Fire by Friction....One More Time

[Rick]

I would really like to know if there is anyone on the forum that can walk into the woods, pick up pieces of wood or other plant parts and make fire? If you can, I have two questions for you.

1. What material did you use?
2. What time of year did you gather it?

Everyone keeps talking about how easy it is and I can't do it for anything. I'm to the point that I think folks are making their fire kits at home and taking them to the woods with them. If that's what everyone is doing then I don't understand the reasoning either. The purpose, to me, is to be able to perform the task if you have no other means at your disposal, which means you have no fire kit with you. Otherwise a lighter or some matches is a heck of a lot more efficient. So what say you?

[crashdive123]

Rick - I have used dry bamboo to make a friction fire. I'll do it again this week and post some pictures. I have also made friction fire with a bow drill (twice) and it took me about half a day each time (actually failed on another attempt when the conditions were less than ideal). I have failed miserably at a fire plough. While it's nice to know how to do, and could come in handy I suppose the amount of energy expended (for me) is why I carry a fire kit with multiple methods of starting a fire and multiple tinders. I suppose with more practice it would become easier but quite honestly it is not on my priority list right now.

[Rick]

I have gone to the woods innumerable times and tried both bow drill and fire plough. The wood is either too green or to brittle. I just can't get it to work. I've never tried bamboo. Not something we have in these parts. I think there are a specie or two but not something I've seen in the wild.

[Ken]

I flick my Bic or use matches. Yep, I've used fire steel and other man made firestarters, but I've never seriously tried to use a fire bow or friction with natural materials.

[Ken]

I've actually been considering bamboo as a privacy screen along some of the property lines at the new house. A friend owns some commrcial property where someone must have planted or discarded bamboo at one time. Even in New England, it grows like crazy - 2 or 3 feet in just a month. The question is, how do you keep it under control?

[crashdive123]

OK, I had a little bit of time (gotta go get rid of some bees in a little bit). I grabbed a piece of bamboo (dead and dry) and my SAK. From start to finish (fire) it took about fifteen minutes. I truly believe that bamboo is one of the most versatile materials (technically a grass) that there is. Here’s the process.

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Just a piece of dead and dry bamboo and my SAK.

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Using the saw blade – just cut a small section of the bamboo. Using the knife blade and a slight pressure (bamboo is really easy to work with) split the piece of bamboo.

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Using the knife blade cut a small notch in the bamboo.

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Scrape the outer finish from the bamboo using the knife edge held at a ninety degree angle. With a larger blade or machete you can speed it up by scraping in both directions but with this smaller blade that does not lock I just scraped in one direction.

Continue scraping until you have a small pile of shavings (tinder).

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Loosely pack either side of the notch with the tinder.

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A small section that is broken acts as a holder or spring to hold the tinder in place when you work.

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Use the other half of the bamboo (the piece that you made the shavings from) in a sawing motion in the notch you made.

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As you get smoke, turn it over and blow.

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Voila! Fire!

[Ken]

Crash, gotta' light?

[Ken]

That was a great tutorial, by the way! I think I'm actually going to try this. It'll be a first for me.

[Rick]

That is pretty cool. Nice job.

Anyone else? Can you go into the woods and make fire just using sticks you find in the woods?

[oneraindog]

Anyone else? Can you go into the woods and make fire just using sticks you find in the woods?

im sure youve seen all the youtube videos on this subject? why the priority for knowing if forum members can do it? (just out of curiosity)

i imagine like anything its gotta take a lot of practice. everything ive heard (having never tried any method myself. not yet anyway) is that it is tricky. very tricky. anything will be hard/seemingly impossible if you dont know how to do it until there is that "AH HA" moment when all the mistakes you have made add up to one successful attempt.
i would bet friction fire to be one of those things that you can read about a million times, watch a million videos and see a million photos but until you mess it up a million times it wont make sense.

hence my procrastination in trying to learn it :/

[Rick]

why the priority for knowing if forum members can do it?

It isn't a priority. I figured if anyone could really do it, someone on here could. Yes, I've seen all the vids but they don't show you how they walk out and select the wood components. They just show you the wood all ready to use then the mechanics of how to make it work. I've grown really cynical that you can just walk out in the wild, start picking up sticks and make fire. I'm trying to figure out if I'm going about it all wrong or if finding stuff in the wild and using it is even practical. I'm just trying to learn.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

I would really like to know if there is anyone on the forum that can walk into the woods, pick up pieces of wood or other plant parts and make fire? If you can, I have two questions for you.

