First bowdrill help

[Gcckoka]

So I was in the woods today , just playing around , made my first flint and steel fire , gathered wild edibles made a swedish fire torch and then I wanted to make my first bowdrill , so I found a dead fallen spruce tree which was leaning next to an other tree , so I cut of one branch and cut the tree on the top were I could split the piece with my knife , then I found a perfect bow and then for the socket I found a dead standing beech , I thought beech was harder then spruce but when I started to drill there was not much char wood in the hearthboard while the socket was smoking , they both were smoking but the socket had much more smoke , what did I do wrong ? I took them with me and have the whole set here at home on the way I took a thick piece of dead hazel which I can also use.
Any suggestions ?
thanks

 

[Gcckoka]

now I added oil in the socket so than I thought it would minimize the friction but still it had smoke , oh and I also looked at the hearth board after small drilling and the powder is of good consistency but it is brown not black

 

[forrestdweller]

sounds like your socket is too soft- was it an old (= rotten) piece?!

 

[Gcckoka]

sounds like your socket is too soft- was it an old (= rotten) piece?!

No it is pretty hard and it is beech.
what if I use the socket as a hearthboard if it is softer ?

 

[EarthToSimon]

I've only ever been able to do it with both the Drill and Hearth being from the same bit of wood, managed Birch, Sycamore, Ivy and Hazel so far. Keeping to the principle of burning the set in the produced fire so I'm going through the full process and developing skills each time.

Paul Kirtley has a decent overview on his blog - http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2011/bowdrill/ but the best way will always be to watch someone do it then have a go, if you put a fresh leaf between the socket and drill it will lubricate it and stop the socket smoking. If the produced wood dust is just brown you might not be putting enough pressure on. or the tension on the string might not be tight enough.

 

[Gcckoka]

I gave it another try this time I had a small coffee ceramic cup so this way the friction with socket is 0 , it worked for some time an after it stopped smoking , I looked and both hearth board and the spindle are like mirrors

 

[Toddy]

Stuff the top of your spindle/socket with leaves. Holly's good if you can find it, but fresh beech does well too. It's just lubrication that won't easily go to smoulder.

If the tip of your spindle where it's rubbing agin the hearthboard goes shiny, take you knife and gently chip out a series of wee notches right round it. Make it a burr. It'll start rubbing off fibres again. Same with the hearth board, just rough up the cupped hollow a bit.

If it keeps doing it, try something else for the hearthboard or spindle. I like hazel on ivy or elder, but pine's usually pretty sound for a hearth board, if it's dry. Oak is hellish hard, so not my preferred option.

Beech should have worked on the spruce I'd have thought Smoke is good though, smoke is very good, you just need to get fibres that soak up all that heat now

Best of luck with it

cheers,
Toddy

p.s. While I mind, will you have a look at Hamish's (Dreadhead) thread on birch oil ? Can you make see if you can find any information your side of the continent on how the Russians (and presumably other Easter Europeans) made the birch oil that they used to waterproof and protect leather ? and how they made the birch oil that was used for rifles and fuel ?
No hassle, just if it's something you can find easily

M

 

[Gcckoka]

so i carved a new notch on the hearth board carved the whole head of the spindle and the same mirror finish I will have to try to find a different spruce.
any other options , we have spruce , pine , beech and hazel

 

[forrestdweller]

i've used hazel, poplar and lime (tilia species) for bowdrill in my long-ago days in europe for bowdrill. one way to determine if the timber is right is the fingernail test: if you cannot scratch a clean line with your fingernail the wood is too hard, if the line "crumbles" it's too soft.... .
one way to prevent glazing your hole/lower end of your drill is a small trick i learned from THE masters of bushcraft/survival (= the Aborigines): pour a bit of sand in the hole before you start drilling

 

[VtBlackdog]

Pine should work..,use a shot glass for a socket

 

[Wayne]

Spruce and Pine tend to get very polished if you you don't have sufficient downward pressure. With your knife cut away the polished surfaces.

