Secrets of the hand drill - revealed

[Cypher2001]

Exactly what I was looking for..

Thank you much!

 

[Jeff Wagner]

The componennts are held by friction fit only. By tapering the holes in the socket a good snug fit can be achieved. The most siginificant aspect of this set up is this. In the wild you can find materials suitable for hand drill fire making, but they may not be long and straight. You can also find long straight shafts but which are useless for fire making. The collar concept allows you to combine the best features of the available resources to achieve the desired result. You can carry only the collar and collect the other parts as they are encountered. Or, use an arrow...

After I complete the photos relating to this set up, I will also show how to make it even easier with addition of thumb loops.

Where was I....

Step 8 - Cut your hearth board notch

 

[Slimey]

This thread got me tempted to have a go myself, never tried before and didn't quite manage fire, but I had some success.

I used some plain DIY shed wooden dowl and ash for the hearth, socket and drill as I have some in the garden. Using hands only I managed to get the wood to start blackening before I got a blister on my left hand and had to stop. I then made a block for the top of the drill and tried using a bow to turn the drill.

Using this I managed to get smoke coming from the hearth at one point

I'm gonna try and give it another go tonight.

Simon.

 

[leon-1]

I used some plain DIY shed wooden dowl and ash for the hearth, socket and drill as I have some in the garden. Using hands only I managed to get the wood to start blackening before I got a blister on my left hand and had to stop. I then made a block for the top of the drill and tried using a bow to turn the drill.
Simon.

You may wish to rethink the woods on this one, but very well done on getting smoke

 

[Wayne]

The only success i have had has been with very yellow Clematis. Once the clematis has seasoned too hard then nothing.

Although i have not had much success anyway. I have tried Elder. Anyone got any other suggestions?

 

[Jeff Wagner]

If you have poplar there you might try that for the hearth board and plug. A large measure of improvement can be made with the more difficult woods by adding thumb loops to the spindle.

 

[Slimey]

You may wish to rethink the woods on this one, but very well done on getting smoke

Thanks, I was a very chuffed person indeed!

I've just done a quick search of the site for ideas and found that some people recommend softer wood for the hearth. I've got some pine I can try and I have lots of sycamore growing near me so I'll see if I can find some of that to try as well.

Simon.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Yes, the softer low density woods ( higher insulation value ) are preferred. The best combination I have tried to date is a common mullein spindle on basswood. This combination has yielded a coal in as few as three passes down the spindle although is five passes is the average.

Maintain spindle / hearth board contact while repositioning the hands between passes to minimize heat loss. You should see smoke after the first pass.

 

[leon-1]

Yes, the softer low density woods ( higher insulation value ) are preferred. The best combination I have tried to date is a common mullein spindle on basswood. This combination has yielded a coal in as few as three passes down the spindle although is five passes is the average.

Maintain spindle / hearth board contact while repositioning the hands between passes to minimize heat loss. You should see smoke after the first pass.

Thanks Jeff, I got smoke of a set from Namibia yesterday, but the blisters put pay to any more practice for a while, I will hav to stick to bow drill for a bit.

Basswood is of the lime family, so I'll see if I can get a hearth made of it see what sort of difference there are between the sets.

As yet no smoke seen on the first Pass more practice required

 

[jim_w]

Bah! ***** the blisters, push them flat then carry on! The flap of skin re-attaches to the flesh underneath.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

I made a video clip this past spring that shows the hand drill method using the mullein / basswood combination. If memory serves it took 6 passes and about 25 seconds to get a coal. I would be happy to donate this if there is a way to make it viewable.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Thought I would share some observations while traveling throught the European countryside. In the UK I have seen thistle, goldenrod ( or a close cousin) at least one possible mullein along the motorway from Heathrow to Cambridge as well as numerous other but unidentified weeds stems of the right size and length. During a walk though Hyde Park for example, I noted a great many stalks that appeared suitable for hand drill use. I saw numerous multi seed headed mullein plants along the road sides in France and Switzerland. So, based on very limited exploration, I think you have an abundance of native stems that are worthy of further investigation. Collect them this fall at the end of the growing season. When I get back home I'll post a photo of a Hyde Park bunny enjoying his brunch among some suitable stems for your positive identification.

 

[Hoodoo]

Well Jeff, I put your technique to the test and I'm still whipped. I have a pretty nice setup and am using a thong and I'll admit, I have not put a lot of elbow grease into it. I'm just gonna keep at it though. Right now I have a yucca drill and cedar hearth. One of these days it's gonna happen...

