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Thread: Newbie bow drill woes

  1. #21
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poco
    If it's smoking then you should have a coal or incredibly close.
    Uh...no. I've gotten smoke hundreds of times. Thousands maybe. Embers are non existent. I once burned a 3 foot spindle down to 2 inches prompting a fog alert and still no embers. Well, okay, maybe I exaggerated but it's almost that bad.
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  2. #22
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    for me, once it smokes it still takes another 30 seconds or so to get an ember. smoke means it's hot enough to release the gasses in the wood.. almost ready to combust.

    When you have an ember, the smoke goes from grey/white to yellow. that is the big clue that you can stop drilling and start blowing the ember.
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  3. #23
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    When I go from red faced to blue faced that's a big clue I need to quit or call 911.
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  4. #24
    naturalist primitive your_comforting_company's Avatar
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    pick up this book guys. Mine is autographed
    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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  5. #25

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    Poco, until I started this I never knew how far away "incredibly close" was.

    It's far, far away!

    YCC, I'll remember the yellow smoke.

    Rick, I've been from red, to blue, to white faced and back again. My arms and hands are much stronger for the effort and that's about it.

    I've burned thru a good two feet of bow drill and fireboard combined.

    My fire piston didn't fair any better. I went and dug out my old sparker and made some charcloth. That will be my alternative firestarter for now. At least I can practice making tinder and blowing an ember to flame. Hopefully then, when the day comes I finally get an ember with anything that remotely resembles primitive I can get fire.

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