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Thread: Fire-Bow (PIC HEAVY)

  1. #61
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Well done. I have the same socks BTW.
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  2. #62
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    Batch got it!! That is awesome!

    One thing I might suggest to help get the flame a little faster: As you start blowing the ember into the tindle, use your hands to compact the tindle around the ember. The closer your ember is to the stuff in the nest, the quicker it'll catch fire.
    2 and a half minutes is remarkable! Great job Batch!

    For jbtusa.. make sure you knock the ember out of the hearth notch pretty quickly or smoke and close quarters will smother the ember rather than letting it grow. It's hard to troubleshoot this sort of thing across the internet. It sounds like it's getting smothered, but I can't say for sure. If you can get an ember on demand, keep doing it until you figure out how to get it out of the board alive.

    Crimescene and jbtusa, you guys are very close to success. Don't give up!! If batch and I can do it, I know you guys can too!!
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  3. #63

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    Yeah, I have to work on getting the tinder to light faster. I actually thought it wasn't going to light for a second or two.

    I haven't done this since I posted about it last because it has been real hot and humid. I was wondering if the humidity would prevent the tinder from lighting.

    Anyhow I am going to practice more often and I'll try and get a video with better form and some socks and shoes on. It is obvious from my tan lines I ain't no Cody Lundin. LOL

    I like four legged, fur bearing animals. But, then again everyone has to have a fetish, no?

  4. #64
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    hmm.. last I checked fish don't have legs and I eat them all the time. I'm with Cody on the whole "don't eat snakes" thing. birds only have 2 legs and we eat them too.

    I think at the end of the day, you'll either go to bed hungry, or build a fire and cook what you have at your disposal. When it comes to going to bed hungry, I find that my preconceptions and "being picky" go right out the window.

    The reason I point out tightening up the nest around the ember, I've watched more than one friend do all the work of spinning an ember, I mean a good ember, only to lose the fire due to the nest being too loose to catch. I know it gets hot and I've gotten blisters on more than one occasion, but a little pain on the end of my finger is minor next to hunger pangs or eating raw meat (or drinking fetid water through a cigarette butt straw, that's pretty desperate!).

    I hope my comments don't get the thread off track. I have successfully taught a few guys (and one girl) how to spin fire with a bow-drill in a person-to-person scenario. It's much harder when theres a continent separating us! The fact that you can make fire is outstanding, whether it takes 2 minutes or 10. Just thought I'd reiterate the importance of a well-made tindle.
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  5. #65
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Great job!! Kudos to the camera operator!!!
    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.

  6. #66

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    Quote Originally Posted by your_comforting_company View Post
    hmm.. last I checked fish don't have legs and I eat them all the time. I'm with Cody on the whole "don't eat snakes" thing. birds only have 2 legs and we eat them too.

    I think at the end of the day, you'll either go to bed hungry, or build a fire and cook what you have at your disposal. When it comes to going to bed hungry, I find that my preconceptions and "being picky" go right out the window.

    The reason I point out tightening up the nest around the ember, I've watched more than one friend do all the work of spinning an ember, I mean a good ember, only to lose the fire due to the nest being too loose to catch. I know it gets hot and I've gotten blisters on more than one occasion, but a little pain on the end of my finger is minor next to hunger pangs or eating raw meat (or drinking fetid water through a cigarette butt straw, that's pretty desperate!).

    I hope my comments don't get the thread off track. I have successfully taught a few guys (and one girl) how to spin fire with a bow-drill in a person-to-person scenario. It's much harder when theres a continent separating us! The fact that you can make fire is outstanding, whether it takes 2 minutes or 10. Just thought I'd reiterate the importance of a well-made tindle.
    Bro, your posts do nothing but help!

    I make the Cody and Dave jokes about my socks and the four legged animals just for fun. But, you definitely help with your posts.

    Even the chest pumping and stuff is a joke for me like when Tom Hanks made fire on the island in Castaway. LOL

    Rick,

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  7. #67
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    I have a funny story, and probably an outragous opinion on this...

    I'm helping a contractor for a few days. apparently his helper quit and since I wasn't roofing this week, and he needed a hand...
    I was telling him about all the primitive stuff I do, and after work, showed a few arrowheads, and tanned animals, and mentioned I could make fire with sticks. He said "you gotta be sh......in me" and laughed. I smiled and said "no really, I can have fire in my hands in less than two minutes!"
    Long story short.. I tried 4 times to make fire and FAILED MISERABLY. I was pouring sweat, out of breath, and humiliated.
    We laughed about it and made a few "gasoline and a match" jokes, and he left.

    I came inside, read the boards, which took 10 or 15 minutes, and still feeling defeated, yet having made fire by this method at least a hundred times by now... Tried again.
    hahahahhahahaha (it's okay if you laugh at me too)
    I had fire in a minute and a half again..

