hand and bow drills

[spoony]

Ok i have 2 drills drying in the airing cupboard from my buddliea, also have a piece of pine for the hearth (the bit you drill into yes??) ialso have a couple of elderberrie trees would they be any good for a bow or drills as well????
anoth quick question, when i see pics of peoples sets, the bit you drill into with the notch cut in. Do you drill the holes first through the wood or are they caused by the drilling itself, and i take the ember is used to hold the tinder while the ember drops in yes???

 

[spamel]

Fire by friction is quite a big subject. I'm not too sure how well a pine hearthboard will perform, but I'd guess it won't be all that good. I would try doing a search on friction firelighting, most of it will have been covered and you could ressurect an old thread so that the info is bumped to the top for other newcomers.

Personally, I like sycamore for drill and hearthboard, but I haven't tried budliea.

Good luck on your quest for fire, it is rewarding!

 

[leon-1]

Hi mate Elder tends to be used more for hand drill than bow drill.

Pine can work, but be aware sometimes you will find that it is to resinous.

 

[rich59]

Ok i have 2 drills drying in the airing cupboard from my buddliea, also have a piece of pine for the hearth (the bit you drill into yes??) ialso have a couple of elderberrie trees would they be any good for a bow or drills as well????
anoth quick question, when i see pics of peoples sets, the bit you drill into with the notch cut in. Do you drill the holes first through the wood or are they caused by the drilling itself, and i take the ember is used to hold the tinder while the ember drops in yes???

Storm did a big exercise in testing loads of woods for ease of getting fire with bow drill. Top of the list for ease of getting fire (if you add up all the scores for each wood) was Sambacus mexicana - a close relative of the English elderberry - Sambacus Nigra. So, yes I would definitely harvest some elderberry.

I use commercial pine board for my hearth board nearly all the time for hand drilling. - It is a workable softwood. I think it is a good choice.

When I start a new drill hole for bow drill I would first roughly sharpen my drill to a small blunt point. Then I would make a corresponding small indentation in the hearth moderately close to an edge using a tool off my Swiss Army Knife. As you drill (burn it in) the indentation enlarges to the diameter of the drill piece. Once I have the full width indentation I then stop, and cut the V shaped notch in from the side of the hearth into my indentation - the apex being up to about a 1/3rd of the diameter of the indentation.

Hand drilling - I dont sharpen the tip of the drill. I make an indentation up to about the diameter of the drill with my knife (I use the screwdriver blade).

Hot dust starts collecting in the V shaped notch as you drill. Produce it hot enough, fast enough, and fine enough and it will coalesce into a smoking, glowing coal.

Did that answer your questions?

 

[spoony]

sure did thanks, i will try my buddliea drill on a pine hearth, also will get some elderberry drills and get them drying, dont suppose it really matters what the bow is made from, will let you know how i get on again thanks

 

[spoony]

update the elderberry branches, are different to that of a normal tree, it has a soft core and just kinks when bent, so the bow was a shambles, buddliea drills are nice and hard, just need to go and find something a bit more suitable for a bow, ho hum,

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Here is a team event for your amusement. Fire by fence post.

 

[cgait]

Very nice picture.

 

[Ed]

I wouldn't like to be the one carrying that in my pack Great pic.

Ed

 

[Alberto Hernandez]

Hello Jeff
Nice picture
Who are the people in the picture and what kind of a event was it?
They looks like my kind of people!
Alberto

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Gracias Alberto. The gathering was a primitive skills day coordinated through Cornell University. I was invited to attend in order to demonstrate the finer points of fire piston ignition.

 

[running bare]

maaaaaaaan, thats some size drill !! what did they use for tinder? pine boughs
tom

 

[Jeff Wagner]

They used a big wad of cedar bark. The dust pile coming from that spindle would have filled a large tea cup.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Another view

 

[Alberto Hernandez]

Darn I can hardly wait to move out of Florida! :aargh4: That way I may be able to get together with like minded people! Down here in South Florida every thing that I know about primitive skills I had to learn on my own!
Jeff if you have more pictures of events like that and if you can post them I will love to see them.
Adios Amigo!
Alberto

 

[rich59]

Another view (picture of large drill)

Did it get a coal? I can see it got smoke.

There was a humorous TV "space filler" on BBC2 or ITV or something that showed a group of people hand drilling communally with a large, heavy twisted stick. Although I suspect they were not serious I wonder if it could be done:-

The heavy stick would need a centre of gravity that passed through the stick about half way up - so you could spin it a this point fairly easily. The top should probably also best be in the same line as the bottom end and the centre of gravity. The fact that it was twisty meant that it had its own built in "conservation of angular momentum" or fly wheel. If the stick was heavy enough then no extra downwards pressure would be needed. The group would just need to co-ordinate their spinning. With a wide drill point it would probably get up heat slowly but would get plenty hot over time.

Has it been done?

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Once the "heavers" and "ho'ers" got their rhythem worked out, they were able to make a coal just as efficiently as with a normal sized bow drill. And, what a large coal it was! The greatest strain with this set up was on the men holding the bearing block.