Hand Drill For Beginners Tutorial

[PatrickM]

Over the years I've come across many frustrated students who have tried and failed to produce a glowing ember from the hand drill. In most cases they have ended up with blisters and no desire to push on with this technique. Failure can be caused by many variables such as wood types, combinations, technique and so on. I often hear people talk about this or that combination of materials or technique (which are all relevant) but not many mention stamina. I will not deal with wood types in this tutorial as there is enough information on this already.

There are 3 things which are directly related to success outwith the materials. They are speed, pressure and stamina. Most students will achieve smoke by using 2 of these but in all cases (In my experience) they run out of stamina, usually at the critical point. If you think about it, you would not run a marathon without any prior training. This also applies to the hand drill method of fire lighting, stamina needs to be built up.

Hopefully if you try this method, after a week or so you will have strengthened the relevant muscles and can then discard one of the training aids. Persevere for another week and then finally you will be able to go it alone.

The top of the hand drill with thumb loops attached:

The bottom of the hand drill with an elder plug and flat stones lashed around the spindle with bark. The
plug method will also allow you to experiment with different woods, by inserting them into the elder tube.

Place your thumbs through the thumb loops - this will allow you to spin the drill for longer periods and
add downward pressure, without moving your hands up and down the spindle. The added weight near
the drill tip will also be advantageous

Start to spin the drill and it will not take long for the smoke to appear. Keep spinning until the smoke is
very thick and the nock is starting to fill with dust......give it all you've got.

If all is well you should have a smoking ember sitting in the nock

Calmly remove drill and set aside. Fan the ember with your hand until it starts to glow.

This style of hand drill will also produce coals from many unfavourable woods. Hope this helps!

 

[MartiniDave]

Thanks Patrick for putting this together. A fantastic piece of work and some very good ideas.

I'm building up quite a list of you things to try!

Anyone able to sell me a "Round Tuit"?

Dave

 

[Hoodoo]

Another excellent tutorial! I have yet to get my first coal from a hand drill, even with the thong but I have not put a lot of effort into it. I'm waiting on the current crop of mullein to dry before harvesting and giving it another go.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

The mullein stalks over here are getting brown and ready right now. I was in Maine on a bear hunt during the first week in September and did a demo for the group to fill up some idle time. When chooing a spindle I aim to find one about the diameter of my finger at the butt end and it should be stiff. If it is too flexible I find I have trouble applying enough downward force. Of course the socket concept solves that problem. Let me know if you have trouble finding one as I have a growing pile in the garage. I intend to make hand drill sets available this fall on the website.

 

[rich59]

Great work Patrick. I have the feeling that hand drilling styles vary quite a lot and what I do is probably not what you do.

Teaching hand drilling is a skill in itself, and in that I am certainly no expert. I do however think that for some people one can take away stamina. At times I skip hand drilling for weeks, come back to it and it is almost as easy as before. I would perhaps put technique in the place of stamina. For me hand drilling is all about a short sprint on the end of a gentle(ish) amble. I find with the right materials one can keep a trickle of smoke going for a while without exhaustion while the materials are heating up and drying out. Finally a short sprint with loads of speed and pressure produces a mass of hot fresh punk - coal done.

Then I think that having a certain amount of muscle built up across your upper back and chest is a key. I have a feeling that once built up it does not go away in a hurry even if I skip it for a few weeks.

Trying regularly and knowing when to stop to prevent too much damage to the hands feels important. Getting the skin of your hands harder by this practice does allow you to try for longer periods so that you then develop the skills quicker.

Then getting the moisture right seems very important. Damp skin gives hugely better grip anabling you to transfer your body weight through the drill with much less effort.

I am sure that thumb loops is an important step for some. For me it it always feels awkward and quickly tires out muscles and I find myself throwing them off so I can apply my body weight more easily without all that strain on the thumbs.

