As i seem to be on a bit of a friction fire binge at the moment, i thought it was about time i practiced the hand drill again, erm, no hearth material, i used the boards i made a couple of weeks back on Sunday for the bow drill, no problem, a quick trip up the lane and i scored the two pieces of Clematis in the picture, the knife is my Stewart Marsh Bushcraft Knife, by the way, the vine i harvested was dead standing.
Once i got home I removed all of the bark material and placed it in a nice dry place for later use, i then pared some of the Clematis down into boards, grabbed a spindle and whirled away for a little while, gently at first to warm up the old muscles, then i went for it, many people say it's like riding a bike, once you know how, you never forget, well they are not wrong.
I had a couple of failed attempts to begin with, then it all came together and i managed two embers from three attempts, not bad i thought, damn near choked myself doing it though as i had to sit in the shed and practice the skill, far too damp outside at the moment, i was pretty pleased to get a couple of embers, especially from board material that has been outside in some pretty atrocious weather of late, if i can do it using a slightly damp hearth board, then using a dead dry one should pose no problem at all, compared to the bow drill though, this hand drill malarkey is damned hard work, satisfying though when you get that ember.
Once i got home I removed all of the bark material and placed it in a nice dry place for later use, i then pared some of the Clematis down into boards, grabbed a spindle and whirled away for a little while, gently at first to warm up the old muscles, then i went for it, many people say it's like riding a bike, once you know how, you never forget, well they are not wrong.
I had a couple of failed attempts to begin with, then it all came together and i managed two embers from three attempts, not bad i thought, damn near choked myself doing it though as i had to sit in the shed and practice the skill, far too damp outside at the moment, i was pretty pleased to get a couple of embers, especially from board material that has been outside in some pretty atrocious weather of late, if i can do it using a slightly damp hearth board, then using a dead dry one should pose no problem at all, compared to the bow drill though, this hand drill malarkey is damned hard work, satisfying though when you get that ember.