1. What material did you use?
2. What time of year did you gather it?

Everyone keeps talking about how easy it is and I can't do it for anything. I'm to the point that I think folks are making their fire kits at home and taking them to the woods with them. If that's what everyone is doing then I don't understand the reasoning either. The purpose, to me, is to be able to perform the task if you have no other means at your disposal, which means you have no fire kit with you. Otherwise a lighter or some matches is a heck of a lot more efficient. So what say you?

Its not just you Rick, i find it extreemly difficult to build friction fires with air moist materials.

there is only one time that it was easy for me and that was in late summer after a 4 month drought. it was near mid day in full sun and the wood had baked for a few hours before i used them, it was hot low humidity and dead bone dry. (Sycamore is what i used)

[oneraindog]

...they don't show you how they walk out and select the wood components. They just show you the wood all ready to use then the mechanics of how to make it work. I've grown really cynical that you can just walk out in the wild, start picking up sticks and make fire. ...

like this guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPk28DiIWPU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94XYwGToVwY

a series of slightly lesser quality production value, and with more stuttering:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZ7MHxAtNg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt14-rtyCI0

another guy starting from scratch in the woods AND THE WET!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1mp_M0O1rk

youd have to be pretty cynical to think they were all faking it and actually brought in their pre made kits

i am actually trying to be helpful. i hope this isnt coming off too condescending haha

[crashdive123]

This is my absolute favorite video on making a bow drill. Should be easy right?

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

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

ive posted on ray mears. i use his Outdoor survival handbook,(he highlights the use of brackets and working with birch bark. he uses sycymore also. a hard wood that turns to a powder easily(when very dry).

[crashdive123]

I've actually been considering bamboo as a privacy screen along some of the property lines at the new house. A friend owns some commrcial property where someone must have planted or discarded bamboo at one time. Even in New England, it grows like crazy - 2 or 3 feet in just a month. The question is, how do you keep it under control?

Ken - I don't have any on my property, but a few of my customers do. At one, a doctors office - every time I need some for a project I tell them I'm cutting it back to keep the rats away (which is true) and then tell them I'll haul it away and dispose of it to save them the trouble. You've just gotta cut back what you don't want.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

squeaky white woods. black ant trees, all tough to me it seems like, ive had successes (few enough to bring a flint stick) i have a fire board set that i found on a beach in miami. and its a good one, i carry it with me.its a lot of effort. the several minutes of sawing with the bow. the spring pole works well.

[oneraindog]

... Should be easy right?...[/url]

anything looks easy if your watching someone who really knows what they are doing

heres another guy making the effort from scratch. discussing types of wood to use, what to look for, how to shape them and trying his best not to cut off a finger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isUJns93in4

granted hes in his back yard but...eh.

this kid is also in his backyard but he starts from scratch and i dont think he got the piece of wood at home depot...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6UALU0-UZY

[endurance]

I like George Carlin's take on it: "How come some dumb f'er can drop a cigarette in the forest and start a 50,000 acre fire, but I can't start a Hibachi with napalm and hand grenades?"

I've tried on dozens of occasions and never had success. First, there's a lack of good materials, from my attempts, in Colorado. I sure as heck don't have bamboo growing around here. Pine, spruce, and fir is too resinous to have any chance of getting something started. For some reason I've had no success with aspen either. Am I missing a tree to try here or something else?

In any case, I've carried a magnesium firestarter in my pocket everywhere I go for almost 20 years and it has never failed me. Now I get even lazier and keep vasoline'd cotton balls in a hotel shampoo bottle with a screw on lid and it's almost impossible to fail, even in wet and windy conditions.

Has anyone every been successful with evergreens or aspen? I occasionally have willow available, but not reliably enough to count on it. If you've been successful with evergreen or aspen, any tips on techniques? I'd love to try again, but I've kind of given up in the last few years since I never managed to even get significant smoke, no less embers.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

Ken - I don't have any on my property, but a few of my customers do. At one, a doctors office - every time I need some for a project I tell them I'm cutting it back to keep the rats away (which is true) and then tell them I'll haul it away and dispose of it to save them the trouble. You've just gotta cut back what you don't want.

thanks crash, i still have some of that nice thick cane that you gave me. thats what i have been useing it for (to light fires) and it strips down to fine wires too that are very strong.great stuff .