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Have you tried a variation on the bow drill called the Egyptian Bow Drill? It's a little easier than the standard, "spindle keeps flipping out of the string" standard bow method.

Dryer sheets (especially used/spent ones) burn surprisingly well. Don't even know if y'all have them across the Atlantic... These are the sheets you throw in the dryer with wet laundry to prevent "static cling" and give them a fragrance... Doc

He is. I watch him, but pretty much for entertainment value only. If I want "real" outdoorsy stuff, it's Les Stroud here in the States. At least his show in re-runs. Doc

Actually, I believe that wasn't water. It was urine, so that he could concentrate the salts/waste materials before drinking it so that it did his body even more harm. Doc

Holy sh*t, Casey! I stumbled onto firesteel.com's firetubes probably right about the time this thread was started. I had ordered a firesteel tube (I believe it's the Bunker size), a smaller firesteel with some magnesium (a round rod that fits the scraper perfectly to make shavings), and...

Off the top of my head, I believe Nalgene = polypropylene (at least that's the stuff we use in lab). I'd hesitate to use it if that is polypropylene. http://www.sdplastics.com/polypro.html "It has excellent resistance to acids and alkalies, but poor aromatic, aliphatic and chlorinated...

I wish Bear a speedy recovery. I don't want anyone to be hurt... And I do watch the "Man vs Wild" show, but as I've posted before, it's more entertainment than educational, much like watch Pro Wrestling isn't going to teach me anything. As for the reason for the quote, I usually watch...

I don't know if it was reported here or not, but Les Stroud, of "Survivorman" fame, has decided to end his show with this current season being the last. Can't say as I blame him. It takes time away from his family and I imagine doing week after week of surviving is hard to handle. But...

You may want to give this setup a whirl: http://www.dirttime.com/egyptian%20bow%20and%20drill.html It's what I'm trying to learn. It's less stressful on the bow string, and it keeps the spindle from flipping out, letting you focus on the other mechanics of getting an ember. Doc

I'm still hit and miss with this method... and it's annoying. I'm using the same hearth I started with (I've worked with a few spindles so far). Sometimes, I get an ember without too much work. Others, I work and work and.. a little smoke and... nothin'. Any tips? I'd like to be able...

Interesting. Is this a case of, assuming you don't know what the wood is you're using (let's say you've stumbled across a dead tree in the woods, no leaves on it, bark not in great shape, so it's tough to ID the tree...), if you can push in with your thumbnail and easily leave a mark, it's...

I was looking at my hearth last night and noticed something... The better/easier the coal formation, the better cut my "wedge" was. In some of my earlier attempts, the notch didn't quite go to the middle of the... Divot? in the wood. Those were hit and miss. As I stopped and looked and...

I wouldn't be too concerned over it. I doubt much, if anything, from the bottle would leech into the water. I think most water bottles are PET, and that should be failry resistant to reacting with the water (not saying it couldn't happen, just that it should be slow/non-existant). The...

I'm sitting outside, enjoying a martini and a cigar (I may be "King of the Castle," but She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed doesn't like cigars indoors...). I promised myself if I managed fire from the bowdrill, I'd have a martini. I'm so pumped right now. I DID IT!!!! My last spindle was worn down to a...

I agree about carrying the cotton wool, Ogri. But this is me, learning how to do this in my back yard, where natural tinders are a bit scarce. ;) I also wanted to learn more about the mechanics of making the ember (the real trick of the bow drill method) than the blowing it into a flame...

So close and yet so far. The whole "1 to 5" technique mentioned above got me spinning. And spin I have! I've managed to get two embers! TWO WHOLE EMBERS! TWICE! As in, "It wasn't a fluke!" The problem is that I have yet to coax those embers into an open flame. To make things easy, I was...

I've started playing with this technique, and I find I have one big problem that I keep running into.... For sake of discussion, on one side of the spindle, the rope is unwinding. On the other, it's winding. When I move the bow, the "winding" part doesn't wind nicely. It wraps very...

Oh. I forgot this one, and it surprised the heck out of me when I tried it... Another thing to fish out of the drier... spent fabric softener sheets. I figured those wouldn't light at all, being polymer based, and all... but they took a spark right off and burned for a while as well. Doc

Wax Paper works well too!

Don't know if it's been on over there in the UK/Europe yet, but there was a show on here called, "The Alaska Experiment." The Discovery Channel took four groups of ordinary people, gave them some basic survival info, and dropped them off in the deep woods/coast of Alaska, in the late fall...