fire drill

[fishfish]

my kids were watching ray mears on the box,he was in a jungle with some native chaps making fire with a fire drill,an art lost to these indian chaps.
so heres my question,i live in the soutwest of england,what species of wood would make a good fire drill? i have oak and ash to hand and theres plenty of beech about.

 

[Bernie Garland]

Hi Fish
i use a hazel drill poplar base board.

Bernie

 

[Ogri the trog]

my kids were watching ray mears on the box,he was in a jungle with some native chaps making fire with a fire drill,an art lost to these indian chaps.
so heres my question,i live in the soutwest of england,what species of wood would make a good fire drill? i have oak and ash to hand and theres plenty of beech about.

It depend what sort of drill he was using....
In general, good fire burning woods do not make good fire starting woods.
For bow drill, I prefer a hazel spindle on a cedar hearth, and for hand drill, an elder spindle on an ivy hearth.
Its not an easy thing to learn from the interweb though, best advice would be to find someone in your area that can mentor you.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[fishfish]

ivy that big could be a problem!

 

[Toddy]

I've got some ivy stems that are three inch diam and they work very well for hearths.
Tbh the best stuff is the stuff you have. It's the practice of the skill that makes it effective. All it needs is some combination that will give you either lots of fast black dust or fine fibrous stuff that stays hot long enough to become a coal.

Maybe we ought to be asking you what you have or what you can get hold of easily and then suggesting known to be good combinations.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[leon-1]

I've got some ivy stems that are three inch diam and they work very well for hearths.

I was looking at some Ivy that was nearly 12 inch diameter the other day.

fishfish, I use an ivy hearth a lot and the very first Ivy hearth I got came from Wiltshire, that had a about a three inch diameter as well, it is there mate.

I found that both hazel and sycamore drills work well on Ivy hearths when using a bow drill.

 

[brancho]

The best tutorial which includes info on which woods that I have seen is THIS one by jon r

 

[spamel]

It's not impossible to learn from what you see on telly and what you read in books. I'm testament to that, but I can tell you that it was a long hard road. If you do go this way, keep us updated with your progress and ask questions. I am by no means an expert on the matter though, I have learnt to do it from trial and error and more than anything I get a feel of if it is going right. Some know what is going wrong by the coal dust given off from the hearth board, but I'm not that technical I'm afraid!

As always, good luck!

 

[leon-1]

Back in 2004 we were talking about fire by friction, I started a thread about it but due to other problems it fell a bit by the wayside, but I don't see why it shouldn't get a bit of new life. This was the very first post of the thread.

Hi guys, fire by friction seems to crop up a lot on the site, but each time it does we always end up with the same people posting about the same things, maybe if we had a list it may encourage the new guys to try stuff which they know works and the older ones to experiment a bit.

I was thinking that we should put together a list with the types of wood that can be used in the U.K., their identification and the combinations which people have had success with. You could also denote what is best used for the different types of fire by friction "this combination is good for hand drill" or "this is good for firebow".

This is what i have come up with so far;

Types of Wood and Identification.

Alder
Ash
Birch, Silver
Birch, Downy
Clematis
Elder
Elm
Hazel
Horse Chestnut
Ivy
Lime
Oak
Pine, Austrian
Pine, Scots
Poplar
Sycamore
Willow

Combinations of Wood in fire by friction.

Ash drill on a Willow hearth
Cattail drill on a limewood hearth.
Elder drill on an Elder hearth.
Elder drill and a Willow hearth.
Elder drill on a Pine hearth.
Elder drill on a clematis hearth.
Hazel drill on a willow hearth.
Hazel drill on a Crack Willow hearth.
Hazel drill on a Limewood hearth.
Hazel drill on a Pine hearth.
Hazel drill on a Sycamore hearth.
Ivy drill on a Ivy hearth.
Ivy drill on a Hazel hearth.
Ivy drill on an Alder hearth.
Poplar, Limewood and Cedar should work just fine on a cedar hearth board.
Sycamore drill on a Sycamore hearth.
Willow drill and hearth.


Well, what do you think? I know it needs refining a bit, but it is a good reference point for anyone who is starting out, has anyone any opinions? :-|
Don't beat around the bush if you think the idea is rubbish say so .

Now what do you guys think?

 

[Ben Trout]

I have a few sets I made up for our Scouts to play with. They and I managed to get a few decent coals from them, but as yet I've not gone back and got a fire going.

Spec is;

Hazel drills
Pine hearths
Pine and metal bottle top bearing blocks

You're welcome to borrow a couple of sets. I guess I ought to do a session with the Explorers and crack the technique. We had a new leader join the team since last time and he's learnt the art, so I really don't have an excuse any more!

Have fun.