Become a World Class Hand Driller...

[TresMon]

Some good info on BOMB PROOF Hand drilling:


When your hand drilling watch for what I call a "dead hand." EVERY body uses mostly one hand to turn the stalk with. It's easiest to identify a "dead hand" by having your partner watch the motion from top down. You really have to make conscious effort to use both hands equally. When you use both hands equally you get far more RPMs.

Also if you want to be a world class hand driller I suggest you just see how long you can keep smoke going.

Forget about getting a coal.(!!!!) Don't even make a notch.(!!!!)

Just try to keep smoke rolling for like a solid 45 seconds at first. Then go for a minute and a half. Then go for 5 minutes!

Keep building hand drill endurance, keep striving for ENDURANCE. Forget about coals!! When you got plenty of endurance THEN you can EASILY get a coal with lots of materials, even crazy materials. Even in pouring rain.

Remember the Karate Kid Movie? Daniel-son kept begging Miyagi to teach him Karate. Miyagi would not "teach" him Karate. He made him paint the fence, up & down, for days on end. Daniel agreed and was patient hoping it would earn him a Karate lesson form Miyagi later.
After the fence was painted Miyagi made him Wax-on, Wax-off. After all the cars got waxed Daniel was STILL denied a karate "lesson", got
FRUSTRATED and let Miyagi know it.

Miyagi finally relented and yelled "paint the fence!" and started throwing punches at Daniel. Daniel blocked the punches with a paint the fence
motion.

Miyagi yelled WAX ON, WAX OFF and started throwing Punches. Daniel Son blocked each punch with waxing motions. Daniel had mastered
some fundamental but highly important Karate moves, with what he *thought* was the furthest thing from Karate-do.

In the same manner I submit to you & all my students that: seeking & looking for a coal as you hand drill is counter productive & even inhibits the learning curve.

I beat the world record for a hand drill coal several years ago. I did it by training with an oak dowel rod from Lowe's on an old seasoned hickory board. (The harder the wood your working with the harder it is to work with in friction fire. = Train HARD, Fight Easy!) I never made a notch on that set. Every day I came home from work and hand drilled as long as I could possibly could keep the smoke rolling, until I could not go any more. I'd often flop over in the floor heaving as if I had sprinted an all out 100 yard dash - on my hands/arms!

I'd rest and do it again long & hard as I could. I did that three times every day for like 5 weeks.
That is what got me to world class hand drill level. I broke the record ( back then, is it the same now?) with a Horse weed spindle on Paw-Paw
wood fire board.

Your building muscle endurance with muscles in a way you have not used them before. Awesome technique and lots of coals FOLLOW endurance like the caboose of the train. Did you get that?

AGAIN.....

"Awesome technique and lots of coals in hand drilling FOLLOW endurance like the caboose of the train."

I have had many people ask me to teach them the "Float technique." I can not teach you the float, nor do I believe any one can. Sure I can
explain what my hands are doing, but I don't believe you can "learn it." However when you train as stated above the float will come to you
naturally. Like riding a bike, all of a sudden you'll realize you have been peddling a long while and have not fell over!

And you can go beyond the float. It's not really all the hard to do hand drill "stunts" when you train this way. Stunt? Like start with your hands at the BOTTOM of the stalk, "float" your way UP the stalk and have a coal by the time you get to the top end of the stalk. Another stunt is to use a stalk the length of a cigarette. It will dazzle commoners in the primitive skills community. But its not super hero stuff. It's just consistent training, the right way, with the right focus. And you can do it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was really happy & appreciative to come into this info gang. I hope you like it as well.

[rebel]

That's pretty cool and informative. Thanks!

[RangerXanatos]

Looks like good information and training but "world class hand driller" and "breaking the records" seems a little far fetch to me. I've never heard of such competitions and can't see them being of much value. I may be wrong I regress...

[vector001]

Looks like good information and training but "world class hand driller" and "breaking the records" seems a little far fetch to me. I've never heard of such competitions and can't see them being of much value. I may be wrong I regress...

