Best spindle/drill and hearth board wood?

Thomas Linton

Thomas Linton

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Jun 16, 2003
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Which wood have you found best in your experience for the drill/spindle and hearth board for fire by (wood) friction?

I have been so happy with willow and Eastern Cotton-Wood -- very common in NE Ohio -- that I have not tried anything else for years.

Also, I get conflicting signals on both spruce and oak. Some say "yes." some say "no." I was not happy with oak, but that was yeasr ago and could be me.
 
i really like white cedar for hearth boards. if i use it with a pecan spindle, i can get an ember in under 1 minute
 
Ever try Yucca stem? it is pretty amazing, use the same material for the "board" and the "drill"

red cedar is another choice that works good, and balsam pine.


Pat
 
American Basswood (Tilia americana) #1, followed by Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) #2. The only small downside to these two materials is they don't 'coalesce' into a coal that is as sturdy as other woods so I find that use of a coal enhancer is a good idea. In these 2 cases, I use the same wood for both drill and hearth.

I don't find Willow (Salix spp.) works as well, but it does work.

I have never tried Oak (Quercus spp.) but I think it would be more difficult due to the hardness of the wood.

Doc
 
At the WLC we used white cedar and everybody got a coal and fire. The same wood was used for the board and the spindle. Theory behind that is if the spindle wood is harder then the board wood you will just drill right through, and vise versa. Makes perfect sence to me. That white cedar was crazy, even Kevin was suprized at how quickly we got coals.

I here basswood works great and poplar also.
 
tonym said:
At the WLC we used white cedar and everybody got a coal and fire. The same wood was used for the board and the spindle. Theory behind that is if the spindle wood is harder then the board wood you will just drill right through, and vise versa. Makes perfect sence to me. That white cedar was crazy, even Kevin was suprized at how quickly we got coals.

I h[ear] basswood works great and poplar also.
Click to expand...

This "white cedar"? http://images.google.com/images?hl=...&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

T. occidentalis, "northern white cedar" or "arborvitae"


There is another "white cedar" that's not a cedar at all - "Atlantic white cedar." Chamaecyparis thyoides
http://images.google.com/images?hl=...&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
 
here's a good shot of the bark

I got it off the google page you linked 2 across and 2 down

cedarbark.jpg
 
You can see in the pic below, some white cedar to the left of Kevin. It has the 12" ontario in it. We batoned a section off a lil thicker then our thumb. From that pice we made spindle and board.

survivaltrip016.jpg
 
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