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Thread: Fire-Bow (PIC HEAVY)

  1. #161
    Junior Member Tokwan's Avatar
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    I am now able to see the pictures. Rick you do look like a rock star, and if you paly the electric guitar and sing or shout,..I am sure you will be famous here.
    I'm a Gramp who is not computer savvy, give me a slab and the rock ages tablet..I will do fine!


  2. #162
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    hey just wanted to say thank you for the demonstration pics , I am new to all this and can use all the help I can get and that was a great help thanks again

  3. #163
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    Our pleasure!

  4. #164
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    Default Tropical woods, not great for bow drill fire starting

    Quote Originally Posted by Tokwan View Post
    Hmmm..I wish you guys could speak my language and tell me what trees (in my language) are best for me to get the wood from cos, your trees and my trees are totally different.....I can get fire using the bow drill or the bamboo saww...but it is quite painstaking and requires a lot of time...and I am not good with trees..the only trees that I can identify are rattan, bamboo, banana, coconut, acrea nut, oil palm, rubber trees, aloe vera, tapioca, papaya trees and durian trees..hehehe..
    Anyway, I still practice.
    In most tropical areas the native woods are mostly very hard (NOT ideal), so if possible try to ask some very primitive indigenous people (i.e. the very old ones who still remember). Also try the outer bark of some of the palm trees with that soft fiberous inner still on it (standing dead trees are best, i.e. dry but not rotted). The non-native but very common in Malaysia "West African Palm Oil" and many other palm fruit have oils that may burn well especially if dried out a bit. I read that Malaysia was looking into making bio-desiel from this Palm Oil that grows on millions of acres of land there, perhaps they already do. I like this red, un-purifed oil on fish and shrimp and many other foods, smells a little musty but is good. When you walk into a West African grocery store the smell of it nearly knocks you over. Gotta love it!

  5. #165
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    I second the palm trees. I have broken pieces of the bark off and successfully used a bowdrill on it as the hearthboard. The fibrous stuff makes pretty decent tindles, too. I think I used yucca (an aloe family plant) flower stalk as the spindle. From what I understand, aloe spp. plants grow all over the world.

  6. #166

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    YCC, what palm are you taking the bark off of and what are you calling the bark? I have seen people refer to the dried boots off of the cabbage/sabal palm as bark.

    Tokwan, we have many of these species here either native, cultivated and escaped or just cultivated. We don't have rattan. But we have many palms in that same family. We have bamboo, just not in the woods and swamps I frequent. We have banana, coconut, African oil palm, aloe vera, tapioca (it is called cassava or yuca), papaya trees and cultivated durian trees. Our cultivated papaya get big and I was always waiting for the ones in the woods to get big and ripe. Then I found out that the wild ones here rarely do.

    I have not tried any of these woods in a fire drill.

  7. #167
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    They are the triangular pieces on the trunk. Probably not really bark . The trees themselves grow to about 30 feet, and I want to say the ones I tried were date palms? Little orange fruits in the top on stalks that remind me of yucca stalks.

  8. #168
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    Really have to watch your pressure, though, or you'll drill right through em.

  9. #169
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    Default Features of palm to look for

    Quote Originally Posted by Batch View Post
    YCC, what palm are you taking the bark off of and what are you calling the bark? I have seen people refer to the dried boots off of the cabbage/sabal palm as bark.

    Tokwan, we have many of these species here either native, cultivated and escaped or just cultivated. We don't have rattan. But we have many palms in that same family. We have bamboo, just not in the woods and swamps I frequent. We have banana, coconut, African oil palm, aloe vera, tapioca (it is called cassava or yuca), papaya trees and cultivated durian trees. Our cultivated papaya get big and I was always waiting for the ones in the woods to get big and ripe. Then I found out that the wild ones here rarely do.

    I have not tried any of these woods in a fire drill.
    The primary palm I have experience with for many uses is the açaí palm native to swampy areas in northern Brazil, it has a hard outer layer with softer fiberous inner core. We built a lot of structures out of it but it is also useful for fire drill. Because you don't have this particular species try Coconut, African oil palm, date palms, most tall fruit palms or similar. My guess is that the others are too soft even when fully dried out such as: banana, tapioca, papaya. A fully mature aloe vera or yucca can get a little woody down at the base or in the stems perhaps, but most in N.A. are very soft. However, some of these plants may provide great cordage for bow drill.

  10. #170
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    Default Sabal/Palmetto palm branch as Fire Bow material

    Here is a demo of a Fire-Bow using a Palm leaf stem of a species common in southern USA but this should work with most palm leaves if they have been dead for a while and fully dried out. Best if still attached to tree, i.e. dry but not rotted or wet. My theory is that unlike most tropical hardwoods or very soft non-woody plants these work reasonably well because they have the differential layers between the hard outside shell and the softer fibrous inner material that smolders well. Just a guess, ask a fire or chemical expert. Several stems held together so they do not break may work if just rubbed as a "Fire Saw" i.e. no bow string/cord.



    Now if this guy had built a little shelter of palm leaves and started a small campfire in a driving rain and thunderstorm I would have been very impressed. Well that is a project for me, perhaps, heck no I've got T-day turkey to eat, LOL.

  11. #171
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    Default Coconut Palm Hand Drill, < 60 seconds of rubbing

    Hand Drill, Coconut Palm and a "shoe box tree" fiber plant as base. Less than 60 seconds of hand rubbing to a useable coal.
    Dang impressive to me!


  12. #172

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    Quote Originally Posted by your_comforting_company View Post

    It still takes me about 3 minutes as a norm to get an ember. !
    if you come down this way try some Xanthorea for both spindle and base board.

    My best is 15 seconds using Xanthorea. Timed

    30 seconds is when things aren't exactly perfect. 1 minute is when things are not set up correctly, and should be changed.

    We show this every single lesson.

    We are extremely fortunate to have 28 species of Xanthorea, and it's pretty much a common sight in the bush. I've also used introduced Lantana, which is not bad, but straight spindles are the key, as most have slightly bent vines.

  13. #173

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  14. #174

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    Your post made me register, thanks a lot dude, awesome guide!

  15. #175

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    If you do not understand the language can speak pictures

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmw43JtogM

  16. #176
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    deleted....
    Last edited by kyratshooter; 02-26-2017 at 02:57 PM.
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  17. #177
    Senior Member Antonyraison's Avatar
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    Waiting for the rains to cease down in Africa, been raining here for a week non stop,
    I do intend to make a video start to finish on Bow drill (fire drill) start to finish... I will likely use something common to all areas ( I hope) Willow. which works very well.

    I go over some of the issues and problems I have encountered via a few months of trail and error and practice.
    I will explain it as simply as I can..
    On my last outing I was doing a bow drill work shop session with some guys, I had 5 others with me and 4 out of 5 all got it right using one of my 2 sets ( I have a Forrest elder set and a willow set) Hopefully I put the video out soon after this heavy rains, just obviously everything is wet now.
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  18. #178
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    What?..... Fire bow don't work in the rain?........LOL(joke)

    Is humidity a problem in your area?......or is it normally pretty dry?
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  19. #179
    Senior Member Antonyraison's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    What?..... Fire bow don't work in the rain?........LOL(joke)

    Is humidity a problem in your area?......or is it normally pretty dry?
    Where I stay no humidity is not an issue, it is very dry in the high-veld area normally..we had a drought for about 3 years and the rains finally been breaking through the last few months, only let up yesterday.
    Last edited by Antonyraison; 02-28-2017 at 03:00 AM.
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  20. #180

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    Aw, the pictures are gone again

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