I'm curious about the top part of the drill. It probably makes sense to use a narrow drill but isn't that more applicable to a one piece drill? Wouldn't it be better in a two piece setup to have a larger diameter drill for the top? Wouldn't you get more spin for the same amount of hand motion?

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Getting proper friction from the start is critical to success. If your contact surfaces glaze over, its best to roughen then and begin again. Maintain good downward pressure from the start. As mentioned, with a good set, you should be seeing smoke at the end of the first pass. Its so much more effective to show this rather than attempting to write it. In my experience, a weed stem spindle having a diameter between 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch seems to work best. A larger diameter requires more physical exersion and yields fewer spins per stroke. Like the sprockets on your bike, a smaller diameter results in a higher number of revolutions per "pump".

With natural spindles such as mullein, I've had the best luck with those that are stiff, straight, have low density, a high percentage of pith and a length of about 30 inches.

 

[Hoodoo]

Ah yes! I had that bass ackwards. What about friction though? Would you be able to exert more downward pressure with a larger diameter or is speed more important? Also, I found the small shaft wanted to slip through my hands as I moved them back and forth. What if I cut some tiny flat spots on the spindle? Would that help with friction?

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Yes, roughness helps. The mullein shafts are rough and irregular and taper from smaller to larger as you approach the tip. These things seem to aid in the application of downward pressure and speed of rotation.

 

[match]

I managed to crack the hand drill at the Scottish Meetup a couple of weekends ago!

I was using a holly spindle (debarked while still green, then left to dry out for a few months in the back of my cupboard) on a cedar hearth.

The two main things I can say from experience:

1) Downward pressure is everything - you need a lot of it! The next day my hands were very bruised, not from the friction, but from squeezing hard on the spindle - they were mostly sore on the pads under the little finger, where most pressure was applied. The coal dust needs to be a dark brown-black colour, if its a light brown or very powdery, you're not applying enough pressure!

2) The hearth 'depth' is also important - the hearth I was using was quite deep (from a bow drill set) and it took a lot of drilling to get enouh dust in the notch to form a good coal. Also, the next time I tried it I found that as I had already gone a reasonable depth into the hearth, a lot of energy seemed to be being wasted by the sides of the spindle rubbing against the walls of the hole.

3) Length of spindle - my spindle was very short (less than 25cm) and as such a lot of effort was wasted on moving my hands back to the top of the spindle. I can see that with a longer spindle, there would be more heat produced per 'travel' down the spindle.

4) In a hand drill, as with a bow drill, producing dust is important. With a bow drill, the dust is being produced at very hot temperatures - with a hand drill, the dust is probably slightly cooler, but when it is all trapped together in the notch, the heat being continually produced at the spindle end is being transferred to it. Almost like you are creating a powder version of charcloth then applying heat until it glows. If your notch is too large, or your board too deep, you'll have a lot of work on your hands!

Right, thats my 2 cents worth. I'm going to keep trying this fire-starting technique with different materials and different shapes/sizes of spindle hearth to confirm what I've said above. My belief is that you want a long, smooth spindle, a shallow hole to drill into, a thin hearth with a narrow notch, and a lot of downward pressure. But there may be other ways

 

[Hoodoo]

If your notch is too large, or your board too deep, you'll have a lot of work on your hands!

Could you elaborate on why a board too deep is detrimental? If you widen the hole at the edges would that reduce the problem?

 

[match]

Could you elaborate on why a board too deep is detrimental? If you widen the hole at the edges would that reduce the problem?

Sorry - I'll rephrase that...

I was meaning the height of the surface of the hearth from the ground (i.e its thickness). By having a thick hearth, the hole where the spindle is generating heat is far away from the place where the coal dust is gathering (at the bottom of the hearth).. By having a thinner hearth, the coal in the notch would be gathering closer to the spindle hole - meaning that there would be better heat transfer and more chance of a coal forming.

Cue bad 30-second illustration:



Top hearth is bad due to the heat loss as the coal dust falls - bottom hearth is better as there is less heat loss, and the coal dust is closer to the bottom of the spindle, meaning the heat leaving through the notch will pass through the accumulated dust, heating it some more...

Hope this makes sense

 

[Hoodoo]

Makes lots of good sense. Thanks for clarifying.