Good Woods

[M0nkeymann]

hi thought i'd give bow drilling a try but so far no luck
somone i spoke to said that it might have something to do with the woods that i was using.
can anyone suggest woods for the base board and the drill

 

[rich59]

Yes, certainly the woods you use make a huge difference. As a generalisation I would say use whatever woods produce a fine, dusty dark brown to black punk - not fibrous or gritty. A lot of people say use a softwood base board and a hard wood drill. But I find that if you alter the drill thickness this need not be a criterion.

Also, many people (including me) feel that woods with a softer centre work well as a drill.

It does depend on what you have available really. Do try the same wood in various diameters - it can make a lot of difference.

For drills I would certainly recommend elder, buddliea (butterfly bush), and philadelphus (mock orange).

Bow drilling does give you more scope than hand drilling. - Hazel is recommended by many for bow drilling but it is a no no for me as a hand driller.

With the hearth board I would suggest you simply get used to one that is in plentiful supply and stick to it until you are competent with lots of drills and drill diameters. I cut my teeth on ordinary commercial softwood - bits left over from DIY. Comes ready squared off and flat. But do split it down to less than half an inch thick I would suggest.

But don't try oak till you are truely mad.

Finally a plea that whatever drill you use make sure is spins absolutely smoothly in the socket without squeaking or vibration - all coming from irregularities just off the drill tip. Avoid any knots at the tip as well. Get rid also of any bark that can cause ragged stuff to flap about and blow away the punk.

What have your tried so far? Any pictures?

 

[JoshG]

Yes, certainly the woods you use make a huge difference. As a generalisation I would say use whatever woods produce a fine, dusty dark brown to black punk - not fibrous or gritty. A lot of people say use a softwood base board and a hard wood drill. But I find that if you alter the drill thickness this need not be a criterion.

Also, many people (including me) feel that woods with a softer centre work well as a drill.

It does depend on what you have available really. Do try the same wood in various diameters - it can make a lot of difference.

For drills I would certainly recommend elder, buddliea (butterfly bush), and philadelphus (mock orange).

Bow drilling does give you more scope than hand drilling. - Hazel is recommended by many for bow drilling but it is a no no for me as a hand driller.

With the hearth board I would suggest you simply get used to one that is in plentiful supply and stick to it until you are competent with lots of drills and drill diameters. I cut my teeth on ordinary commercial softwood - bits left over from DIY. Comes ready squared off and flat. But do split it down to less than half an inch thick I would suggest.

But don't try oak till you are truely mad.

Finally a plea that whatever drill you use make sure is spins absolutely smoothly in the socket without squeaking or vibration - all coming from irregularities just off the drill tip. Avoid any knots at the tip as well. Get rid also of any bark that can cause ragged stuff to flap about and blow away the punk.

What have your tried so far? Any pictures?

I haven't tried bow drilling just yet but with this info, when I do try it hopefully it will be a less frustrating experience first time. Cheers rich.

 

[odin13]

what wood do you buy from diy stores, i womder if balsa would work??? a little too soft maybe... is elder good for the hearth coz i have a tree in my garden
cheers,
alex

 

[fa11en ange1]

Bearing in mind I have never tried Fire by Friction (although I am waiting on some Ivy to season so I can give it a go), I was under the impression that the spindle and hearth really should be of the same wood for the best result. Is that not correct?

 

[Wayne]

Elder is a pretty good wood for fire by friction. remember that the real skill is in wood selection. one peice of elder may be fantastic whilst its neightbour will leave you sweating for hours.

 

[wolf]

ive had more success with the wood from the same limb,ie using it for the drill and board...

 

[Marts]

One of the easiest woods for a bow drill set is Lime. If you're stuck finding some suitable you can always take a short cut for practising and order a piece for a few quid from Axminster which should give you several sets to play with.
Although there's something to be said from learning with a slighty harder wood - When I learnt on the fundamental course they got us to make sets out of sycamore, which is considered a medium wood for bowdrilling. Lime was simple after that.

 

[rich59]

what wood do you buy from diy stores, i womder if balsa would work??? a little too soft maybe... is elder good for the hearth coz i have a tree in my garden
cheers,
alex

Just wood used in general building. In fact it is pine, and comes from the huge forestry commission pine plantations around the country.