Then there is the idea that you should not try something that isn't working for very long. Bail out before you are exhausted or hurt. Criticise the setup and make some adjustments before trying again.

There is little margin for error with hand drilling. Miss the optimum setup by just a little and even if you have the muscles, the calluses, stamina and technique you can quickly burn out and not be able to repeat the effort till the next day or later.

 

[shona]

I do however think that for some people one can take away stamina. At times I skip hand drilling for weeks, come back to it and it is almost as easy as before. I would perhaps put technique in the place of stamina.

But as a set up for Beginners this looks like a great help, presumably Rich you are not a beginner and can be sucessful at hand drilling without daily practice. We are not all in this position and I have found hand drilling to be extremely hard work and have been put off it without achieving a coal. This sounds like a good way to get somewhere without being demotivated first. Once you get a fire this way, that's all the motivation needed to keep practising.
Then you can work on perfecting technique.

Thanks for the tips PatrickM !

 

[rich59]

presumably Rich you are not a beginner and can be sucessful at hand drilling without daily practice. We are not all in this position and I have found hand drilling to be extremely hard work and have been put off it without achieving a coal. This sounds like a good way to get somewhere without being demotivated first. Once you get a fire this way, that's all the motivation needed to keep practising.
Then you can work on perfecting technique.

Thanks for the tips PatrickM !

Thanks Shona,

I am delighted it looks a good way for you. I am sure it is very helpful for some. For me using loops isn't very helpful, uses muscles that I don't use when using my normal technique and seems harder work than without. In my previous posting I was exploring what else seems to be of help in learning to hand drill as for me at least another route got me to success.

For some people neither Patrick's or my advice may be of crucial help to them, but some other technique.

Having mastered some of the aspects of making fire by primitive means I find it rewarding to encourage others. In that I am a novice. One has to recognise different people's needs - young, old, hesitant, bold, tall, short, female, male etc.

But, I think you are absolutely right - that seeing yourself progressing towards success is the best encouragement.

 

[Fire Starter]

Great Tutorial Patrick. I like your Kiss (Keep it simple stupid) approach to this, it beats reading through pages of waffle.

 

[PatrickM]

I have the feeling that hand drilling styles vary quite a lot and what I do is probably not what you do.

Rich, I am certainly aware of other hand drilling techniques but I use a technique that has created many fires in various environments. It's quite simple really, like me I suppose ! I moisten my hands, clasp the spindle between the palms of my two hands and start spinning, moving up and down the spindle with lots of downward pressure - it works every time - coal done.

I suppose when it comes to technique vs. stamina its a bit like the chicken before the egg question. My experiences with many students have shown me that stamina frequently lets them down (this is just my opinion of course), but like yourself I do not claim to be an expert. The method shown in my tutorial is one that I find helps beginners to quickly reach success, without having built up either stamina, or technique (which can only come with experience)

For me hand drilling is all about a short sprint on the end of a gentle(ish) amble. I find with the right materials one can keep a trickle of smoke going for a while without exhaustion while the materials are heating up and drying out. Finally a short sprint with loads of speed and pressure produces a mass of hot fresh punk - coal done.

Start to spin the drill and it will not take long for the smoke to appear. Keep spinning until the smoke is very thick and the nock is starting to fill with dust......give it all you've got

I personally don't see any difference here in your technique and what I'm suggesting, apart from the different way you have described it.

Anyway Rich59 all this typing has burned me out so to speak, so I'm off to light a fire using a bow drill and some oak. (I will probably depend on stamina with this method as well)

 

[Toddy]

Patrick, thank you again for the tutorial...straightforward as ever
I have to admit I've only tried the fire drill once, gave up in frustration and went and made a bow ! but I'm going to give this a shot.
Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Alberto Hernandez]

Hello Everyone
That is what I love about this great forum! That the members realy get into primitive skills and try to help each other improve there skills!
I wish that I had use thumb loops years ago when I was teaching my self the hand drill method of friction fire making. I am sure that it would have been a great help to me and reduce the amount of blisters that I got when I was learning!
Patrick I just love your illustrations, where were you several years ago when I was learning the hand drill method?

