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Awesome Quote - and Friction Fire Example - Video.

Good stuff. Ray has to be one of the smoothest friction fire guys on the planet:cool:
 
Thanks for this. I'm going to use it before I go out to teach my sons this extremely important skill.
 
Great video. Even Mr. Mears managed to drop his coal on the ground from the platform set up under the hearth/wedge. Makes me feel not so bad when I do that :)

Also that guy stuck to it. An hour of working on that is quite frankly difficult physical exercise especially given that the guy learning didn't look like he was in that great of shape.

The contrast between Mear's smoothness and the other guy - looks like they were using the same drill - had everything to do with alignment, balance and pressure. The student did all the things wrong that I did when learning. Put way too much pressure on the drill which makes it hard to get it to spin, keeping the drill angled rather than straight. I'll be his shoulders were as tight as a knot during those first couple of times too. That was a big one for me, relax the shoulders. Start the drill with light pressure and focus on balance and getting the drill to spin cleanly. After you manage that slowly add a little downward pressure to the drill, it doesn't take much more than the weight of your own arm.

Whatever they used for a tinder a basket it sure worked well. The one thing the student could have been instructed on is to raise the tinder based above his face and blow upward. If there is a light wind, you want to be blowing with the wind, so that the smoke is cleared from your face and the wind is helping you not hindering you.

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You may also note, at 0:35 that Mears keeps his bow string pretty close to the plank, while the other guy has it running a lot higher see 4:12.
 
Ravaillac said:
You may also note, at 0:35 that Mears keeps his bow string pretty close to the plank, while the other guy has it running a lot higher see 4:12.
Click to expand...

I've done it both ways without too much problem. In fact, I was almost cringing at the string near the bottom when Ray was doing it....Personally I like to keep the string about 1/3 up the drill but this isn't something I think about as a major factor.
 
In my attempts to do this I've only succeeded twice using the materials at hand. To me finding and selecting the right materials is half the battle. Nothing against Ray (I love his videos), but that spindle definitely looks like a piece of kit to me- too smooth to be from the woods around him. I only point this out because my perception is regardless of how good you are there is only so much you can do in certain areas (like in the video) where the woods are full of moisture. In a real survival situation, I'm not sure I would burn the calories to try and do this unless I found the right materials to do it. Please tell me if I'm wrong based on your own experience.
 
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Great vid, reminding me of my trials and tribulations with friction fire.. Took me 3 days to get my first coal, but was happy when I was able to get it.. Took another 4 to get to where i was able to get 3 coals out of 5 tries.. Hopefully I'll work on it more once my back gets better(old age, and stupidity, don't ask).. I'm hoping to get it down about 4 out of 5 tries, I can get a coal..
 
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