>Part of the lead up to the event has been primitive fire->starting with hand- and bow-drill. I struggle with both so we >will see. I do have time to work on my technique.
Can anyone here actually do this? I notice Ray Mears had to show another survival expert how to do this in one show as the other chap had never managed it.
I get the feeling it's a lot tougher than people think.
And Ray is VERY good with his hands; half the shows end up more 'woodworking with Ray' than survival.
The Sock
Just to throw another opinion out there, this thread got me thinking (which is dangerous), and since I had some spare time (all day) yesterday, I went ahead and tried my hand at a bow-drill. All told, it probably took about 4 hours after I spent a little time reading up on it. The hardest thing for me was the spindle: started off too crooked, then too thin, then too long, and finally got one that worked. I scavenged all of the wood (oak for everything but the hearth which was pine), used a piece of paracord, and a pile of red cedar bark for tinder. Nothing really hard about it, just can't use any old piece of wood. You have to be choosy. And don't cut towards yourself (split my finger open, I seem to do it every few years after the memory of the last time fades).
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