 

[rich59]

Bearing in mind I have never tried Fire by Friction (although I am waiting on some Ivy to season so I can give it a go), I was under the impression that the spindle and hearth really should be of the same wood for the best result. Is that not correct?

There are lots of opinions on this. There is perhaps one guy in the world who has the answer because he has tried rigorously almost every wood combination you can imagine. If you have a look at his web site you can see that his answer was - no significicant difference.

See http://www.hollowtop.com/Articles/Friction_Fire_Woods.htm

 

[rich59]

Elder is a pretty good wood for fire by friction. remember that the real skill is in wood selection. one peice of elder may be fantastic whilst its neightbour will leave you sweating for hours.

Elder has many strengths and is on my recommended list. But it has its problems -

As a drill if it is of young wood it can crack due to the thin shell of wood round the soft centre.

As a hearth board it is a very hard wood making it difficult to cut. Also if the drill is of a larger diameter you can form a polished surface in the socket that is hard to get friction from.

I have not found that different pieces of wood behave differently - my impression is that it comes down to the physical dimensions, and dampness. Others may disagree.

 

[M0nkeymann]

thanks i'll give it another try and try to get some pictures

 

[leon-1]

I found the post that has the link to storms work quite interesting, in it he has English Ivy down as being extremely difficult, I have been working with Ivy as a hearth, a drill, bearing block and bow for a few years and don't find them difficult.

I also know that some of the schools in the UK use Ivy sets for the instructors.

Ivy hearth with Hazel drill is very good to work with as well. The only thing that I would say is that Ivy requires a long time to season properly as when cut it is absolutely sodden.

Indigenous peoples generally make a friction fire set long before they use it so that it has plenty of time for the woods to season correctly.

 

[rich59]

I found the post that has the link to storms work quite interesting, in it he has English Ivy down as being extremely difficult, I have been working with Ivy as a hearth, a drill, bearing block and bow for a few years and don't find them difficult.

Storm's website "table two preferred bow drill materials" does not seem to relate directly to his rigorous chart of actual experience. I extracted data from his chart and totalled up all the scores and found that a number of woods seemed significantly easier or harder than in table two. Ivy actually came out well into the top half of ease of getting a coal.

The one that I noted was hazel. My experience put it down as "extremely difficult" and so it appears on Storm's carefully documented chart if you count up the scores. But in table two it was only "difficult". But a lot of people recommend hazel for a drill.

Then if you look up hazel on ivy in his chart you find it is paradoxically easy with the lowest possible score of effort. That agrees then with a lot of people's experience.

So - hazel may be difficult on a lot of woods, but on some it may be easy?

 

[leon-1]

Richard, the only thing I can say is play with them and see what you get.

I found that Hazel on an Ivy hearth works quite well as it does on Lime as a hearth.

If you want to get suicidal then try getting ash on a Ivy hearth going, it is a total nightmare

Somewhere I have a list of all the woods that people have had success with in the UK (basically all the ones that people have recommended as being easy) and generally people have been right.

After not having done firebow for a long time (years) the first time I picked it up again was Hazel drill and Lime hearth and about 90% of the people there managed an ember, I was pretty amazed. In the end it is trial and error and as I say with Ivy it needs to be well seasoned and in the drills case has to be round (I had a drill that was elliptical and that would not work no matter what i tried, in the end it joined its familly back in the woods)

 

[Wayne]

Elder has many strengths and is on my recommended list. But it has its problems -

As a drill if it is of young wood it can crack due to the thin shell of wood round the soft centre.

As a hearth board it is a very hard wood making it difficult to cut. Also if the drill is of a larger diameter you can form a polished surface in the socket that is hard to get friction from.

I have not found that different pieces of wood behave differently - my impression is that it comes down to the physical dimensions, and dampness. Others may disagree.

Your comments about Elder are spot on but in my experience wood from the same speices can have differednt properties due to the growing conditions and climate the tree is exposed to. The width of a trees growth rings for example.

I have found ivy to be a bit hit and miss. In good condition its great but too seasoned and it becomes too hard and just becomes polished.