Here is a tutorial I have tried to put together for people learning the hand drill. Although it is in my mind moderately clear and comprehensive I have yet to have feedback that it has actually led anyone to succeed. But, it is early days. I hope that people will try it out and tell me what is good and bad about it and how it does and does not help them achieve success. It comes from my personal experience and I know that others will do some things differently.
So, anyone out their trying to hand drill - do get involved and comment on your progress and how the guidelines do and don't help.
Hand drill tutorial Part 1, draft.
Introduction
Hand drilling has probably been in use for 10s of 1000s of years. It demands only two pieces of wood, your bare hands and your skill. It exceeds the bow drill both in its absolute minimum requirements for components and in the satisfaction gained by mastering it.
It is recommended that you learn each of the basic skills before attempting to put it all together to make fire.
You will need
By spinning the drill tip in a matching depression, with downward pressure, you use your energy to rub two wooden surfaces together. The friction results in both heat and a fine dust being created in the depression. As a notch has been cut into the side of the depression the dust falls into the notch and will collect in a pile. With sufficient work the drill tip, depression and the dust that falls into the notch will be hot enough to smoke. If sufficient smoking dust collects fast enough in a pile in the notch then it forms a self sustaining coal. Air coming in sideways and rising through the hot dust pile is essential to sustain and feed the burning process. Initially a column of smoke continues to rise, followed by a visible orange glowing, fragile coal. You then have about a minute or two to transfer the coal into your bundle of tinder and blow it into flame.
Basic skills
Success depends of mastering each of the basic skills, and then being able to use them in combination. Take one at a time and work on it. Don't try to get a live coal until you have mastered all the skills.
A) Finding and making the drill. The woods I recommend are buddleia (butterfly tree), elder, philadelphus (mock orange), rose or mullein. The real challenge is often finding wood the right shape and size. The best wood is usually straight, strong growth up from low down after the bush or tree has been cut back previously. 2-3 years old is usually best.
You need a wood that gives a fine dust on friction. Usually the wood you need will be green and live when harvested. It is rare to find a suitable drill that is already dead. The piece of wood should for preference have a soft pith core. Length about 2 feet. Cut the ends square and then round them with tool or friction. , Strip off all the bark and smooth any knots that will damage your hands while drilling. Diameter is very important. Nearly all sticks are tapered. You need the active, stripped end to be between about 1 and 1.5cm diameter (3/8 to 5/8 th of an inch). The other end may be larger or smaller. It should be straight enough that spun between your hands with the tip in a depression it spins smoothly and easily. It should be dried before use. It must not have rotted at all. Rotting occurs quickly to wood that lies on the ground. If the drill has a slight bend then you may be able to straighten this while it is green or with heat.
B) Finding and making the hearth board. I would recommend you start with an ordinary commercial softwood (pine) batten. It should be about half an inch thick and a minimum of 1.5 inches across. Length long enough to put your foot on to stabilise it. Many woods would also do. Harder woods may need a smaller drill diameter, and can form a smooth polished surface that it is difficult to get friction from. Hazel has a coarse texture and is difficult to work with. Oak is also difficult.
C) Keeping everything dry. It is vital that your wood drill and hearthboard - is thoroughly dry. Don't attempt making a live coal unless you have first stored the drills and hearth board, loose and unpacked in a warm dry place until completely dry for a couple of days. Wood absorbs water from the air, so even in transport to you, or in storage in a cold shed in the winter months it will pick up moisture. I have harvested, stripped and straightened a green wood drill on one day, stored it in the cupboard with my hot water tank and could make fire with it just two days later.
D) Prepare your tinder, kindling and firewood. If you want to be ready to convert your glowing coal to fire then you need to have already prepared a tinder, kindling, and fire wood before you commence drilling. I have omitted details on this but they can be found at www.bushcraftuk.com .
E) The depression, notch and coal collector unit.
