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I had a look at Ed's little bamboo fire piston today. The piston knob appears to be some type of palm wood, judging the cell structure. Sadly, our native California Fan Palm wood would be much too soft and porous for the job.

Fire Steel. Shoot. You kids need to learn how to start a fire the proper way by rubbing two sticks together. And then all the group ceremonially dance around the fire you made like savages. That's how we have a good time here in California

I ran a bow drill competitions for a group of anthropology students. They went one at a time and got equal coaching. No timing. Everyone that successfully did it got to keep their drill and hearth set as a prize.

Hi BOD, I likewise came across the Maori Drill by accident several months ago. This drill used for drilling stone reciprocates much like the pump drill but is too difficult to keep steady, and so unreliable in fire starting. The simple hand twirled drill is more practical. Still, it’s always...

Hi Shaun, I have successfully done the fire low with a few different woods. One was California buckeye wood on itself. Wasn't easy. Buckeye is the same thing as Horse Chestnut if you've got that around. Lime sounds like a good wood for the hearthboard. Whatever works best with the drill on lime...

Hi Tom. Here in California we have a native plant we call Coltsfoot (Petasites frigidus). Different from what you've got and anyway it's not in my area but further north in wet forests. We have many other plants of the same family with similar floss attached to the seed I can test. I read...

Neat Tom. I've tried similar fluff from a few different plants before but everything I tried instintly burnt away. I'll have another go at it. Thanks for the tip. Nice fire piston too.

Hi Bod. Seems you are confused. The photo above is of mine. Shewie and Rich were kind enough to post the photo for me. I've made these of bamboo as well. Those bamboos you mentioned used in arrow making would be best for this. A friend has a beautiful genuine antique bow and arrow set from the...

Hi Will. My family is from the Cahuilla Tribe centered around the Palm Springs area, a desert region of Southern California. This same composite hand drill design was made since prehistoric times. We know this from artifacts found preserved in dry caves in the southwestern USA. Perfect...

BEHOLD (if I did it right) http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk263/ivan90254/?action=tageditmany

The composite hand drill (CHD) is the supreme hand drill design. The sacred plant which drills fire most readily is rare, and its stems are not found long and straight enough for making regular hand drills. This is the reason for making CHDs. A mainshaft is from another plant forming naturally...

Not aware of composite handrills but that does not mean they did not exist before since most of the other methods of fire production occur here - pump, hand, saw, thong, bamboo percussion, fire piston but funnily enough no mention of the bow drill Hi Bod, I bet they did make composite...

Hey Jim, the common Woolly Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) has been used for ages as hand drills. Although, it can not be used with the bowdrill as it's too pithy.

Seems I was off base with mullein. But from what Bod tells, there are bamboo cultivars used in firecraft. Ed Read, of bamboo strike alite fame, told me of certain bamboos for arrow making. Here in California the Indians often used canes of Phragmites as mainshafts in composite arrows and hand...

So are you saying that what you call 'mullein' over there is Baccharis salicifolia (which we don't have over here)? Jim Hi Jim. No, you are right that mullein and mulefat are two quite different plants. Mullein is not native to the Americas, although it's a common weed around California. I...

Thanks for your reply Robert. I don't expect they did spread firestick plants about, although I suppose it's possible. Many food plants and tobacco were spread extensively across the Americas. I think the mulefat patch I mentioned was there when the Indians lived there.

I am an ethnobotanist with a particular interest in plants used for friction fire. Not long ago some people wrote here of growing mullein on their home property and some seed trading went on. Here in California the plant used most by the Indians for their hand drills and arrow making was mulefat...

Thanks Stu. Yes, Elderberry pith can work the same way. But for some reason Elder pith does not always work. I have not figured it yet. Maybe it needs to be partilally decayed? In the pieces I have that work the outer skin easily peels away from the pith. More useful is yucca (Yucca whipplei...

I'd like to share a simple bushcraft trick which I just discovered myself. Everyone knows of Mullein for hand drills. Another use for Mullein is its pith which can be used the same as charred cloth. Lite a piece of pith and snuff it out. The charred spot you've made easily catches sparks from...

Thanks a heap for that Tom. I found a picture of a stone suspected to be of this use in an anthropology book describing artifacts left by the California Indians. Ed Read and I tested the theory ourselves but failed. We need to try another type of stone. Sorry to hear Storm is gone.