Best wishes to all
Alberto
From South Florida USA.

 

[rich59]

Patrick - I'm very impressed by the gear you use. Those loops look comfortable to use. Are they leather?

I have tried thumb loops in two or three ways. Leaving aside whether they work for me perhaps I can share with others what I found worked and what didn't. Maybe if I had better gear it would be easier for me.

First I tried ordinary string, fastening with some add hoc knot to a notch in the top of the drill. It worked but was fiddly and the string tended to cut into my hands. It was better if I put some padding between the string and my thumb.

Then I tried something completely different. I took a strip of cloth about 18 - 24 inches long and tied it into a loop with a sheet bend. Then I tied it tightly to the top of the drill with just a self tightening knot - an ordinary clove hitch. This gave me a single loop to hook one thumb in and leave the other free. I could also tie a second similar loop on at the top if I wished for the other thumb. This was comfortable for the thumb and 9 times out of 10 the knot did not slip. Generally the longer the cloth piece the more freedom my hands had to drill with. I found I could get fire with just one loop providing all the downward pressure.

 

[Alberto Hernandez]

Hello Rich
That was very interesting, thanks for sharing it with us.
I always like to encourage people that what to learn the
hand drill method of friction fire making to to get a buddy
and take turns spinning the drill. For a example when one
person spin the drill to the botton the other person starts
at the top, till they get a coal.
Rich I truely admire your interest in friction fire making!
Best wishes to you always!

Alberto
South Florida USA.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

I had a little fun with the hand drill and stone age fire making yesterday. I cut a fresh mullein stalk, scraped away the leaf scars and shaped the butt, all with a large sharp flint chip. I formed a small depression in a chunk of tinder fungus using a corner of the flake and then twirled up a coal. Total time expended for preparation the shaft, shaping the socket in the fungus and forming the coal was about 7 minutes. Tinder fungus is nearly impossible to extinguish once it gets going. I could have shared this big coal with an entire camp.

 

[VIRULENT SALAMANDER]

.... .. Thank's PatrickM, well put together.​

 

[Schwert]

All photos and text from Jeff Wagner. He should be by soon for details and questions about this series of images....


Photo 1 - fresh cut mullein shaft

Photo 2 - after scraping and shaping with a flint chip

Photo 3 - forming the depression in the fungus

Photo 4 - Third pass down the spindle

Photo 5 - Coal formation

Photo 6 - Natural coal propagation after four minutes

Photo 7 - Spindle tip after coal formation.

 

[Alberto Hernandez]

Hello Schwert
Thanks for posting the pictures for Jeff!

Hello Jeff
Awesome great pictures, the pictures are virtually self explanatory
Have you ever try horse weed or cattail? I like using them for hand
drills too.

Thanks again Guys
Alberto

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Hola Alberto. Que hay de neuvo? Cattail and horse weed are not quite ready for collecting yet in these parts and need to dry out a bit more. Soon though. Stone artifacts found in this region called banner stones bear evidence of having been drilled using a hollow stem. I am betting it was cattail.

 

[Alberto Hernandez]

Hola Jeff
I think that in your part of the Country you may have a plant call teasel. That is another good weed for a hand drill!
Hey I just finish sending you a private e-mail let me know if you receive it.
Hasta luego
Alberto

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Yes, we have plenty of teasle and I have heard it makes a suitable hand drill but have not yet given it a try.

I have developed a slip collar arrangement that permits the use of thumb loops on various natural shafts. The loops are attached to the collar which slides down the shaft until it encounters larger diameter and resistance to hold is in place. This slip collar fits in a pocket and can be used instantly on fresh cut spindles in the field. It works great on mullein. I'll try to get a photo of it up for viewing.