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Bowdrill succes!

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Here's a quick photo:

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Excuse the club foot, my sock was hanging off!

Only a quick one to show I'm no liar! :p
 
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Congratulations and well done! I have managed it a few times myself but not for a while! You have reminded me I need to have a go again. Well done though.
Russ
 
The Infamous Grouse said:
I've been trying some more today; scraping the char off and starting a new notch each time... works a charm! I also find as I'm only using each notch once; using a thinner hearth works well also. I'm guessing this is because there's less wood to sink the heat away.

Big thanks for everyone's advice!

That lime is great; hardly more effort than lighting the oven now (yeah right!). I'll pop out tomorrow evening and collect some wild timber to have a go with, now I have the basic gist of it:o
Click to expand...

good point aboult the hearth thickness.

Congratulations Clouston, only managed it myself recently, but I'm twice your age.tried it years ago but only recently suceeded.
 
Cheers mate!

Thanks for all the kind words and great advice! :)

I've got some lime not far away too, so I might have a tinker with it, there seems to be some good combinations, especially of wood I can source easily- and there's usually plenty of dead standing so il.have something to be getting on with :).
 
Clouston98 - I tried Buddleia on Buddleia as I had heard something about pith centred wood being good for hand drill! Anyway it worked a charm for bow drill. Yet to do hand drill. Bonus is - it's everywhere! If you can't find a long straight piece I did a small section and lashed it to a longer, straighter stick. That works well too.
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I found my biggest weakness is timber identification. Came home with an arm load of different woods; luckily I think some of it was sycamore, so worked quite well.

Well done Clouston!
 
Well done, Cameron, it is a great feeling when it works.
I have been trying on and off for a while and have at last cracked it also. Although it does take a lot of effort to get the ember :burnout:
I'll have to try shaving the char off the spindle next time - thanks for the tip.
My most successful wood combo is sycamore on sycamore, hearth and drill made from the same chunk of branch.
I was also having a bit of a battle with the bearing block so I turned up a bit of ash into a comfy handful and set a limpet shell in the under side - this works like a dream.
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As well as reshaping the ember-end of your spindle, don't forget to also re-point the bearing end as well.

Maximum friction at the blunt end, minimum friction at the bearing end.
 
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