A little fire starting practice!

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dl351

Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
717
Well, I decided to take the 5 out and practice my fire starting skills today. I'd like to get good with a bow drill and flint and steel, so I chose the bow drill today! Here we go!

First, the bow drill:
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Second, my twine "nest"
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Next, I added some pine dust from turning a pen on my lathe:
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I was taught to "rough up" the hole to help make the coal a little faster:
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A little something to catch the coal with:
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I couldn't take pictures of myself making the coal, so here's the evidence of my first failed attempt:
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I tried two more times with no luck. So, I did what any self respecting person would do; I threw up my arms in frustration and got my trusty fire steel out:
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That "custom" scraper is nice, huh?!

Well, feeling a little cocky with the fire steel in hand, I walked over to my little fire pit because I was so confident it would light. What do you know! One strike and we have fire!
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Well, as you can see, I still need to practice a lot with the bow drill. I can get a coal no problem. My problem is making the coal ignite the nest. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Overall, my lesson today is, always have a backup plan! Although my goal is to be able to confidently start a fire with a bow drill, I will always take at least a fire steel out with me camping (as well as some matches or a lighter as backup for now). Well, it was fun today, still!
 
No idea where you're at but here I would have serious problems getting a friction fire going in the bush right now. Three solid days of rain following off and on rains for days before that. We are having some flooding and the ground, as well as anything else outside that will absorb water, is saturated. But friction fire takes practice even in good conditions. Just keep at it and you'll get it. BTW, cool striker.
 
Have you tried putting your tender directly under the board while trying to get a coal? I seem to have better luck when the dust generated from the friction is allowed to sort of build up in the v-grove. Eventually I end up with a coal that is wedged in the grove.
 
What Mist said. Right now, even ducks are looking for cover in the Great Smokies Rain Forest. Friction fire would be almost impossible. I say almost, because anything can be done, but it would take alot of effort.

Bow drills are a good skill to learn and use.

Keep up the practice and in no time, you'll be right where you want to be. Good post.

Moose
 
Mannlicher, nice sandals! Chacos? I wear those all the time!

As for the weather, I live in the far east of the San Francisco Bay. Not a lot of rain here. I think we average 14" a year. Also, I'm using a bow drill set that is made from Yucca that I've had for a couple years. I lost my spindle (the drill piece?) last year, but over the summer visited my sister and her husband in New Mexico. While there, her husband helped me find some good Yucca stalks to make another spindle from. I made the spindle last week, and I have a few long Yucca stalks still sitting under a cover on the side of my house. That's why it's all dry enough to try this!
 
I did mine in the snow a couple of months ago and it was about a 3 hour process, the next day I was beat to hell...
 
Hard to tell from the pictures, but a couple suggestions:

1) Looks like you're glazing the hearth board - need more downward pressure. You can drop in a few grains of sand, give a couple spins, and de-glaze the hearth board. Scrape the glazing off your spindle with your knife.

2) Looks like your hand hold is getting a workout - use a touch of bar soap or even oil from your face to reduce the amount of friction

3) The spindle looks like it could be a bit too long - it may be hard to keep from oscillating with it that long - if it oscillates, that moves the "hot spot" around in the hearth board and lets the coal cool off enough that it never cherries up but just stays as black powder (which can still be used to ignite, just MUCH harder)

4) Have someone watch your body position - you want your weight directly over the spindle and lock your hand-hold wrist into your shin... you need excellent form to get it to work quickly

5) Relax - it's hard to start friction fire if you're tense

6) Keep practicing!

BTW - the tinder nest looks EXCELLENT
 
DL351, keep up the effort man. It is no easy task for sure.
What type of wood are using for your drill and board?
First time I tried I used hardwood and got nothing but smoke.
I found some cedar and used it for all components and made my tinder from it as well by scraping the bark off the cedar. This worked out great. I need to go back and try it with some other wood types.
 
I hope to try a bow drill soon, but what i want to know is where i can get one of those custom scrapers.
 
For the drill and board, I am using Yucca stalks. Also, I see the glazing of the hearth board. I put a few scratches in it with the point of my knife to rough it up, and that seems to work. I think I will try a shorter drill and see if that helps. I find myself getting hit with the flying drill because it "flings" off the board every now and then.

Tarditi, thanks for the advice. The funny thing is that I don't really have a problem getting a glowing coal. My real problem is getting it to ignite the tinder nest. I've tried flint and steel, too. I can get char cloth to ignite with the flint and steel, but I can't get the tinder nest to ignite. Are there better materials to use for tinder nests?
 
dl351 said:
Get a cheap knife blank (pre-ground and sharpened) and do something stupid with it to break it and viola! Instant scraper!:D
Click to expand...

Throwing knifes is the best way to do this. It takes about 1000 tries to make a scraper. ;)
 
dl351 said:
For the drill and board, I am using Yucca stalks. Also, I see the glazing of the hearth board. I put a few scratches in it with the point of my knife to rough it up, and that seems to work. I think I will try a shorter drill and see if that helps. I find myself getting hit with the flying drill because it "flings" off the board every now and then.

Tarditi, thanks for the advice. The funny thing is that I don't really have a problem getting a glowing coal. My real problem is getting it to ignite the tinder nest. I've tried flint and steel, too. I can get char cloth to ignite with the flint and steel, but I can't get the tinder nest to ignite. Are there better materials to use for tinder nests?
Click to expand...

If your getting a glowing coal out of your work then your doing a good job. It sounds like your not blowing enough on the coal to get it to heat up even more which is what it takes to spark up your tinder bundle. You made a great tinder bundle, that wasn't the issue. When you get that coal get it into your bundle and start blowing, constantly! You'll start getting a lot of smoke and keep an eye on it for it to flash. That's one thing I've seen people do quite a bit is not get enough air to it to make it ignite. Try this and see if it helps you. Keep it up, it takes a lot of work!
 
I remember some friends and I went camping with my cousin who was a big survivalist type who would go out camping for weeks with nothing but a pack on his back of bare essentials and a knife. This time we went camping he decided to make it a little bit of a "survivalist school" even though we'd have food and everything we needed (no tents though, we actually built a log house on the site using just axes and our knives). Part of that was we would have to start a fire with a bow drill and we could not have any fire at all until it was started with a bow drill. That was surely a learning experience! One of my more hot-headed friends got frustrated and started the fire with a match after a few hours of trying, but my best friend and I who were big on also trying to be "survivalists" ourselves finally got fires started with the bow drill.

I don't think I was ever more proud of something until my daughter was born! ;)
 
Hi dl351 -

Thank you for the pictures and the write up.

I think your advice of roughing up the divot is a great tip.

I have NEVER been able to start a fire this way - maybe this year is my year.

I am sure many people would scoff at the idea, but my friends at the JK Gathering last fall will attest, starting a fire is tough, even with a fire-stick!

Thanks again for posting, I enjoyed your pictures and commentary. :thumbup:

best regards -

mqqn
 
Thanks for all the advice! I'll need to make a new hole in the hearth board and give it a try again!
 
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