Can someone tell me...

[Carl Rotebrink]

how pine, spruce, and birch work for friction fires?

They're the most abundant tree types in my area.

[Carl Rotebrink]

i did do a quick search with the keywords fire, pine, spruce, and birch but came up with nothing

[Canadian-guerilla]

how pine, spruce, and birch work for friction fires?

They're the most abundant tree types in my area.

practice with each kind of wood

when i practice my fire bow-ing, i use whatever wood material is near by
instead of looking for specific woods, i look for size/shapes ( straight spindle / bow shaped branch )

although, i do keep an eye out for cedar, for the fireboard

[crashdive123]

I have had zero success using pine. I believe that there is to much resin in it. Of course, based on my bow drill success, I could be wrong.

[your_comforting_company]

I have heard of using cedar, but I have not tried it myself. Pine, I have to agree, is too pitchy and likes to make a horrendous squeak or just outright stick and pop out of the board. I tried a piece of spruce scrap lumber with yucca spindle and did get smoke, but I haven't tried it since I got good at bowdrilling. I might have to have a go with spruce and birch just to see what happens.
I salvaged a few limbs from crepe myrtles we trimmed yesterday, and will have a go with those tonight. I don't know if you ever run across those, but I'll post my results later.

[Carl Rotebrink]

hey!

thanks for the replies

good to know that pine hasnt worked overly well for you guys

as far as ive heard birch is the hardest and spruce the softest of those woods so birch for the drill and spruce for the board?

hoping to go to a friends families house in the woods next week so i might try there

cheers

[your_comforting_company]

try spruce for both. Ted has said that the board and spindle can be made of the same material. stay away from pitchy limbs though.