If that is who I think it is, I know him personally and have had him over and shared camps with him, and he is very sharing of his skill sets.

If it is not who I think it is, I'd like to place some bets on him against my buddy. LOL.

This guy makes it look easy.

vec

[your_comforting_company]

personally, I see no need at all to roll smoke for 5 minutes. As a personal test of endurance, maybe, but those blisters are really going to tell on you the next day. I agree that it takes lots of practice to get the downward pressure, and even more practice to "float" but honestly, it only takes me about 2 minutes to get the coal, and I can't see any reason to roll smoke longer than 3 minutes.
I demonstrated the hand drill for a small group of folks Saturday night and they were thoroughly impressed with how quickly I got fire. This was done with some horseweed and white pine found in the yard, some thistle fluff I harvested earlier in the year, and dry grass from the yard.
I make friction fire a lot, just for fun and practice, but I don't do it for any reward or record. There is no need for "stunts" and "world record" just has no appeal to me. Being able to boil water and cook food... now there's a worthy reward for the initiated.

The main thing I do agree with in the above article is that the process truly hinges on endurance. How long can you keep that pressure? Do you have the patience to preheat your kit? How long can you take the pain of those blisters forming?
As with most everything.. practice often, without regard for "world records". Do it for yourself.

[crashdive123]

Just a thought - It seems to me that if your skills progress to where you can maintain "rolling smoke" for five or more minutes you will condition your hands along the way. We've all built up callouses on our hands from doing certain types of work, but when we first started we got the blisters along the way. As to why would you? Why do we do many of the things that we do - enjoyment, need, personal satisfaction, because we can..........

[TresMon]

If that is who I think it is, I know him personally and have had him over and shared camps with him, and he is very sharing of his skill sets.

If it is not who I think it is, I'd like to place some bets on him against my buddy. LOL.

This guy makes it look easy.

vec

This dude is from the South.

personally, I see no need at all to roll smoke for 5 minutes. As a personal test of endurance, maybe, but those blisters are really going to tell on you the next day. I agree that it takes lots of practice to get the downward pressure, and even more practice to "float" but honestly, it only takes me about 2 minutes to get the coal, and I can't see any reason to roll smoke longer than 3 minutes.

I make friction fire a lot, just for fun and practice, but I don't do it for any reward or record. There is no need for "stunts" and "world record" just has no appeal to me. Being able to boil water and cook food... now there's a worthy reward for the initiated.
How long can you take the pain of those blisters forming?
As with most everything.. practice often, without regard for "world records". Do it for yourself.

1. Look back at the training regimen. You only make three smokes a day. That's not a lot. It's to keep blisters LIGHT and give the hands time to to toughen.

2. The world record had no appeal to me, other than to know personally I had acheived something in friction fire and could stop ease off the serious training.

3. I'm not dogging you friend, but if it takes you 2 minutes to get a hand drill coal in good conditions- I worry about your ability to make fire when lost in a forest that has been pelted by rain for a long period of time. Never get caught out without modern (bow drill) string! Make a personal goal of hand drilling coals in 20 seconds max in good conditions. This is not for show and tell. This is so you can be successful in the wet with green/damp materials. It can be crazy how long you have to drill those type of materials to dry them out, THEN heat them up, THEN get a coal. Again I'm not dogging you. You make good posts and I have read many of them and certainly appreciated them.

Just a thought - It seems to me that if your skills progress to where you can maintain "rolling smoke" for five or more minutes you will condition your hands along the way. We've all built up callouses on our hands from doing certain types of work, but when we first started we got the blisters along the way. As to why would you? Why do we do many of the things that we do - enjoyment, need, personal satisfaction, because we can..........

Great point Crash. The callouses come then ultimately no amount of hand drilling hurts. As a friend of mine says "you can tell a great hand driller because it looks like he has knuckles on both sides of his hand."

I say stunts and records DO have a place.

