Ok I tried for the first time today to make fire with bow and drill. Let's just say that if I were spending the night in the woods tonight with only my drill and bow....there won't be a rescue..it'll be a body recovery :( . I was using sycamore on sycamore because that's what I have dry and readily available. Also oiled the top board for lube. My first attempt was actually my best I had dark brown sawdust and smoke in probably a minute or less. But then my drill slipped. I tried a few more times but couldn't get as good a result. I then cut a new hole in the fire board and shaved the hardened wood gloss off the drill end. It was better but still not as good as my first. I tried for about two hours to no avail. Never got an ember. So now to my questions. Should I have continued to use the same hole on the hearth board even though after the first time it was really glossy and burnt looking (didn't seem to be producing sawdust either)? When I cut the notch for airflow is it critical to cut all the way through the hearth top to bottom ( as in take the whole pie section out)? I just notched it to about half the board width.
