Well, keep in mind that we learned how to do this over a two week period, mostly on my off days from work and when I wasn't in my university classes. Anyway, we probably went through half a dozen spindles and hearth boards until we figured out exactly what we needed. (Oh, and there was a lot of swearing and throwing objects around in frustration) And so...
For tinder, we took a long walk until we found some ceder trees. (This isn't hard, BC is full of them) Then we took the sharpest rock we could find, and scraped away at the tree until we ended up with a pile of ceder dust. This has got to be the world greatest tinder bundle, and using a rock definately prolongs the life of a blade.
For a hearth board, we used ceder again, because it's such a soft wood and very easily found where we live. And then of course, we had to burn in the hole and cut a v-notch. Our hearth boards are roughly an inch thick, and I guess about a foot long. We kept them big because Alex is 6'2, and I'm only 5'9, so he can't crouch down as well as I can.
For a spindle, I don't really know what sort of wood we used. About a block from my house, there is a 36 hectare wilderness park with a river running through it. It's massive, and that's where we went to find wood. Anyway, our spindles are about as wide as a person's thumb, about just over a foot long. We also sliced them up a bit with my Clipper, so the drill wouldn't slip. We're definately not using ceder for spindles, as the wood in ours is much harder. It could be oak, or fur??
For a top-block, a large piece of (ceder) again did nicely. We sliced a piece off of a tree, and with a knife hollowed it out nicely. Using hair grease for lubrication works well!
For a bow, we started off with a large piece of (oak?) but it was too thick, had no flex, and didn't work. At the moment our bow is a green sapling (it flexes VERY well) with a slice at each end for our string. We don't have any access to leather, so we used military paracord. We have LOTS of paracord.
We used a lot of ceder because frankly, we didn't have much else to choose from in this area. I'm not near as good at it as Alex, my arms get tired much faster. But it works, and even with our cut up fingers, we've completed something that's important to the both of us.
Cheers,
Adam
