Outstanding. Well done.
Outstanding. Well done.
Nice job. It's not so much how you did it as the success you had. Instead of a red faced smiley face you'd have a laughing smiley face if the three of you had been outside in the cold and NEEDED a fire. Heat is heat. You're miles ahead of me.
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
In addition to the satisfaction of starting your first bow drill fire, you have answered that age old question.......
How many people does it take to start a bow drill fire?
That's terrific chari! And the smiles prove just how great an accomplishment it was for all of you. Thanks for the pics. I cherish those smiles just as much as the fire itself. Smiles warm our hearts and the fire warms the rest. Great work! The more you practice it, the more your endurance and strength will increase. WooHoo!!
Hey!
I'm new to this forum. Nice thread you have here. I just want to share my experiences with bowdrill. So i've started using bowdirll in September and i've experimeted with different wood types. I'm from Europe (Slovenia) so I never tried yucca and cedar for making fire with bowdrill.
These are the woods I made fire using bowdrill:
Board:|Spindle:|Comment:
Willow | Willow| My 1st set. Really easy to make good ember
Willow | Basswood| Also good combo for beginner
Basswood | Basswood |I think this is best combo for beginners
Aspen | Aspen | Bit harder to make ember than Basswood
Hazel | Hazel | Same as aspen on aspen
Aspen | Hazel | Harder than Aspen on Aspen but still works fine
Beech | Beech | I've managed to create ember but it's HARD
Aspen | Beech | Managed to get good ember
Some pictures:
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
Ember:
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
My old bowdrill set:
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
Making fire in winter:
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
My new bowdrill set:
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
Hope I helped someone.
Happy New Year!!
Outstanding! Thank you very much for the info and pictures!
Great pics. It's good to know that the fire-bow is being used in the wild.
Chari
"The past gives us experience and memories; the present gives us challenges and opportunities; the future gives us vision and hope."
William Arthur Ward
ive been using an old lawn mower pull cord for my bow drill now. I have to say, its the strongest cordage ever. I think it has some metal braided in.
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
- Greek Proverb
anyone tryed netle fiber rope for bowdrill?
I cheat and cary a premade kit http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/e...t=Video009.mp4
sh4d0wm4573ri7
I like the way you personalized your bow and block with carvings.Nice job doing it in the snow.
With the bow drill ,I have had luck only with white cedar spindle on white cedar fire board.Got several fires last spring and fall.
I recently just started practicing again with the hand drill.Got fire at least 4 times last year with Mullein spindle and white cedar fire board.
I just got an ember on my second try yesterday on a proven set.
Although the technique is there,the triceps were not prepared for a work out.lol
Feeling it today.
It is a good workout. Glad you are having success with it!
I´ve been trying to get a fire going using the bowdrill, but it is just exhausting and frustraiting, i get a lot of smoke and sometimes i even get it to smoke for a few seconds after i take out the spindle. I don´t know what i´m doing wrong, is it the wrong kind of wood (pine for the spindle and the board) or do i just stop "drilling" too soon i really don´t know when i should stop.
You just stop drilling too soon, likely because your spindle is starting to bind. Don't stop until it's smoking like a freight train.
I just wanted to share my experience with bow drill fire. This was my first time doing it. I just came back from a 5 day wilderness primitive skill class.
We used cedar for both spindle and board. The handle piece and bow were from a recently felled pine tree. We also cut out from that same pine a rectangular piece of bark to fold into a pine bark bowl for drying into shape. Since this was a controlled environment, we were able to get a coal easily. So I'll just talk about my experience with the solo challenge during our last day which was to use the skills that we learned to spend the night out in the woods. I'll say that for me, the difficult part in getting fire from bow drill is the tinder bundle. It took me 4 attempts to get from coal to fire because of my poorly constructed tinder bundle. For the tinder, I initially used a combination of dried leaves, birch bark, and dried fir needles. I had a hard time blowing that into a fire. What finally ended up working for me was punky wood from a standing dead trunk which I grinded down into really small pea sized chunks. From that first initial coal from my bow drill, I blew and it grew into a small pile of coals. Then I added a few pieces of dried leaves and really small thin twigs which caught fire after more blowing into it. I should mention that I did this solo challenge on a rainy day. So that was really satisfying to know that I could get fire in rainy conditions. Finally, one of the challenges were to boil water and so I used that pine bowl to boil some water on a bed of coals before I went to sleep.
bow_drill_set.jpg
Last edited by jsonlong; 06-14-2011 at 08:51 AM. Reason: adding image
Glad to hear of your accomplishment Json. I just want to know how big that smile on your face was when you made that fire! Good job!
Bookmarks