Use a tool to make a shallow depression in the hearthboard. Then spin the drill in it to wear it down to a smooth circular depression
1) The depression in the hearth board should match the drill tip and allow free movement of the drill not only in the vertical position but also if the drill is slightly out of true. With use a depression can become deep with steep sides. This restricts the drill movement. Either abandon this depression or use a wider drill to wear down the upper part of a deep depression.
2) With continued or repeated drilling the sides sometimes taper down to a narrow bottomed or pointed depression, narrower than the natural drill diameter. This wears the drill into a narrower point and rarely makes a live coal. Abandon a tapering drill hole.
3) Make a notch from the side of the hearthboard into the side of the depression. The notch should be a blunted V shape. It should extend into the round depression but stop short of the central point. There should be a smooth vertical fall from the depression to the coal collector below.
4) The flat under surface of the hearth board (especially the walls of the V shaped notch) should fit snugly to the surface below. There should be no gap or cavity for the dust to spread into and therefore cool down under the hearth board.
F) Standard Setup Position. Make sure you are dressed in comfortable light clothing that allows free movement of your shoulders and allows you to comfortably stand with one foot on the step. Take off any coat, and jumpers and empty your pockets. Set up your stable step in your chosen location. On it place your dry hearthboard with the pre started depression side upwards. I tend to orientate a hearthboard crossways with the notch facing away from me but it makes little difference as long as the final position is practical and comfortable to work with. Place a piece of cardboard under the notch. Put one foot upon the hearthboard on the step, avoiding covering the chosen depression in the hearthboard. Now take your chosen drill and place it upright in the depression. Next position each hand, flat, fingers together and pointing forward, one each side of the top 6" of the drill, the drill at about the mid point of the hands. Your hands should be between chest and waist height. If not then arrange a different height step.
G) Spinning the drill in a depression. While in the standard setup position experiment with spinning the drill between the flats of your hands. You need to be able to do this in an easy, flowing rhythm with the drill tip rotating in the depression and not jumping out. A full hand roll involves using both your palms and your fingers and allows the fastest velocity of drilling. A palm roll involves just the palms of your hands, avoiding the fingers, and allows the greatest downward pressure.
H) Spinning the drill fast. Once you have mastered drilling smoothly you need to develop speed. The speed needed is up to about 4 cycles per second, or 8 reversals of the drill per second. Practice both full hand rolls and palm rolls up to this speed by observing a clock or watch second hand while drilling.
I) Hand Moisture and friction. Dry skin is slippery. Damp skin is 5-10 x less slippery (much higher coefficient of friction). Wet skin is slippery again. You will never get fire unless you maintain your hands at the optimal dampness. This is because you will exhaust yourself quickly if you use unnecessary force to press your hands together to compensate for slippery hands in trying to get downward pressure.
Experiment. Start with cool dry hands. Rub them together and get used to the smooth, easy glide with little effort. Now moisten your hands a little. Either dip a finger in water or lick a patch of one palm, and rub the liquid over the palm surface of your hands. Initially slippery with the wet, as the water is absorbed it will suddenly become much harder to rub your hands together. With continued rubbing the hands dry and become slippery again. Learn how much moisture and how frequently you need to apply it keeps your hands at the most resistant (highest friction coefficient) most of the time. You will need to apply this when hand drilling with brief pauses while you remoisten your hands.
J) Bending from the hip. Practice your full hand roll and palm roll drilling with your hands traveling from the top of the drill down to the lowest third. Do this keeping your forearms level all the way down by bending from the hip. This allows the best mechanical advantage and for you to be able to use your upper body weight to add pressure as in the diagram.
End of part 1
So, anyone out their trying to hand drill - do get involved and comment on your progress and how the guidelines do and don't help.
Hand drill tutorial Part 1, draft.
Introduction
Hand drilling has probably been in use for 10s of 1000s of years. It demands only two pieces of wood, your bare hands and your skill. It exceeds the bow drill both in its absolute minimum requirements for components and in the satisfaction gained by mastering it.
It is recommended that you learn each of the basic skills before attempting to put it all together to make fire.
