fire drill method

[Toddy]

You need to build a 'nest' for the hot cone of fibres. Anything dry and easily flammable really, and you have to breathe for the fire. Long, even breaths forcing air into the cone to keep it alive. There are materials that catch quickly and those that sustain a flame, you really need both.
Stuart gave a very clear description of tinder and kindling. Use the Search function and type in Tinder Lists, Celtic Dragon started the thread I'm thinking of, Stuart's reply is on the second page, # 17, but the whole thread is interesting.
Good luck,
Toddy

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Hi Guys - This is my first post so forgive any noobie mistakes.
I've been trying to use the bow drill technique using elder wood for the drill and hearth. I can get a hot smoking coal but can't do anything with it. What kind of tinder works with the coal ?

I prefer the shredded inner bark of cedar, poplar, basswood etc but if those cant be had, chunks of punk ( rotten wood ) can be substituted very well. three or four such chunks placed in close contact with one another can be blown into flame same as a fiber nest.

 

[bambodoggy]

I remember having serious blisters on my hands after using paracord on my bow when I was learning the basics.

Hey Spamel..... Do you mind if I ask how on earth you got blisters on your hands from bow drilling..... I can see you'd get them from a hand drill but how did you manage it with a bow.....unless I'm doing something very wrong nothing rubs anywhere near my hands!!!! :yikes:

 

[spamel]

With regards to blisters, I like to maintain the correct tension on my bow drill string by gripping the bow at the end and my thumb over the cordage. Then I can maintain the correct tension on the bow string, but the downside is a lovely blister on the web of my thumb!!

I don't know if this is the correct method, but I find that if I tie the bow string off, it's either too slack, therefore ineffective, or too tight and this is when the string goes twang and the drill turns into a missile!!

Maybe it's just me trying to learn by myself without a teacher and I've got it wrong, but watch the Ray Mears Belarus programme where he teaches the guy to light fire by friction, and he shows him to grip the bow string (although he uses his fingers to grip the bow string).

 

[bambodoggy]

I don't know if this is the correct method, but I find that if I tie the bow string off, it's either too slack, therefore ineffective, or too tight and this is when the string goes twang and the drill turns into a missile!!

:rolmao: I lost count of the number of times I did this...... and still do it quite often I keep trying to blame the bearing block I use as wearing out....but then that's my fault for not changing it too! :roll:

I see what you mean now... I do it the same as Ray using my fingers and haven't got blisters and I couldn't understand how you'd got them....makes sence now. Have you tried it holding the string with your fingers Mate?

It's tops when you do it right though hey....I find I have a sudden attack of the Cheshire Cat grins! :Crazy_071

 

[spamel]

I really want to get out and have a bash at the moment, it's been too long since I last started a fire by friction. Also, I haven't got out here in Hohne unless you count a week long exercise. The problem is that it is brass monkey time at the moment, and we're still waiting on our baby so I can't go far!!

But the next time I get out, I will try refining my technique. I found it very uncomfortable trying to grip the bow string with my fingers, but I think it would be worth doing it Rays' way!!

 

[Toddy]

This probably won't sound too clear unless you've actually got a bow and a stick in your hands as you read it....but you can tighten the string up not by trying to grip the string and trying to put lots of effort into the bowing, but by looking at the string and pulling the bow *away* from the straight held spindle stick until the string is taut. *Then* bow. The spindle still spins, rubs away the fibres with lots of heat/friction but it's more a getting it all in balance sort of thing than lots of muscles and grips. Probably why the women at the Crannog manage it and the he-men first time volunteers rarely do....after that it's just practice and lots of breath!
No offence intended to the he-men out there, it always looks such a simple thing.....like sawing a staight bit of wood
Toddy

 

[spamel]

Do you mean pulling the bow away from the drill so that the bow string starts to vee, instead of being in line?

 

[Toddy]

Uhuh, It's a tension thing, but you have to balance that with the downward pressure on the spindle, and if you pull too far, the spindle won't turn....but when you get it right, you can do it all day without blisters and it doesn't matter *who* tied the bowstring on before you got to it

Toddy

 

[spamel]

Great tip, I'll try it out next time. Thanks :biggthump

 

[Toddy]

Should have said, it can't be that much of a vee; it grinds to a halt or works like a slipping clutch. :?:
Toddy

 

[Lost_Patrol]

Jeff, Toddy and Jim,
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a go.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Good luck. Success with the hand drill is a very rewarding experience. I ran around showing everybody who would watch for a period of several weeks. "Hey...wanna see me make fire by fire rubbing two sticks together..."

 

[brucemacdonald]

Speaking as someone who managed to create a fire from a bow drill for the first time, translating what you read in a book into reality is harder than you may think. I would not have done it were it not for some help from the others at Ashdown.

Lessons learned:

Drill made of hazel; hearth of lime.

Make sure you have a large bundle of dry grass/tinder

Let the coal coalesce - take your time.

Make the bow long - ideal length is from the midpoint on your chest to the end of one arm.

Use a clove-hitch knot at one end to allow adjustments for slack in the cordage.

Best wishes

Bruce

 

[nipper]

Well done Bruce

I can remember the first time I managed to make fire by friction. It was a great feeling!

How do you fancy coming to Trowbridge in about 3 weeks time to help me with 33 Scouts wishing to learn fire by friction? They are a keen bunch and a real pleasure to teach!

Go on, you know you want too!

Cheers
Nick

 

[Fallow Way]

I`d volunteer to come up and teach fire by friction to the young adveturers. I`m one of those annoying S.O.B`s that made fire from their very first attempt years ago

 

[match]

There's a wee problem with this......mullien is rare in most of the uk, virtually non existant in Scotland, it seems .....according to the books.... I've only ever seen it growing as a pathetic specimen in a west coast garden, to prefer the continent & southern climes.

Does anyone know of any indigenous pithy stems that are strong enough to work like mullien?

Mullein is indeed quite rare in Scotland, but thats not to say it doesn't grow happily here... There are currently stems in two inaccessible places that I'd love to get my hands on - one clump on the way to Dalkeith out of Edinburgh, and another on the coastal road from Musselburgh to North Berwick - and both of these were around 4-5 feet in length, which is difficult to cut and carry home when out for the day on a bicycle, and not near any bus stops... :roll:

Of course, if anyone fancies driving me around Edinburgh and East Lothian in a car, and wants to share a go at hand drilling with mullein...

As an alternative for a hand drill, elder stems work quite well - the best stems come from elders that have been cut right down to ground level a few years earlier, and have thrown up dead straight stems a few feet in length, that have lost their greenness and flexibility and are starting to harden. I've cut a couple of these recently, and have stripped the bark off one while green, while leaving the other intact, and will have a go soon to see if either makes as good a hand drill as I've read it should.

 

[Toddy]

Now that's interesting....other side of the country from me though. I find elder's good, but only if awful dry and I couldn't get the drill thing to work for me at all when the sap was up. Drier out your side too. Interested to hear how you get on with it.
Toddy