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.