During a recent outing I failed to succeed with a bow drill set. It was cedar on cedar which often works for me.
My intent was to try again at home using the same set to analyze what the issue in the field was. So let's GO!
Worked the spindle over to make sure it was straight. Cedar knots are really hard.
Did another burn-in.
Cut another V-groove. Here I am removing material from the back of the cut.
And two tries later we have nothing but failure. That's 6 attempts total using the same set. I have no clue why as had great luck with cedar before.
So it's time to unleash the ultimate weapon of primitive firecraft. It goes by many aliases. The mushroom of immortality, gift of the Gods, King of Herbs, Diamond of the forest etc etc etc. One must wonder how many of those titles exist only online. No matter the title there is no questioning its power. Chaga is big magic.
I could actually drill right into the chaga but there is another option. We can supercharge a failing friction fire set to turn that frown upside down. Sliced some chaga off into the failed fireboard V-groove and burn hole. It doesn't take much.
Failure becomes easy success two times over. We have two coals when before one wasn't happening.
Notice how the burn characteristics of the chaga supercharged set can differ from a regular set. Very often one must allow a coal solidify before moving. That is a weakness of a friction fire coal. It can break apart if moved too soon and without the proper critical mass the coal can be lost. On the flip side a friction fire coal can burn for longer than one might expect once solidified. Let's follow these two coals created at the same time as they progress during the burn.
Some minutes later the outermost coal which probably consisted of mostly cedar is nearly extinguished. I am certain that the chaga which got mixed into the coal helped it ignite as the set didn't work before no matter how hard I tried and this time it was easy. Done this trick before with similar results.
But the coal nearest to the board seemed to consist of mostly chaga. Any contact with another piece of chaga spreads the coal and it won't go out. Doesn't matter as much if the coal is dispersed, within reason. Each grain will tenaciously hold an ember and immediately ignite the next. Short of dumping water on it this process will work it's way through.
Almost done. I was concerned that maybe somehow an ember might have spread to the larger chuck. Even a single speck taken up by the wind making contact could do it so the chaga was thoroughly inspected before getting tossed back into the tinder bin. Firecraft quality chaga catches a spark or ember so easily.
So that's it. If things are looking down maybe summon the power of chaga to turn failure into overwhelming success.
My intent was to try again at home using the same set to analyze what the issue in the field was. So let's GO!
Worked the spindle over to make sure it was straight. Cedar knots are really hard.
Did another burn-in.
Cut another V-groove. Here I am removing material from the back of the cut.
And two tries later we have nothing but failure. That's 6 attempts total using the same set. I have no clue why as had great luck with cedar before.
So it's time to unleash the ultimate weapon of primitive firecraft. It goes by many aliases. The mushroom of immortality, gift of the Gods, King of Herbs, Diamond of the forest etc etc etc. One must wonder how many of those titles exist only online. No matter the title there is no questioning its power. Chaga is big magic.
I could actually drill right into the chaga but there is another option. We can supercharge a failing friction fire set to turn that frown upside down. Sliced some chaga off into the failed fireboard V-groove and burn hole. It doesn't take much.
Failure becomes easy success two times over. We have two coals when before one wasn't happening.
Notice how the burn characteristics of the chaga supercharged set can differ from a regular set. Very often one must allow a coal solidify before moving. That is a weakness of a friction fire coal. It can break apart if moved too soon and without the proper critical mass the coal can be lost. On the flip side a friction fire coal can burn for longer than one might expect once solidified. Let's follow these two coals created at the same time as they progress during the burn.
Some minutes later the outermost coal which probably consisted of mostly cedar is nearly extinguished. I am certain that the chaga which got mixed into the coal helped it ignite as the set didn't work before no matter how hard I tried and this time it was easy. Done this trick before with similar results.
But the coal nearest to the board seemed to consist of mostly chaga. Any contact with another piece of chaga spreads the coal and it won't go out. Doesn't matter as much if the coal is dispersed, within reason. Each grain will tenaciously hold an ember and immediately ignite the next. Short of dumping water on it this process will work it's way through.
Almost done. I was concerned that maybe somehow an ember might have spread to the larger chuck. Even a single speck taken up by the wind making contact could do it so the chaga was thoroughly inspected before getting tossed back into the tinder bin. Firecraft quality chaga catches a spark or ember so easily.
So that's it. If things are looking down maybe summon the power of chaga to turn failure into overwhelming success.
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