Hand drill/Bow drill wood combinations

[tim_n]

Saw a really good post on here (should be made a sticky or added to the wood lore sticky imho) listing all the local woods with their combinations for hand/bow drill fire lighting.

I've made fire from elder on clematis but run out of clematis (which I'd got from a bushcrafter) and wanted to look for some other materials.

I teach scouts so I'll probably have a go with some pine pallets I've got and a couple of badly bent elder shafts I've got kicking around.

 

[forestwalker]

I've had good sucess with spruce (Picea abies) for bowdrills. Easy to find dry, even in wet weather.

 

[woodcraftwanderings]

Hi
Bow drill: Sycamore, Horse chestnut, Willow, mixed and matched for spindle and hearth work. Hand drill: Elder drill on Elder, Horse chestnut or Pine work (did cheat with thumb loops on the Elder/Elder). One way of extending your wood supplies could be to use a drill made out a common wood and glue/lash on a plug/tip (did this with Horse chestnut). However, from playing around its surprising what woods do work, a lot has to do with the ‘punkyness’ (level of decay) of the wood, currently drying out some Reedmace to give that a go. Came across these tables on wood selection a while back, cant comment on all the woods as it looks a bit American

http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/bowdrill/storm_inquiry/index.html
http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/handdrill/storminquiry/page2.html

 

[wattsy]

hazel drill and ivy hearth works really well too