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Agreed completely and I've made some straight bows as well.
When I'm teaching others I need to have enough gear to have multiple people working it simultaneously rather than sequentially due to...

You're correct about the common rig where the drill wears into the hearth and creates the coal from that. It can work the other way around as well though.

On that, I've seen people try without...

See this link for a nice list of woods and their likely success rate.
http://survivalinstructor.blogspot.com/2006/08/bow-drill-woods.html

I've used white cedar in bow/drill instructing and can...