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Thread: Fire Drill and Fungus Experiment

  1. #21
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Friction fire is something that I do want to get better at. I was lucky not to put out the ember in the fungus due to how much I was sweating when I did it.
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  2. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by crashdive123 View Post
    Until you get the hang of it, try practicing with some jute or sisal rope. Cut a few lengths about four or five inches long and then untwist them until you have a handful of loose (single) fibers about the size of a softball. Make a small depression in it and place your coal in the depression.
    Other materials that might be in your area - the dead fibers from the Cabbage palms (off the trunk, not the leaves).
    That is what I tried first. The cabbage palm is also called the sabal palm. I use this to start most of my fires.

    Rub them between your hands (like you are trying to warm your hands) to break up the fibers.
    I'll try rubbing them. I usually just kinda fluff them out and try to make a kind of uniform fluffed density.

    Other materials - Cattail fluff or any of the other seed pods that fluff up - won't be available till later in the season though. Add them to your dried grasses (rub those drided grasses like you do with the palm fibers). Pine needles - again - rub em to make finer pieces. Dried bark from the Southern Cedar works well. It's all about experimenting and finding out what works best for you.
    Yeah, there ain't much fluff to the cattails yet. I was in the glades yesterday and gathered up some dried grass and some dead palm frongs and some wheat like grass.

    I made a birds nest of the grass and put the palm fibers in the center. I put the coals in there and blew on them. But, they either burn out or fall to smaller pieces. It actually burns through the fibers with out igniting. You can see in the video the glowing embers coming off of the cotton.

    I tried last night till I was sopped in sweat (very humid and hot yesterday). Burned through the hearth and started a new hole and put it too close to the middle and so instead of working with that, I made another hole. But, I put that to close to the edge. LOL I got a tiny ember and then next try I edge of the hearth broke on the hole.

    I put the bow, drill, hearth and tinder back in storage and went to take a shower whilst mumbling a comprehensive list of colorful words.

    I will keep at it until I get it and I appreciate the help.

    Rick, that is a good list to have. Thanks, for posting it!

  3. #23
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    It's kinda funny because all the woods I have tried are listed as Very Difficult on that list. So it gives me new hope that I might actually be able to do this. Now, if the rain will stop....
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I had been pulling some of the "shelf fungus ?" off a bunch of dead trees, and playing with it in between hunting and napping.

    Is the bottom hard?
    I tried the Ferro Rod, nada.
    Tryed scraping it to powder, Nada.
    Tried setting on fire with my Bic, kinda......sorta.
    Maybe not the right stuff?
    Gonna be heading out again end of the week for some more "Place" time.
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  5. #25
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    H63 - by sorta do you mean that you got a coal? If so, that's really about it unless you add some fuel (bacon fat, cooking oil, etc.)
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    No, it wouldn't stay going.
    I am familiar with what to do with a coal, but I would have though I would be able to blow on it and get it going.
    That was with the Bic, direct flame, can't imagine trying to catch a spark?
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  7. #27
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    Sounds like your ember and dustpile are falling apart, Batch. If you don't have any fluff to use to catch your dustpile in transfer, use a leaf under the hearth and move the whole leaf (or piece of paper) to the edge of the birdsnest and roll your tindle over on it.
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  8. #28

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    Yeah, I am going to try some more this weekend. I'll try fluffing everything more and transferring the coal like you said.

    I think I saw some Yucca flowers in a field today. But, it was getting dark and we were on the wrong side of a large canal. Didn't see the whole plant because it was behind some other plants. But the stem and the white flowers looked right.

  9. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick View Post
    It's kinda funny because all the woods I have tried are listed as Very Difficult on that list. So it gives me new hope that I might actually be able to do this. Now, if the rain will stop....
    The type of wood was not what got it reliably working for me, it was design details. I don't have any of those woods here so I just use the hardest, driest wood I can find. I posted those details on another thread somewhere. I always look at things more from a mechanical perspective. This is a difference between me and most of you. You ask what and I ask why?

