fire plough

[SAS_MAN]

I would like to learn how to make a fire plough. Any one got any advise on how to do it, what wood should i use and is this beter than the fire drill as it looks easyer to make.

 

[fishy1]

It's alot more exhausting than a drill.

 

[Cobweb]

I've heard that Sycamore is pretty good.
Which ever wood you use needs to be bone dry.

I'm sure someone more experienced will help you out

 

[Ogri the trog]

From what little I understand of the topic,
The fire plough is harder than the hand-drill, because the dust has time to cool while you are drawing your hands backwards. Similarly, the hand-drill is harder than the bow-drill, because the dust is cooling while you move your hands from the bottom of the spindle to the top. And lord knows the bow-drill can be difficult enough to master if you're just starting out on your friction fire journey.
This said, the plough and fire-saw are the next stops on my journey.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[rich59]

I have had a few goes at the fire plough. No success yet. One of the difficulties I find is not knowing how close I have been to success. It is like bow and hand drills in terms of you want to get it as hot as possible before a final all out effort. What I don't know is how much more I need to do - was I a whisker away or was I only half way? Was my technique good enough or have I missed some crucial trick? Whenever I try it, as my arm muscles start to burn, I rapidly get to thinking "why am I doing this since drilling is so much easier".

The science of actually how it works intrigues me. The method does not seem to allow for a collection of hot dust right up against the tip as the air movement from the rubbing, and the vibration of the board, scatters it. Descriptions talk of catching a coal at a little distance from the main action. If you are talking dust then that does not make sense. Now, when I try this I get at the very tip of my rubbing stick a little curl of charred wood. My working idea is that this curl is what ignites and then breaks off. But until I succeed it is all just idea.

I am sure that one of the tricks is to as much as possible use your trunk muscles and not your small arm and hand muscles until the last moments. The following picture is what I have found gets me the closest to success.

If you lock your arms still and bounce your body up and down then you can get smoke without exhausting your arms. Then you try and finish off with a final set of rapid strokes from the arms before you dissolve in a pool of lactic acid.
Then there is the technique of every few strokes making a longer stroke to sweep the groove clear.

My favourite wood for the stick is pyracantha - because it is a great name! and also because it will produce char with rubbing easier than any other wood I have come across.

But as I have not succeeded yet you had best not listen too much to my ramblings.

The guys who have succeeded in this seem mostly to be the more full time bushcrafters who, I suspect, have remarkably strong arm muscles. The other group who find this method possible are the 20 stone Maoris - their body weight gives them an advantage I think.

 

[Ivan]

I have had success with the fire plow using 2 different wood combinations. Here are some tips. The first had a California Buckeye plow stick and hearthboard. Buckeye is equivalent to the European Horse Chestnut. The second combination was a Mule Fat (Baccharris salicifolia) plow stick and a California Fan Palm flower scape as a hearthboard. There are differing postures to sit in and different ways to hold the plow stick, so I figure these are not so important. I have used 2 different postures and developed my own style. All that matters is that while you are plowing you put the weight of your upper body into it supporting your weight with your arms. Your weight is then the downward force on the hearth. Although it may help to sway the body while you are preparing the groove as you begin, the back-and-forth plowing motion is done with the arms, not swaying of the body. Plowing is done with superhuman speed. No need to think about how far to plow the groove; you just plow as fast as you possibly can. Either stop when you think you've done it or when you can't keep it up any longer. Hope that helps. I'd like to know what other wood combinations people have had success with. I hear that Hau Tree is the best but this is not available to me.

 

[Tilia]

i have had a go at it the last couple of weeks, and i did get dark brown dust and a lot of smoke
but no black dust or even a ember
i used hazel birch willow and popular with no success
does anyone know witch norther European woods are good for the plow techniek?
i saw one i didnt try yet (horse chestnut)