Wo-hoo, I am a happy guy today! Just managed to make fire with a bow drill for the first time in my life!

On top of it, it was my first serious try ever. I may have fooled around with a bow drill when I was a kid but never thought I could make it work so I didn't really bother.

But I admit watching Survivorman made me jealous. Les Stroud seemed to be able to start a fire with a bow drill so easily I finally thought I should give it a shot myself.

And it really works! It only took me 20 minutes all in all to prepare everything (bow, drill, board and handhold). Hazel didn't make the best drill but a slightly smaller diameter ash stick worked like a charm. Just about 30 seconds actual drilling and I got enough coal to ignite my tinder (cotton ball).

I don't think I'll be using this method in the bush too often but the confidence boost is amazing. And it's surprising how easy it is, all you have to do is a little research.

Did you do a variatiopn of the Tom Hanks chest slapping fire dance? This is a cultural must for the first time.

ROFL As a matter of fact, I did! I also think I got a little high from inhaling all that smoke.

Congrats! So, were you using whatever random materials you could find right there when you decided to try it?

Good deal!!!

Still haven't managed that myself...

What were you using for tinder?

Congratulations Tom_L!

Starting a fire with a bow-drill is a real confidence builder.

It is much easier to do using a disk of dry Tinder Fungus as the fireboard, that is how I achieved friction fire my first time.

Mike

Thanks, guys! My girlfriend thinks I'm nuts playing with this stuff and she wasn't impressed by my little feat one bit. So it's nice to hear some words of encouragement.



I planned to give the bow drill a try this weekend so I made some preparations beforehand. But I deliberately didn't want to be too picky as far as the materials are concerned. I wanted to make it a challenge - knowing the basic theory behind the method, could I actually make it work with whatever is at hand in my environment?

I picked up some dry hazel on the trek yesterday for the bow and drill. Back home, I took a quick look around my workshop and found an old pine board and a small piece of ash (leftovers from a previous woodworking project). All those species are abundant around here so I'm sure I could easily find the same material (possibly better quality, too) out in the woods.

I knew hazel would make a good bow. It wasn't the best choice for the drill, though. It did produce a lot of smoke on the first attempt but I think the diameter was too big. Then I whittled a small piece of ash into a roughly shaped dowel about 1/2" dia. and it worked perfectly.

At a second thought, I suspect the choice of wood does not make such a dramatic difference - at least as long as the drill is harder than the board.



I'm not sure whether the shape of the notch matters much. I did cut a neat V with a pocket saw. But once I switched the drill, the smaller ash stick wandered off so the hole actually ended up quite a bit off center from the notch. But it still worked.

In hindsight, I guess there are only two critical points. First, you have to keep drilling until you get plenty of smoke. In fact, there was so much smoke I kept inhaling way too much of it (leaning directly over the drill). It wasn't a pleasant experience.

Second, you have to be super careful catching all the fine coal from the hole/notch and placing it on the tinder. I learned something really helpful watching Survivorman - you don't need to rush that step, there's enough time to do a neat job. If you rush it you're very likely to screw up!

I just used a cotton ball for tinder, taking it apart and separating it into nice fluffy fibers. I carry cotton balls in my firestarting kit so it was a logical choice. I'm pretty sure any other fine, dry natural fibers would work.

Good work, Tom. I am going to try making a fire using bow drill method soon too. Right now I am preparing the material. I want to try the fire plough method as well (I believe the character Chuck Noland used fire plough in the movie Cast Away).

Congrats! I never learned to do this properly, as it was impressed upon me at a young age that this method was overly time consuming and used up too much valuable energy in an emergency situation.

That said, I'd still like to have this skill in my survival "tool kit", as I could conceivably end up without my lighter, matches, flint, lens, etc.

Another potential drawback is that it can make you sweat. That would create different hazards depending on whether you're stuck in a hot, dry environment with no drinking water or a cold environment where hypothermia is a risk. Unlike a lot of physical activities you might perform in a survival situation, you can't really pace yourself when trying to use any sort of friction to start a fire. You just go like heck until you can produce an ember or you end up with nothing.

Blisters and other injuries are also a possibility when using this technique. Under normal circumstances, these would just be annoyances, but any injury could turn into a much bigger problem out in the bush.

Good job Tom!

I was told the same over and over again so after a while I guess I became conditioned to assume I couldn't possibly make it work. Now I'm surprised how much easier it is than I thought.

I'd still take my fire steel over the bow drill any time but the bottom line is, if I can make the bow drill work, pretty much anyone can. There's nothing mystical about it. And what effort I spent yesterday is negligible compared to having a fire in a survival situation IMHO.

Now I just have to practice it some more until I can do it blindfolded in the middle of a storm. LOL

Clap clap clap clap!!!!

Very well done, sir.

-Blast

Good job. One thing I learned from my attempts at making fire with a bow drill. Carry matches.

Good Job, its hard and requires alot of patients and skill

congrats and kudo's to you. never been able to do it.
but then, I am a road flare fan myself when conditions are really ugly.

Congratulation. Good job.

Your understanding and appreciation of fire and what it takes to produce it has grown.

Way back I took a series of courses as a machinist. Everyone was itching to jump on the many large, expensive and impressive machines in the shop. there were several million dollars in machinery in that shop.

So after the first two days of safety basics it was something of a surprise to have the instructor walk in with a wooden box filed with chisels, hammers and files.

For the next week, four hours a day our job was to take a 2' long piece of mild steel rod-stock and using nothing but machinist vice, chisel, hammer and file to produce a one inch cube of steel accurate in all measurement to one one-thousandth of an inch. If you under-cut or gouged it you started over. It was a week of sore arms and hands. Of bloody blisters, frustration and sweat. Many bad words were heard. About a fifth of the class quit before the end of the week.

The point here, driven home by being surrounded by machines that could do the job in a few minutes, was to get a feel and appreciation for cutting steel and what the machinery does.

Learning to light a fire with a fire bow really gives you a feel for friction, heat, the production of a coal and how to delicately feed it with tiny bits of dry fuel and puffs of air.

Now you can stuff a couple of Bic lighters into your kit and when you use them you can contemplate how much time and trouble such simple, cheap and reliable devices save you. Should the situation present itself you can also take the kids out into the woods and amaze them by using your fire bow. It always goes over big.