Article: Some basic bowdrill tips and tricks.

Seoras

Mod
Mod
Oct 7, 2004
1,930
133
58
Northwich, Cheshire
www.bushcraftdays.com
Great post. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

One thing I have learnt over the years is that there are so many variables with the bowdrill that you need to accept that some days it just does not all come together - thankfully they are not that often.

Cheers

George
 

Swallow

Native
May 27, 2011
1,552
4
London
Bearing block. Bung grass (Or I have heard a slug) into a wooden one to ease friction. A stone with an indent also works.

Maybe our ancestors did not use it once and throw it away, but presumably they used it quite a few times a day or week (Paul Kirtley has a photo on here of a Hazda using a hand drill to light a cigarette) and therefore the set would not last as long as if you knock out a coal every Saturday or every month. Therefore I believe the suggestions to throw it away after one use.....are to compensate for our decreased consumption rate of the kit and get us more in line with frequency of "builds" of hunter gatherers, which in turn gets us more in line with seeing what is available around us and interacting with it. Overall if you build a kit and take 6 months to wear it out then that's only 1 build and only 1 set of interactions with your surroundings. If you make a new set every week you have increased your experience by 2600%. That's a no brainer for me.
 

kimbo

Nomad
Feb 21, 2006
364
0
54
Kent
Many thanks for the best, least daunting tutorial on the bowdrill method I have seen. I think a lot more people might give this a go due to this.
 

Jaeger

Full Member
Dec 3, 2014
670
24
United Kingdom
Nice one,
Always good to see other people's take on things. Sometimes that slight difference in a piece of kit, the way that it is used or a difficulty surmounted can help others through a difficulty.
Thanks
 

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