I like the old seasoned kiawe wood socket. Before I give the set away, I will put some chap stick in the socket to reduce friction and try it out with a clove hitch per Alan's suggestion.

Hi Aloha.

Ever try using Tinder Fungus as your fireboard, it is what I have had my best success with.

Mike

Aloha Mike,

I have never tried tinder fungus. Quite frankly I wouldn't know one if it bit me in the a.. you know what. I don't even know if we have tinder fungus in Hawaii.

Maybe next time I am out, I will pick an unsuspecting mushroom and try.

Thanks for the tip.

I just noticed that I can't spell "drill" (in the subject line).

Good Morning Aloha,

Tinder Fungus is amazing stuff, it will catch a very small spark and hold it as a glowing coal for a long time. This fungus was the firestarter of out ancestors, even "Otzi the Iceman" had Tinder Fungus, Flint and Pyrite in his survival belt. Link to Wikipedia Otzi story here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman#Other_equipment .

A good series of articles on how to identify and use Tinder Fungus is found on Wildwood Survival here http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/tinder/tinderfungus/index.html . This is a good survival site that I enjoy and learned a lot from.

Ray Mears also uses False Tinder Fungus to catch a spark here on Youtube http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=1...h&plindex=0

I have used Tinder Fungus with a mini fresnel lense and the dot of concentrated sunlight turns into a coal in about 2 seconds, I am not kidding, try it.

Tinder Fungus is also known as Chaga in Europe and is believed to have cancer fighting properties (perhaps with some scientific merit).

Tinder Fungus is usually associated with birch trees (plus some others) and my internet search did not identify birch trees as being native to Hawaii, therefore I do not know if Tinder Fungus would be found in your area.

Tinder Fungus is very difficult to extinguish, you really should douse it out with water. I use Tinder Fungus in demonstrations when teaching kids about creating fire from sparks. Once I crushed out the coal and dropped the fungus piece on the ground, then had it light-up and start smoking again when I was later teaching fire safety, thats embarrassing.

If you can get some Tinder Fungus to experiment with it will change some of your thoughts on primitive fire starting methods.

Mike

P.S. Sorry about the long links in this reply, I still have not figured out how to shorten them.

Aloha Mike,

Tinder fungus looks great, but I don't think we have birch trees here.

Having made fire with the flint & steel and the bow drill has changed the way I think about primitive fire starting methods already.

I appreciate it the links and the information.

Mahalo!

Hey,

I spent the weekend winter camping with 22 teenagers and 4 other instructors. I used lighting a fire as a confedence builder with our 10 newest kids. Nothing leads to success like a big handful of birchbark, bone dry Jack Pine branches and strike-anywhere matches; near instant campfire!

Mike