Make sure your keeping your spindle perfectly stable as you move the bow. Start slow and steady. You need jet black dust. Should achieve it on a few passes if the set has fire in it and you have good technique.

 

[Gcckoka]

YESSS !!!! My first bowdrill fire done !
Today I went in the woods again to do some stuff , first thing I did I harvested dead standing spruce , split it ,saw that it was rotten then again new harvest new split and I mead a hearthboard I took the other piece and carved a spindle , while I was carving the spindle the mosquitoes ate me alive ! I have never seen such hungry mosquitoes , they bite me through my shirt and through my pants, so I had to start fire with my ferro rod and added green leafs to get rid of them , so enough with that , by the way yesterday it was raining the whole day and today it was raining for an hour or two , I left right after it stopped , so everything was wet , when I was burning in the hole it started to smoke really hard and the feel and sound was great , I knew it would be something good , so I carved out a notch with a saw , and of course I did the same thing I did yesterday I cut too deep and the spindle was coming out , after few tries I stopped and just thought about it looked and realized why it was happening , so I burned another hole and this time used my knife to cut out the notch , I also remembered Paul Kirtley saying in his blog that the notch has to be 1/8 of the burned hole, so I used that as my guide.
After 30 max 40 seconds I had an ember I was so happy , I even took a video with my phone which I will post soon , full with emotions screaming and stuff
I came home and did it again , this set of hearthboard and spindle will go on my good memory shelf

So the conclusion is that , even though if you have read a lot about it , heard about it a lot , watched tons of videos how people make it , it doesn't matter if you know the basic formula: green socket spindle harder than hearth board or same , bow length from your fingers till your chest and you need to use your brain while you are in the forest making bowdrill fire , something wrong think about it analyze it what you are doing wrong , there are many factors that can go wrong , there is no way of fail if you are doing everything right , thats my thought I will add the video soon

 

[Gcckoka]

Here's my emotions

[video=youtube;1TwHJiv9Zlo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TwHJiv9Zlo[/video]

 

[Wayne]

Well done nothing like your first ember.

 

[Spirit fish]

Pine should work..,use a shot glass for a socket

Or limpit shells

 

[Spirit fish]

now I added oil in the socket so than I thought it would minimize the friction but still it had smoke , oh and I also looked at the hearth board after small drilling and the powder is of good consistency but it is brown not black

To minimise friction u want the bearing block to polish if the hearthboard polishes it's easy just put a pinch of sand in there or dust from rubbing rocks together this is the solution to regain bite,friction put something green in the bearing block and slowly work the bowdrill until your bblock polishes over this can take time ,but makes the process a lot easier u want no friction at the top but loads below

 

[Spirit fish]

Spruce and Pine tend to get very polished if you you don't have sufficient downward pressure. With your knife cut away the polished surfaces.

Make sure your keeping your spindle perfectly stable as you move the bow. Start slow and steady. You need jet black dust. Should achieve it on a few passes if the set has fire in it and you have good technique.

sand is my go to choice to stop polish , polish at the top end though is what we want on bblock

 

[Spirit fish]

I've only ever been able to do it with both the Drill and Hearth being from the same bit of wood, managed Birch, Sycamore, Ivy and Hazel so far. Keeping to the principle of burning the set in the produced fire so I'm going through the full process and developing skills each time.

Paul Kirtley has a decent overview on his blog - http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2011/bowdrill/ but the best way will always be to watch someone do it then have a go, if you put a fresh leaf between the socket and drill it will lubricate it and stop the socket smoking. If the produced wood dust is just brown you might not be putting enough pressure on. or the tension on the string might not be tight enough.

It's not so much the species it's the state it's in, ivy is a tremendous hearthboard material ,hazel is a universal drill works on most things ,but personally I hate hazel as a hearthboard unless it's in a very advanced state ie just before it's punky

 

[PoppyD]

I put dirt or sand into the bottom bit and squidged up plants in the top bit.

 

[Spirit fish]

I put dirt or sand into the bottom bit and squidged up plants in the top bit.

youv been taught well youl be a bushcraft jedi soon