    If you're showing off, prepare to be humiliated.
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    at least that's my theory.

    sorry for such a long boring story, but this went down in the last... I dunno 45 minutes and I needed to cool off after that last round. hahaha!

    I don't know why it didn't work.. I didn't change a single thing on the fifth try. same divot, notch, spindle, platform, tindle... everything was the same.. even the patch of ground I was using. I know it sounds crazy, but it wouldn't work because I was trying to impress someone with it. When I tried the last time, there were no witnesses but me.
    Maybe this makes me officially nutty? I don't know but I sure as heck couldn't make fire while he was watching!
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  8. #68
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    which begs the question...

    How are you other guys faring? Any success yet with friction fire?
    (crimescene and jb in particular)
    Hey batch, have you tried it in the humidity? that presents a whole new challenge! Don't let the sweat dripping off your nose fall on the ember and all!! DOH!
    Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller

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  9. #69

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    I know what you mean about showing off. I had a cook out last weekend and wanted to light the charcoal chimney with the bow drill. Lots of folks watching and I said before I started that the drill had drifted the hole so the notch was off.

    I sawed a bit and got plenty of smoke and then lust made a new start and notch. Then I got fire really quickly.

    You can see the drift I was talking about and the second notched area in this photo.

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  10. #70
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    A bit off topic (sorry!) but what is that tree on the right side of the pic?

    I find that drift is often caused by the spindle not being straight. As it wobbles around, it kinda finds a place to fit. Glad to know you are still bow-drilling for your own edification. When you light the grill like this, it adds a certain degree of satisfaction to the meal.
    Great job batch!!
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  11. #71
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Looks like an avacado tree.
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    Quote Originally Posted by crashdive123 View Post
    Looks like an avacado tree.
    A Giant avocado tree!
    Not all who wander are lost - Tolkien

  13. #73

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    Yes, that is an avocado and then coconut palm behind that.

  14. #74
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    hmmm... I wonder if you can make fire with avocado limbs? We've had discussion before about palms being good tinder too. Quite a few resources right there in your back yard!
    I don't think I've ever seen one quite that big. neat. Is that in your back yard?
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  15. #75

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    Yeah, it is in my backyard.

    I never even thought about trying to make a fire with avocado wood. Though I did think about grinding up some coconut and getting the oil and burning that in a lantern. with all of the fat in avocados, I wonder how easy it would be to use a fuel. I have used the lives as part of my tinder bundle. Along with dried grass and palm fluff.

    I have taken to using the green avocado leaves to catch my coal when bow drilling. It actually seems to work better than the cardboard.

    The dried palm limbs from the coconut tree burn pretty good.
    Last edited by Batch; 07-23-2010 at 05:49 PM.

  16. #76
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    Default crepe myrtle spindle!

    Quote Originally Posted by Aurelius95 View Post
    I have a crepe myrtle tree in my yard that I cut back this winter. The branches are in the back yard. You use the crepe myrtle for the spindle?
    I got crepe myrtle to work last night.
    I tried to put the photos in a series thing, but I couldn't figure it out, so I apologize for the shabby job on that. I was pretty tired after doing it too so I also aplogize for the blurriness.

    I used my tulip poplar hearth. Needs to be a good hard hearth. The crepe myrtle required more pressure than yucca, and thus a tighter string, so it took me one good try to figure out the mechanics of the materials. Second try with a non-green limb worked!
    This is the spindle that has been aging in the shed since the original post. I have some more out in the weather that I will try soon.

    Thought you might like to know there is some use for those dreadful things besides looking pretty.

    Notice how I start off with the standard loose "bird nest" in pic 2. Once I get a good heart in it, in photo 3, I tighten it up in 4, while still blowing on it, and you see the heart growing in photo 5 as I continue to tighten it. Photo 6 is just a few seconds after 5 and is in flames!
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    Last edited by your_comforting_company; 07-29-2010 at 01:49 AM. Reason: changed picture
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  17. #77

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    Ive been trying for 3 days now and still haven't got a fire going by this method Ive gotten a little smoke but thats about it, Maybe its the wood I'm using, I have cedar, oak , and a pear tree, I've tried all three with no luck yet. after rereading this thread I'm thinking maybe I'm using too green of a wood. so after a cartoon break its back outside for me and my little buddy to try again.
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  18. #78
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    Thank you for sharing this. It's great to see an explanation with detailed photographs. I like the idea of carrying the bow as a walking stick as I do a lot of hiking myself and can utilise this method. I think it's a really useful skill to have and it's always something when demonstrated ignites the boy scout in everyone :-)
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  19. #79
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    yep. it needs to be DEAD. fresh wood has too much moisture locked in the cells. As I've found with several materials, it should preferrably be "weathered".
    Keep trying with different materials. If you can locate yucca, it is a very good firestarter and is what I learned with.
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  20. #80

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    Has anybody tried stag horn sumac as a spindle or fire board?
    That stuff grows like crazy in some sections around my place.Seems to me it would need to dry out considerably as it has a rather spongy center.

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