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    just remember where you saw it. If it had flowers on it, it'll be months before it's ready to harvest for firemaking. The flower petals are a bit bitter and taste like my grandma's bad candy (some kind of medicine-stuff). I'm eager to try the fruits but since those are in a field, they probably won't fruit.
    I learned only a few weeks ago that the yucca is pollinated by only one insect: the yucca moth. No moths = no fruits, even though "love-bugs" crawl all over them.
    supposedly you hollow out the fruits, like you would a bell pepper and stuff it with potatoes (or root veggies) cheese and butter (and some bacon for you carnivores). sounds yummy, but I wouldn't try it last year.
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  11. #31
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    OK, so here a couple of pic's of my trial piece og fungus, even tried scrapping some off, to get a spark to catch
    Also the mentioned rabbit pellets, and a wasp nest, (yeah I know wrong kind of wasp nest)
    Not much luck with any of it.


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  12. #32
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    I came across some rabbit pellets the other day and couldn't get them to catch a spark either.
    I have no problem with the true-tinder fungus catching spark. Looks like your's caught too.
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  13. #33
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by your_comforting_company View Post
    I came across some rabbit pellets the other day and couldn't get them to catch a spark either.
    I have no problem with the true-tinder fungus catching spark. Looks like your's caught too.
    LOL, yeah with a Bic.......LOL.....
    Oh, well back to the drawing board,, of course that why we don't have Preparation "A" or "B"
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  14. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    LOL, yeah with a Bic.......LOL.....
    Oh, well back to the drawing board,, of course that why we don't have Preparation "A" or "B"
    For catching a spark from a fero rod/steel, try cutting away a little of the outter covering, exposing the inner cork like "meat". I've had some success catching a spark this way as long as the fungus was dry enough.
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  15. #35
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Crash as you can see I scrapped a bunch out with my knife, even tried to get the powder to catch a spark, of course this was on the underside.
    Are you suggesting the top coating?

    I brought a big one home so I have something to play with here in the "city".
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  16. #36

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    Is it possible to make fire from a coal and wood shavings? Like a pile of tiny, saw dust size shavings.

  17. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Batch View Post
    I got to get the tinder bundle right. I didn't have any dead grass or anything. But, I tried cotton, dryer lint, palm tree fibers. Everything will fire right up with a fire steel but not with my coals.

    I can get a coal in about 15 seconds every single time and they are about the same size as the one in the video.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSvnMw3pGCg
    thy taking the coal to the fuel in stead of taking fuel to the coal so like nock the coal out onto the tinder
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    Just added to my to do list!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Survival Guy 10 View Post
    thy taking the coal to the fuel in stead of taking fuel to the coal so like nock the coal out onto the tinder
    I blew the tinder off of the paper in that video. So, I had to pick the coal up with the tinder. My problem there was I didn't have anything with the cotton. I have since found that using a light tinder, backed by a slightly heavier tinder, backed by some thing dense enough to help conserve the air you blow into the tinder bundle. Actually, I don't know if it is the air or the heat that it conserves. Maybe both. But, something like dry grass or even dry leaves on the out side of the tinder bundle seem to make the tinder bundle ignite much quicker. Even just cupping the tinder bundle in my hands when I blow into it seems to make it ignite much quicker.

    Also, I don't blow on the ember to create the coal anymore. Now, take my time and just lightly fan the ember into a coal using my hand.

    Every time I make a fire with a bow drill I learn something new. Also, learning to make fire with friction elevates your ability to make fire with simpler methods by teaching better tinder techniques. I have had a bit of a tough time starting a fire in the rain. But, it was raining when I pulled into camp on Friday night after gathering some larger wood for the fire I used just what was available within camp to build a fire in a couple of minutes to prep and within a few seconds of igniting the tinder bundle we had a good fire to dry out the rest of the wood. Despite it having been raining off and on all afternoon.

    You can see the water line on my nephew's pant legs to see the water line to get wood. At this point the fire is made up almost completely of sabal palm tinder, jack boots, and dead fronds. But, soon it will be a hot oak fire.

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  20. #40
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    Great job batch! would you agree that it is more mechanical? I find that with different materials I adjust my mechanics, i.e. pressure and speed, rather than material, or set-up.
    Starting a fire with wet materials is an achievement in itself. Congratulations brother and well done!
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