Hand drill

[hillwalker]

Have been practicing with my hand drill kit that I purchased from Rich59.

The kit contained a hearth board of pine, one drill of buddleia, one drill of elder, some straw for tinder, a set of instructions (same as posted on this website by Rich59) and some cotton material to use as a thumb strap to aid in producing the necessary amount of fiction.

I hve tried to make my own kit before but have never been successful. I have come very close to getting an ember on quite a few occassions now, have had better results with the Buddliea drill, lots of smoke so probly need to concerntrate on the finer points of the technique. I am really happy with the kit. Many thanks again Rich59

 

[rich59]

Thanks Hillwalker. Actually the straw was mostly to stop it rattling in the post, but I preferred to pack with natural materials rather than bubble wrap, and straw can double as tinder as you say!

Any time you feel a need for advice on any point then I will do my very best to help.

 

[g4ghb]

I'd like to say a big thanks to Rich as well!:You_Rock_

So far I have only found tome to have one go and even then I managed to make smoke so I have high hopes for when I can spare an hour or so to really pay it some attention!

 

[Jeff Wagner]

I will have another go at making a hand drill video clip today. Made a dandy yesterday and all went rather well - the coal formed on the third pass and I was pleased with the overall look and display of the process. Start to finished, the clip ran 28 seconds. When I went to upload however I discovered its file size was a very large 26 Mega bytes and its too big for the entire thing to transfer to my website and I cant seem to reduce its size in the compute. So...we'll try again today using a smaller setting on the camera. If at first you dont suceed.....

 

[Jeff Wagner]

With apologies for the grainy image quality and small size, I was able to successfully upload a short clip of the hand drill. The coal formed at about the18 second mark but I gave it a couple more passes for assurance. Look close at the end and you'll see and coal break through to the surface.

http://www.wildersol.homestead.com/HandDrills.html

 

[Yggdrasil]

Jeff what wood are the parts being sold in that link made of? That video really does make it look fast and easy. :You_Rock_

 

[Jeff Wagner]

As they say... a picture is worth a thousand explanations. It is fast and easy with the right materials!! I would rate the effort shown as about average - not my best but neither is it the worst.

I used a mullein spindle on a basswood hearthboard. The first clip I made yesterday showed it better but I could not get the whole thing to upload. I'll keep working on improvements.

 

[rich59]

Great video clip Jeff,

A careful eye can spot that the coal formed before the last pass down the spindle and was pushed out by a long sausage of material from the last pass.

Another observation - Jeff appeared to be using just the palms and not the fingers of the hand and was certainly using a lot of pressure in those first three passes as witnessed by the bending of the spindle.

Once you got smoke did you change the technique in any way Jeff? The close up lost the view of the hands.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Good eye Rich. The coal and powder did indeed ooze out of the notch during the final pass. Next time I will try fungus with no notch.

I dont consciously make a change in speed or pressure during the passes - except the last one usually slows a bit from fatigue....

 

[rich59]

I find mullein is quite particular about speed and pressure. Once the tip is hot and smoking, if I keep pressing hard then it usually won't form a coal. If I speed up and reduce the pressure for a short while, and then increase pressure again I usually get a discrete lump of smouldering material off the tip that is the heart of the coal. It is as if it actually ignites a bit of the mullein tip before it then breaks off. Don't know if it is true. In this respect mullein works differently to any other material I have tried.

Every drill material has its own unique signature about how it forms a coal and how it behaves in the depression.

From what I have seen of your speed technique there Jeff I think you might be even quicker with rose stem if you can locate one of the right diameter.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Interesting observations. I have noticed that if too much pressure is applied too soon, the end of the spindle rolls over and there is no friction. Other than that I only pay attention to the fat dust pile growing in the notch. Glad to hear you have experience with mullein. Based on the comments from the members I was beginning to think it was really scarce over there. These spindle seem very forgiving and user friendly.

I have a customer who is Professor of Chemistry at a mid western university and who teaches a class called "Caveman Chemistry". He has been including the fire pistons and hand drill fire making in this class. I have sent him some of these mullein spindles and basswood boards and he reports achieving success with first timers with only basic instruction. Not without some sore palms and fatigue mind you, but I found that fact they were able to get coals on their first day of trying rather impressive. I know grown men who have tried for years without smoke much less a coal.

