Bamboo fire saw for Tokwan

[RangerXanatos]

In a thread a couple of weeks ago, Tokwan and I were discussing the bamboo fire saw. It rekindled my desire to get a flame by this method and so I went out to accomplish it. Its been a couple of years since I last attempted it so I pick up some bamboo I had stored away and gave it a shot. After several minutes of fumbling around making the set and sawing, I blew an ember to flame.

I'll try to post the video up tomorrow sometime.

[hunter63]

Very cool.....looking forward to the vid.....

[crashdive123]

Nice job Rx.

[Tokwan]

You got it...wow...that is great..congratulations....and I saw some of your list, we kinda share almost the same tools...hahahaha.

[your_comforting_company]

Talk about a frustrating fire method! Congratulations!! Looking forward to the vid!

[RangerXanatos]

The video is processing at the moment but it should be up soon. I think I need to hire one of you to make and edit my video's. I didn't realize it but you only see me from my waist down and I was out of frame blowing it to flame. Skip to the end for the successful sawing. It took three embers and cedar bark to get it to flame.

[Grizz123]

video is unavailable??

[RangerXanatos]

video is unavailable??

It's still processing.

[RangerXanatos]

Should be able to view it now.

[Rick]

Oh my aching shoulders. Very nice job nonetheless.

[your_comforting_company]

That is quite a feat. Good Job!

[Tokwan]

We are not interesting in looking at you..only the fire making..heheheheheheheheh

[Adventure Wolf]

There could be a joke about the bamboo stuck between your legs like that, but I won't make it.

[Tokwan]

I would change the direction of slicing the bamboo to away from you instead of towards you.

[RangerXanatos]

I would change the direction of slicing the bamboo to away from you instead of towards you.

I was using the quarter round hook on the knife for that. It does very well for work like that making small curls.

[Tokwan]

I always make it a rule, to always cut away from you, in the outdoors, it minimizes the chance of you getting injured.

[TXyakr]

Very good video and technique. If you had not mentioned it I would have assumed you were "off your mark" intentionally to keep your face out of the video.
This video does bring up an interesting point: In the many wild areas I mostly see very thin bamboo less than 1/2" diameter that gets frozen down to the ground in the winter but in city areas there are stands of much thicker bamboo 2" or more in diameter. This invasive, non-native weed is very useful for many things, shoots are edible etc. Probably a good thing larger varieties are not growing wild in most wilderness areas, but I wonder if the slightly warmer temps in cities protect it or just that people planted these species there.

Other thought is that if you bundled several thin canes together and rubbed, would it work almost as well as one large thick split cane, just as long as it was dry not green. Anyway your video was very helpful, whether I am successful like you or not the physical activity will surely warm me up. ;-)