Some folks have been saying they've had difficulty in making fire by friction. I wanted to take the time to put up some pictures of the process. I will go ahead and let you know, that the crepe myrtle was still too green to work, so after 3 exhausting tries with it, I switched to my faithful yucca and willow combo for the sake of actually making fire for this instructional.
First you need to select material that's fairly straight and a good diameter. I like mine to be about as thick as my thumb. More surface area means more friction.
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I like for the spindle to be long enough that I can brace my wrist just under my knee. It gets shorter of course, but shin length is good for a fresh spindle.
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The ends need to be pointed. I like to put the thickest end up so that as I make the hole in the hearth, the spindle will always fit snug. You don't want sloppy spindle-to-hearth contact. It doesn't need to be perfectly straight, but close, as you can see in the second pic.
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Got all that? Good. Spindle is ready. Now you gotta wax, grease, soap-up your socket rock, and prepare your hearthboard to mate with the spindle. I like to make a small indention with my notching rock, so that the pointed end will seat well. I use soap to lube my socket. Once you've picked wich end you want to use, you can't change it.
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This is a good picture of the proper drilling posture. I'm not making fire yet, just seating the spindle and hearth together. You'll see that in just a minute.. let me talk about posture here since this is a good pic of it.
Take up your bow in your hand, your rock in the other and get up off your butt. You will not make fire sitting down. Get up on one knee, lean over your upright leg and pull it close to your chest. Your upright leg's foot holds your hearth in place, typically under the arch of your foot. Your wrist should be really close to your leg and the socket held firmly, but not applying a whole lot of pressure. The string is low on the spindle. My body is rigid except to breathe, and work the bow. Start slow and increase speed and pressure. I like to keep the string low on the spindle, just right across the top of my foot. If you aren't wearing shoes the string will burn you as it comes across your foot! (don't ask me how I know...)
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Now your spindle and hearth are mated. It's time to cut the notch. Generally it should intrude 1/3 the way into the seat, and the width be about 1/3 the diameter of the seat. This is called the "rule of thirds"
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Now you are ready to make fire! Prepare your tindle ahead of time. I'm using a sycamore seed-ball to catch my ember and dust in transfer, and dry grass for the actual fire.
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Using the posture described above, start slow, and increase speed, then pressure. You'll start to see smoke in a few moments, but you don't have fire yet. The smoke has to change color. It will go from grey, to yellow-ish. When you start seeing smoke, breathe onto the dustpile. You can see my tindle in the bottom left corner, of dry grass nest, with sycamore fluff to catch the ember.
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Transfer the ember and dust into the tindle, and GENTLY blow it into life. As the ember grows, you'll need to tighten the grass around it, and keep it close to the ember. Theres a technique to this and I've watched friends get an ember, only to lose it in the tindle by letting the grass stay too loose. You have to have it close to the heat for it to actually catch up. I hope that makes sense. Fire is hot, but this is not fire yet. It gets warm, but if you keep your hands below the fire, it won't burn you. As you get comfortable with the ember propagating into the tindle, raise it up and blow sideways and then UP INTO the tindle. It's a lot easier than it sounds.
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Now that you have fire, you can be HAPPY, and warm!
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When I take up my bow, I wrap the spindle, and immediately take up the slack with my fingers like this.
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He who makes his own fire warms himself twice. I say three times, because it warms my heart as well.
Here's the whole kit. My bow doubles as a walking stick and could work as a fishing pole. Easily packable rocks, and the spindle and hearth can usually be found in the woods. Of course, it doesn't hurt to pack those too just in case it's raining.
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If I missed any details, please feel free to ask. It's really a lot easier than all this sounds, but you really have to understand the setup and mechanics of the process first. Once you've got the hang of it, it's pretty easy. I think if the crepe myrtle had been dry enough, I'd have gotten it to work on the first try. I hope my effort will help some of you to obtain this skill.