 

[rich59]

I have a customer who is Professor of Chemistry at a mid western university and who teaches a class called "Caveman Chemistry". He has been including the fire pistons and hand drill fire making in this class. I have sent him some of these mullein spindles and basswood boards and he reports achieving success with first timers with only basic instruction. Not without some sore palms and fatigue mind you, but I found that fact they were able to get coals on their first day of trying rather impressive. I know grown men who have tried for years without smoke much less a coal.

Shows that hand drilling is not difficult with the right knowledge and the right woods. Personal tuition clearly helps.

Just thinking back to how I learnt. Bow drill came first, followed eventually by the vision that even this method was a huge challenge without modern cordage. So I hunted out a method that did not rely on anything modern - hand drilling. Having learnt from viewing pretty well every web site that existed on the subject I put together a philadelphus drill (very hard wood with a softer inner core that gave a fine powder) and a pine (softwood) hearthboard. I can't recall how many attempts but I know it was many before the first success.

I have been practicing ever since.

Last weekend I went on the Kent meetup and happily looked the fool trying out and uniformly failing with a number of unidentified herbage spindles (one was nettle, and none of them mullein). Some had potential but broke in my hands.

 

[Ketchup]

Having learnt from viewing pretty well every web site that existed on the subject I put together a philadelphus drill (very hard wood with a softer inner core that gave a fine powder) and a pine (softwood) hearthboard. .

Could it be done with an old fashioned pencil (hardwood outside and graphite core)?

 

[jason01]

I reckon its about time I had a go with a hand drill, I have no excuse not to as I have buddlea, philadelphus, rose and willow in the garden. Rich, any experience with buddlea drill on willow? That what Im planning to try.

 

[rich59]

Could it be done with an old fashioned pencil (hardwood outside and graphite core)?

That is a very interesting question to an urban bushcrafter like me. It might be possible. Anybody tried?

Two practical points:-

a good length for a drill is 2 feet. You would need to splice your standard pencil on the end of a longer rod.

A pencil is about 8mm diameter. Whereas good drills are about 12- 17mm diameter. If I was going to use a narrow drill like that I would make very sure both drill and board were bone dry, and I might use a hard wood for the hearthboard as opposed to the more normal softwood.

 

[rich59]

I reckon its about time I had a go with a hand drill, I have no excuse not to as I have buddlea, philadelphus, rose and willow in the garden. Rich, any experience with buddlea drill on willow? That what Im planning to try.

I haven't tried that exact combination but I think it is a good one - hollow hardwood drill with softwood hearth.

But do dry them somewhere warm before trying. How is your bow drilling?

Try and choose a very straight buddliea stem 2-3 feet long. In fact try and choose several as sometimes your first choice presents a technical problem. The thicker end should aim to be about 12 to 17 mm diameter whe the bark is stripped off it.

You could strip off all the bark, or you could be selective and only strip the bottom 6 inches if you prefer and if the bark is stable enough not to flake off when drilling.

If you dry it quickly, thorougly stripped, in an airing cupboard say then you should expect that some of your drills will crack longitudinally. Large cracks at the business end won't help you. Dried like this they should be ready to use after about 2 days.

Feel free to report back on progress and any problems.

 

[jason01]

I haven't tried that exact combination but I think it is a good one - hollow hardwood drill with softwood hearth.

But do dry them somewhere warm before trying. How is your bow drilling?

Try and choose a very straight buddliea stem 2-3 feet long. In fact try and choose several as sometimes your first choice presents a technical problem. The thicker end should aim to be about 12 to 17 mm diameter whe the bark is stripped off it.

You could strip off all the bark, or you could be selective and only strip the bottom 6 inches if you prefer and if the bark is stable enough not to flake off when drilling.

If you dry it quickly, thorougly stripped, in an airing cupboard say then you should expect that some of your drills will crack longitudinally. Large cracks at the business end won't help you. Dried like this they should be ready to use after about 2 days.

Feel free to report back on progress and any problems.

Thats what I'd hoped, I'll let you know how I get on. No problems with a bow drill though I must admit Ive been a bit lazy in experimenting with different woods, willow on willow has always worked well for me.