Example. Two young motorcyclist roll up to a local hang out and end up in friendly competition to get to take the one hot dame for a ride. Biker 1 shows his skills- that he can keep her safe by riding around the parking lot slow & controlled with no bobble. (Wow.)
Biker two does the same.
Then.... he rides a slow & controlled circle around the lot on the back wheel without a bobble.
Then... he does a complete power donut orbiting around the grinning chick in full control of his machine without a bobble.
Then he get's up a little speed, snags the front brake and rides the rest of the way across the lot on the front wheel slow & controlled.

Biker one showed he "can ride." Whopee.

Biker two with his stunts proved he is in complete mastery of the machine at every level and fully in control in every condition- regardless. Perhaps not the best example but it communicates that biker two is far more intimate with his skill. And the parable communicates my point.


Thanks for ALL the feedback guys. It's healthy communication & debate that makes our skill ever deeper and I appreciate it.

[gryffynklm]

Take the EGO down a notch!! you are frightening the children.

[TresMon]

No Ego just merely passing on info. Trying to give back thats all.

[gryffynklm]

Its all good

[Rick]

I generally have a controlled flame in 1 or 2 seconds. Those BICS are dynamite. By the way, the chick left with me in my pickup truck. All I did was dangle some cash out the window in a controlled fashion. Down home we call that trolling.

[TresMon]

Yeppers, trolling indeed. However if it is your buddy's gal and he was conveniently locked up in the drunk tank for the night we'd call that poaching!

[Rick]

LOL. Touche'.

[your_comforting_company]

3. I'm not dogging you friend, but if it takes you 2 minutes to get a hand drill coal in good conditions- I worry about your ability to make fire when lost in a forest that has been pelted by rain for a long period of time. Never get caught out without modern (bow drill) string! Make a personal goal of hand drilling coals in 20 seconds max in good conditions. This is not for show and tell. This is so you can be successful in the wet with green/damp materials. It can be crazy how long you have to drill those type of materials to dry them out, THEN heat them up, THEN get a coal.

Not throwing punches here and no offense taken! We are having good discussion on the premise of "practice makes perfect"
Two minutes is sufficient time for a coal. Nobody is going to freeze to death in two minutes. I practice making fire when it's raining and damp outside, but never with wet materials. I'd be a fool to think there was any point in using sticks that have been laying in water for 2 days to try to make a fire.. give me a little credit. Anyone else would be a fool to try using green / damp material. pointless self-torture.
I like to take my time for burn-in, I like to take time to make my notch proper (it makes more difference than one might think!) I take my time preheating and building a dust-bed for the coal, and then I give it hell for about 30 seconds and by then I have that telltale whisp of yellow smoke.
The fire itself is my personal achievement.

Alternately, I recommend a practice regimen two or three times a week, endure the act as long as possible, then put it down, with or without fire. In a few short weeks you will have the stamina to keep the pressure down. Blisters are inevitable, don't torture yourself. When your hands start hurting, go just a little longer but stop before you reach blood!! What we are talking about here is PRACTICE. As I said above, the entire process hinges on personal endurance: fatigue, pain, concentration, posture, and knowledge. These are the things that make the difference in getting friction fire. For a beginner, you might only be able to handle a minute of drilling, and that's fine!

At the end of the day, only the fire matters. Whether it takes 2 seconds or 2 minutes, fire is fire and that is success in my book. Props to anyone who can/wants to make fire in 20 seconds. I'm just not in that big of a hurry, whether it's sunny and dry, or wet, cloudy, and raining.

We will just have to agree to disagree hehe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMR7Stckvws

[TresMon]

We're not even in disagreement bud. Your exactly right the point of the deal is fire. Well said friend. Hope to see you in the woods! You can be the guest of honor in my camp any time. Just teach me some stuff! LOL.. I know a little about fire, but am pretty green at a lot of skills- too many of them. Happy Turkey & stay in touch.

Great video! Nicely done.

[your_comforting_company]

I'd be honored to share what little I know, my friend. You are welcome at my camp as well. Us cave-man types gotta stick together!

[SARKY]

Since none of my outdoor foot wear is without laces and I always have a hank or 5 of 550 cord on me why wouldn't I just make a bow and have done with the blister machine?