Bow drill lessons

I made my first bow drill yesterday and learned a few things in the process.

1. Doing it in the sun is sweaty work
2. Hau (hisbiscus) wood is easy to work with
3. Don't make the notch too big
4. The bow drill works better for me with the notch facing away from me
5. Non-natural cords like accessory cords are slippery. The spindle slides a bit
6. The alox farmer's awl is fantastic for carving out the socket in seasoned kiawe (mesquite)
7. Once I was able to get all the pieces prepared, getting a coal was pretty fast. I didn't time it but I got a coal in under 30 seconds!

So I think I am making progress in my fire making skills. So far fire making success with:

lighter
matches
ferro rod
battery & steel wool
flint & steel
bow drill

Next up...the fire plow.

what about fire piston??

try using the egyptian bow and drill... the cord doesn't slip, therefore allowing one to use a thinner cord without the wear.

I haven't tried a fire piston yet.

So far, I think the ferro rod and the flint & steel are the most robust and work when wet.

My friend soaked his flint and steel, char cloth and tinder (jute cord) in a container of water for about 20 minutes. He took the pieces out, patted them dry on his shirt and got fire even though the char cloth and tinder was still damp.

I have tried the ferro rod in heavy rain and it will still spark, although not as effectively as when dry. The easy fix is to do it under some cover.

Aloha Alan,

Thanks for the tip. How do you tie the cord on to the spindle for the Eqyptian bow drill?

some folks use a clove hitch, others just the wraps.

here is a link to an article on our site.

http://www.dirttime.com/egyptian%20bow%20and%20drill.html

Thanks Alan, I will try that. I noticed the "bow" was very short and fairly straight. Lots more options with this method it seems.

Wow, I'm impressed with your amazingly rapid success with a bow drill.

Last time I tried (10 years ago) I succeeded in making smoke, but that may have been from the cursing.

Granted, I was using local and found materials (dead but not seasoned in any particular way), and my "technique" was undoubtedly laughable.

The main thing I learned was to carry multiple fire-making tools, always.

Thanks for your kind words. I have seen it done on videos and the like and got to see it done live once. I actually helped to carve the socket that time and was told to make the socket deeper and narrower than I thought it should be. That really helped. I also made my notch too big, but the one I saw made was small so it was easy to just prepare another notch on the hearth.

The rest was trial and error. When the spindle kept popping out, I faced the notch away from me. When that wasn't enough, I made the keyhole part, for lack of a better term, a little deeper, especially toward the end away from the notch. That seemed to do it and the spindle was seated pretty well.

Once I got all the pieces to fit, I prepared the tinder bundle and tried to make a coal. I guess my motivation was that my wife came out and made all kinds of comments about how I should be doing it even though she has never seen it or tried it before. So I HAD to make it work.

Smoke came in seconds and I kept going until I saw lots of it. When I got the coal, my wife had to cheer too. From there, it is only a small matter to transfer to the tinder bundle and blow.

The wood was a piece of hau, which is a member of the hibiscus family. I thought about trying this last weekend when I got the wood, but after stripping off the bark, it was very wet. So I put it in the garage and forgot about it until my friend called me on Friday and asked if I made the bow drill yet. I knew I had to take a few moments to at least try.

I give credit to all the folks that I have ever seen do this. I just tried to copy it as best I could. But since I didn't have specific instructions, I was forced to learn some things. That's why I made this post. Maybe the process I went through making mine would help someone make theirs and get fire faster and with less effort.

The last I made fire with a bow drill was with a cedar fireboard, a false willow spindle, a false willow bow, a 2-liter plastic soda bottle lid for a handhold, and a length of cordage I made from Yucca leaves. I made fire with it (with toilet paper as tinder) just before the soda lid "drilled" through. I tried to make another fire, this time with an abalone shell for a handhold, but by then, the cordage had worn out and broke.
I've found that a decent handhold is the hardest piece to find. It should be hard and smooth and as frictionless as possible. Once I find a decent one, it should last me forever.

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