Originally Posted by
dustintml
So I have tried off on for probably two years now to start a fire with the bowdrill to no avail. Getting smoke is easy, and so is getting black dust, but I just can't seem to get a coal. I have used spruce and quaking aspen. I may have tried with balsam fir before; I can't remember. I live on Prince Edward Island, so the woods available to me would be your New England area kind of woods. Any tips from someone from the New England/Atlantic Canadian area who has successfully done this before? I have read that fir is the best wood available in this part of the country, and that may be my problem (not sure if I tried with it before or not). I did get a bunch of stuff for a fir bowdrill set recently, but it wasn't dry/dead enough so I have been letting dry in the shed. I think this kind of defeats the purpose though; I'd like to be able to just go out, find the pieces in the woods, and start a fire with them. That is how it would be in an actual survival situation, but then again, in an actual survival situation I would likely be in the wilderness so a greater variety of woods would be available to me .... anyway, any tips you can give me.