Some two stick fireboard bowdrill friciton fires.

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MegaWoodsWalker

Forager
Jul 10, 2014
230
3
Connecticut USA
Part 1.

Sycamore on Sycamore. Two stick plus regular fireboard.

I took the little guy fishing the other day and noticed all the sycamore trees near the large river. So we gathered some dead fall on the hike out. I prefer to take dead wood off trees but they were so high. Settled on wood that fell to the ground but wasn't in direct contact. That said the environment was kinda damp in that location. I was worried about the wood however it is what it is. The wood was full of knots and gnarly. Sycamore seems to like water.



The funky bark.



This looks like it will do just fine.




So here is the wood back at home ready to GO!



As usual I am starting at near dust so ended up going into dark. For the Sycamore I wanted to do a two stick then standard fire board.

Up first the two stick sycamore on sycamore coal.



The first attempt was a flop but I wasn't going to give up.



The Spindle needed smoothing for another try. Before attempting the two stick again split a section of Sycamore to make a fireboard. Wanted to do the hawk work in the light to reduce my chances of getting hurt. For a wood that's on the softer side it didn't split all that easy however the H&B mouse/lady hawk splits well.



Worked up a sycamore fireboard.



The white area was very soft so the spindle drilled through rather fast. Still it produced a coal without much fuss.







Fire!



Now it was time to get back to the two stick. Really put the hammer down and at first got nothing again. Then I noticed the faintest bit of smoke. flipped the two stick fire board over then gave it a good tap. The smallest of embers appeared. As in hand fan and hope for the best small.




Soon the coal was looking good. I didn't bother to blow the coal into flame as already got fire with this combo minutes before.



Sycamore on Sycamore is GOTO.



Thanks for looking.
 

MegaWoodsWalker

Forager
Jul 10, 2014
230
3
Connecticut USA
Part 2.

For this practice I tied two mullein sticks together then used a Red cedar spindle to get a coal.



There was a gap between sticks. I hoped this would allow the dust and ember to fall under the set then air would feed the coal however this didn't really workout as expected.



Actually I always seemed to have more than one coal. The first was trapped in the gap between sticks. Then it moved over to both the dust and leaf however remained in the two stick fireboard. Once the leaf went out and coal was totally removed from the fireboard a mullein top somehow caught the embers falling from the two stick board.





The dust was very flammable. The tinder bundle was jute combined with mullein pith for a coal extender. It took only 18 seconds to get a coal. That's 18 seconds total without the need for a burn in. Maybe a few minutes to cut the mullein, shaving a little of the outside with my knife. Couldn't have been more than another minute or so to tie the two sticks together. A very fast friction fire method requiring little effort. Very pleased with this combo. Will have to experiment with more two stick friction fires.



Here is a video of the Red cedar spindle two mullein stick fireboad. This was done at the tail end of dusk. It was interesting to see all the various embers floating around in the dark. This set really really really wanted to work!

[video=youtube;YKfs8WJNqz8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKfs8WJNqz8[/video]

The two stick mullein idea was given to me by "Stone" on another forum.
 

cottonwoodroot

Tenderfoot
Jul 13, 2014
53
0
Prince Rupert
I am liking these two stick methods. I am going to head out over the next few days and see if I can make it work. thanks for all the photos!! I have been curious about this method for years.
 

robevs73

Maker
Sep 17, 2008
3,025
200
llanelli
Tried it last night but failed to get a coal, I'll try again on the weekend but use thicker sticks and leave a slightly bigger gap between them.
I drilled straight through the board in no time so I didn't get enough dust, it was 9pm and going dark, that's my excuse!
 

MegaWoodsWalker

Forager
Jul 10, 2014
230
3
Connecticut USA
Tried it last night but failed to get a coal, I'll try again on the weekend but use thicker sticks and leave a slightly bigger gap between them.
I drilled straight through the board in no time so I didn't get enough dust, it was 9pm and going dark, that's my excuse!

Cool! Sometimes the coal gets trapped between the gaps. I give the two stick fireboard a few taps upside down or with care push the coal through on to the dust below. Looking forward to your next attempt.
 

robevs73

Maker
Sep 17, 2008
3,025
200
llanelli
Well this technique is not for me, I've made three different sets of various sizes with wood combinations that I know work and only one tiny coal to show for a lot of effort.
My decision is to leave this technique alone.
Thaks for the challenge!
 

CRAY

Member
Jul 24, 2014
22
0
Canada
gonna try this next time I get a chance. i have a feeling the guy made it look a lot easier than it will be though. I feel like the spindle would slide around a lot
 

robevs73

Maker
Sep 17, 2008
3,025
200
llanelli
It dose spin around a lot until it beds in, I found the main problems being the drill wearing into a point very quickly, dust not falling tthrough the gaps as it should and there's not enough material to make a good pile of dust because of the rounded shape of the base board.
 

MegaWoodsWalker

Forager
Jul 10, 2014
230
3
Connecticut USA
gonna try this next time I get a chance. i have a feeling the guy made it look a lot easier than it will be though. I feel like the spindle would slide around a lot

Nope. It is what it is. The mullein was really easy however the 2-stick sycamore was initially a failure with success achieved an hour later.
 

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