You will need
- 1 drill (see below)
- 1 hearthboard (see below)
- A tool knife or saw - to cut and shape hearthboard and notches, and trim the drill initially
- A warm dry place to store the parts for a day or two before use (An airing cupboard is ideal, but just in a comfortable living room temperature would do as long as you give it another day or two and the air is dry). In dry summer weather you can get away without special storage, but for the rest of the year a warm dry place is a real help.
- A sheltered, dry location, either outdoors or an out house, very well ventilated to take away the smoke to perform your drilling. There should be adequate lighting to be able to see any smoke, and any dust that collects in the notch.
- A step, chair, log or other low but flat and stable surface about 9" to 20" off the ground (see standard position below) on which to place the hearth board to drill onto.
- A piece of cardboard as the coal collector, to place under the hearth board notch
- A bucket of water in case you need to put out a fire.
- A small container of water to moisten your hands, easily within reach when in the standard setup position (see below). This can be omitted if you choose to moisten your hands with spit/ saliva.
- A set of bathroom scales that gives a continuous readout is very useful in learning how much downward pressure you are generating.
- 1 cloth strip about 5 feet long, and a foot of cordage, suitable for making (optional) thumb loops as an aid to improving downward pressure.
- You might need some sandpaper to roughen any shiny or polished drill tip or depression
By spinning the drill tip in a matching depression, with downward pressure, you use your energy to rub two wooden surfaces together. The friction results in both heat and a fine dust being created in the depression. As a notch has been cut into the side of the depression the dust falls into the notch and will collect in a pile. With sufficient work the drill tip, depression and the dust that falls into the notch will be hot enough to smoke. If sufficient smoking dust collects fast enough in a pile in the notch then it forms a self sustaining coal. Air coming in sideways and rising through the hot dust pile is essential to sustain and feed the burning process. Initially a column of smoke continues to rise, followed by a visible orange glowing, fragile coal. You then have about a minute or two to transfer the coal into your bundle of tinder and blow it into flame.
Basic skills
Success depends of mastering each of the basic skills, and then being able to use them in combination. Take one at a time and work on it. Don't try to get a live coal until you have mastered all the skills.
A) Finding and making the drill. The woods I recommend are buddleia (butterfly tree), elder, philadelphus (mock orange), rose or mullein. The real challenge is often finding wood the right shape and size. The best wood is usually straight, strong growth up from low down after the bush or tree has been cut back previously. 2-3 years old is usually best.
You need a wood that gives a fine dust on friction. Usually the wood you need will be green and live when harvested. It is rare to find a suitable drill that is already dead. The piece of wood should for preference have a soft pith core. Length about 2 feet. Cut the ends square and then round them with tool or friction. , Strip off all the bark and smooth any knots that will damage your hands while drilling. Diameter is very important. Nearly all sticks are tapered. You need the active, stripped end to be between about 1 and 1.5cm diameter (3/8 to 5/8 th of an inch). The other end may be larger or smaller. It should be straight enough that spun between your hands with the tip in a depression it spins smoothly and easily. It should be dried before use. It must not have rotted at all. Rotting occurs quickly to wood that lies on the ground. If the drill has a slight bend then you may be able to straighten this while it is green or with heat.
B) Finding and making the hearth board. I would recommend you start with an ordinary commercial softwood (pine) batten. It should be about half an inch thick and a minimum of 1.5 inches across. Length long enough to put your foot on to stabilise it. Many woods would also do. Harder woods may need a smaller drill diameter, and can form a smooth polished surface that it is difficult to get friction from. Hazel has a coarse texture and is difficult to work with. Oak is also difficult.
C) Keeping everything dry. It is vital that your wood drill and hearthboard - is thoroughly dry. Don't attempt making a live coal unless you have first stored the drills and hearth board, loose and unpacked in a warm dry place until completely dry for a couple of days. Wood absorbs water from the air, so even in transport to you, or in storage in a cold shed in the winter months it will pick up moisture. I have harvested, stripped and straightened a green wood drill on one day, stored it in the cupboard with my hot water tank and could make fire with it just two days later.
