and breakage. How do you tie the knots at the ends of the bow? I currently tie it on at one end and leave a V shaped notch in the other end. Then I tie a loop in the end of the string and loop it over my middle finger before inserting the spindle and tightening it over the V notch.

Mostly I use ordinary household cotton string for the bow string - relatively strong for its size but it is only string after all. Is thicker cordage an advantage?

How would we judge who has the optimal setup - speed? ease of use by a novice? durability?

 

[bambodoggy]

Rich,

Look up the Egyptian Bow drill method, it should help with your problems as the cordage is tied onto the spindle with a clove hitch and thus cannot slip.

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[rich59]

Rich,

Look up the Egyptian Bow drill method, it should help with your problems as the cordage is tied onto the spindle with a clove hitch and thus cannot slip.

Cheers,

Bam.

Hi Bam,

Thanks for this. I did look into the Egyptian method a while ago. I recall it combined the knot you describe along with multiple turns of the bow string round the drill spindle. From experimenting I found that the knot seemed the least important part of this arrangement as the multiple turns meant it never slipped anyway. I also found that to manage the multiple turns you needed to have the bow at more of an angle off the horizontal and therefore a shorter bow to stop scraping the ground. Therefore you lost a lot of the efficiency and speed of the larger bow. It seemed swings and roundabouts. What do you find is best for you?


Another issue I never quite resolved was that bowing seemed to necessitate a certain amount of wobbling about of the drill in its socket with the hearth board. Therefore it wasn't long after you started using a socket before the drill would jam as the socket got worn deeper. I use about 3/4 inch thick commercial pine board. Would I do better to have it as thin say as 1/4 to 1/2 inch?

 

[bambodoggy]

It seems to be a personal trial and error thing, people will tell you that you have to have this type of wood or that, that the bow must be X thick or X long and so on.

I use a rather small 16"ish bow that is as thin as my finger...I find this light and easy to handle.
For a hearth board I go between 1/4" and 1/2" but not thicker.

For a bearing block I use a bit of antler with a counter sink drill hole into it (but not through it obviously).

It sounds to me (having not seen you do it) like the drill is wobbling because of your possition, you need to make sure your bearing block arm is wrapped tightly into your shin at about the wrist so that nothing can move other than your bow arm.

All of the above is just how I do it and others will have there own ways and tricks....far be it from me to say one method is better than another

Just keep at it and the technique will come in time, obviously it's a lot easier to help others if you are with them rather than via a forum

Hope that helps a bit.

(Is it defo pine board you're using? Maybe try switching to the boards from a Poplar pallet, it might help...then again it might not )

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[rich59]

Many thanks, nothing like a bit of encouragement. I tried the thinner board you suggested. I also concentrated on eliminating all vibration and squeaking, while keeping only light steady pressure on the bearing block. I slowed down and relaxed, letting the drill do the work - just enough work to get steadily more smoke and char over a couple of minutes until the notch was full and the new hot char was moving sideways to stack on the earlier char.

The result was 6 or 7lighted coals from 3 different drills and 2 different hearths, and no sore hands and no broken string. One drill I eliminated as it had an irregular surface that caused vibration during the drilling.

 

[PatrickM]

Hi Rich

Unfortunately the materials and optimum dimensions of the bowdrill seem to have been stipulated by many authors of books (but I wonder how many of them have actually experimented?).

This is a bowdrill which I demonstrate to students to get them out of that mind set. It is by no means the smallest. I think your problem may be in your stance and technique that you are using. I'm on a course this weekend but will hopefully give you further insight when I get back.

Regards
Patrick

 

[Hedgehog]

Nice set there Patrick!

 

[storm]

that's the NICEST bow drill set i've ever seen, patrick! did you make it yourself? if so, would you tell me/us how you put it together? superb! it makes me want to make a nice set.

 

[bambodoggy]

All Patrick's stuff is made as nice as that, he had it on display at the WG and some of the stuff he makes is truely stunning


Rich, good on ya mate...as I say the more you do it and relax into it the easier it gets, glad my little tips helped you bud

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[rich59]

How would we judge who has the optimal setup - speed? ease of use by a novice? durability?

Looks like beauty is another factor in the optimal setup Patrick.

I had another thought on the optimal setup though - can it deal with the trickiest woods? I hear that ancient Japanese masters would teach friction fire by simply giving their students some oak and asking them to make fire with it. I guess the point is you have to master every aspect of bow drilling and make it maximally efficient to be able to do oak.

I have tried oak on oak a number of times by bow and hand. No success yet although I did manage with an oak hearth. I have got fire out of this combination with power drill so may be I pass the Japanese master's test????