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.