D) Prepare your tinder, kindling and firewood. If you want to be ready to convert your glowing coal to fire then you need to have already prepared a tinder, kindling, and fire wood before you commence drilling. I have omitted details on this but they can be found at www.bushcraftuk.com .
E) The depression, notch and coal collector unit.
Use a tool to make a shallow depression in the hearthboard. Then spin the drill in it to wear it down to a smooth circular depression
1) The depression in the hearth board should match the drill tip and allow free movement of the drill not only in the vertical position but also if the drill is slightly out of true. With use a depression can become deep with steep sides. This restricts the drill movement. Either abandon this depression or use a wider drill to wear down the upper part of a deep depression.
2) With continued or repeated drilling the sides sometimes taper down to a narrow bottomed or pointed depression, narrower than the natural drill diameter. This wears the drill into a narrower point and rarely makes a live coal. Abandon a tapering drill hole.
3) Make a notch from the side of the hearthboard into the side of the depression. The notch should be a blunted V shape. It should extend into the round depression but stop short of the central point. There should be a smooth vertical fall from the depression to the coal collector below.
4) The flat under surface of the hearth board (especially the walls of the V shaped notch) should fit snugly to the surface below. There should be no gap or cavity for the dust to spread into and therefore cool down under the hearth board.
F) Standard Setup Position. Make sure you are dressed in comfortable light clothing that allows free movement of your shoulders and allows you to comfortably stand with one foot on the step. Take off any coat, and jumpers and empty your pockets. Set up your stable step in your chosen location. On it place your dry hearthboard with the pre started depression side upwards. I tend to orientate a hearthboard crossways with the notch facing away from me but it makes little difference as long as the final position is practical and comfortable to work with. Place a piece of cardboard under the notch. Put one foot upon the hearthboard on the step, avoiding covering the chosen depression in the hearthboard. Now take your chosen drill and place it upright in the depression. Next position each hand, flat, fingers together and pointing forward, one each side of the top 6" of the drill, the drill at about the mid point of the hands. Your hands should be between chest and waist height. If not then arrange a different height step.
G) Spinning the drill in a depression. While in the standard setup position experiment with spinning the drill between the flats of your hands. You need to be able to do this in an easy, flowing rhythm with the drill tip rotating in the depression and not jumping out. A full hand roll involves using both your palms and your fingers and allows the fastest velocity of drilling. A palm roll involves just the palms of your hands, avoiding the fingers, and allows the greatest downward pressure.
H) Spinning the drill fast. Once you have mastered drilling smoothly you need to develop speed. The speed needed is up to about 4 cycles per second, or 8 reversals of the drill per second. Practice both full hand rolls and palm rolls up to this speed by observing a clock or watch second hand while drilling.
I) Hand Moisture and friction. Dry skin is slippery. Damp skin is 5-10 x less slippery (much higher coefficient of friction). Wet skin is slippery again. You will never get fire unless you maintain your hands at the optimal dampness. This is because you will exhaust yourself quickly if you use unnecessary force to press your hands together to compensate for slippery hands in trying to get downward pressure.
Experiment. Start with cool dry hands. Rub them together and get used to the smooth, easy glide with little effort. Now moisten your hands a little. Either dip a finger in water or lick a patch of one palm, and rub the liquid over the palm surface of your hands. Initially slippery with the wet, as the water is absorbed it will suddenly become much harder to rub your hands together. With continued rubbing the hands dry and become slippery again. Learn how much moisture and how frequently you need to apply it keeps your hands at the most resistant (highest friction coefficient) most of the time. You will need to apply this when hand drilling with brief pauses while you remoisten your hands.
J) Bending from the hip. Practice your full hand roll and palm roll drilling with your hands traveling from the top of the drill down to the lowest third. Do this keeping your forearms level all the way down by bending from the hip. This allows the best mechanical advantage and for you to be able to use your upper body weight to add pressure as in the diagram.
End of part 1
