Bowdrill fail, Breeden Peacemaker

kgd

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
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It has been raining incessantly the past two weeks. Not just drizzly stuff either. I'm talking thunder/lightening, high winds. Yesterday was the first evidence of a little sun amongs the gloom and today was a glorious day. The first sunny weekend in the past 3 weeks!

Amidst our soggy forest I decided to try a little bit of bowdrill. The forest is absolutely lush. A few mosquito's are buzzing but the cool temperatures have kept them at bay. As it warms this week I imagine that they will be out in full force.

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I had with my my Bryan Breeden Peacemaker. I've had this knife for a couple of years and because it spends a lot of time in the kitchen I can say it has the most use of any blade that I own. The knife itself is pretty much a plain design. Basic straightback model with wonderfully darkened osage orange scales. The blade is of O1, its 6" long and 1/8" thick. The patina on it is just from regular kitchen use. I shine it up once in awhile, but it always gets a patina after a couple of weeks use.

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After walking through the bush a bit, the trail started along a creek and I found what I was looking for.

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A big willow with some storm damage. Much of the wood was still fresh and wet. I did find an old dead limb which I took, but I think I needed something bigger and less punky.

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I walked up the trail a bit and found a nice place to settle and make my kit. I used some grapevine bark to make my tinder basket.

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At first it looks like this:

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Then after you roll it in your palms for about five minutes you get a nice strandy mess like this:

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Shaping the kit:

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more coming...
 
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So after 4 attempts I did give up. It all looked promising. I was getting good smoke and dust, but had that situation where the smoke lingers for about 5 seconds after stopping the drill and I could not wave it into a coal. Willow is a goto wood for me here and I've done plenty of successful coals but I think the limb I took was ultimately too wet, too small and because the wood is so soft, idling it would just result in cutting through the wood. If I were really determined, I would have went back to that willow tree and selected a better piece, but I wasn't that determined today!

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I did want to see if my tinder bundle would have worked, so I pulled out my flint and steel kit.

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Yep, it worked fine! It did take a lot of patient blowing though. I far prefer cottonwood inner fibre with flash tinder like cattail fluff or phragmites mixed in, but this stuff will do in a pinch.

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I managed to brush by some poison ivy. Thanks to some of Rick's picture posts I was able to rub the area down with some jewel weed growing right next to it. That seems to have done the trick!

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Beta managed to get a little swim in the dirty creek. She's all content now!

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Thats all folks!

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Could be material brotha - but that dust and spindle are a little brown for my tastes.

More pressure - perhaps more speed.

TF
 
Talfuchre said:
Could be material brotha - but that dust and spindle are a little brown for my tastes.

More pressure - perhaps more speed.

TF
Click to expand...

Oh it was material....The outer part was a bit punky and even though the inside felt dry it wasn't crisp. I needed to get a bigger limb. But you know how it is, you get that smoke and then the damn dust pile continues to smoke after you stop drilling. You think you got it and then it just sort of putters out. This sends you into that feedback loop to try again and again. Between the different divots I tried varying pressure and speed. I was getting better, black dust, with light + fast speed. I should have just tried to gather a better piece of wood after the second divot.

Thanks for your suggestion T!
 
I thought you had developed your skills enough to know that. Material is a bitch on site. Makes me respect the HELL out of fire.

TF
 
Thanks guys, I've been circulating many of my Breeden's into rotation this spring. Great, functional and utilitarian blades...Not so much bling. Kind of like what knives are supposed to be :D

The Peacemaker at 6" bladelength just feels super balanced and light weight in the hand. When ever I hand this knife to somebody and while they are holding it I tell them it is a 6" blade, the first word is usually. No that's not six inches. Yep...It is. Its a six incher that behaves like a 4 incher :) But when you need them extra 2", they come in handy :) :) :)
 
Great photos Ken, I'll have to give that vine bark a go soon, I have several Muscadine vines here that have a similar bark.
 
Hey Ken,

Did you try and dry out the spindle and hearth?

I have used wetter wood and gotten a coal by slowly working the spindle and the hearth at about 1/3 to 1/2 speed without a ton of pressure. Just adding friction and heat for quite some time. I take a break and keep the wood in a dry place - and the go back to it.

I do this as much as needed until I dry out the wood - then try to bust a coal. I have had good experience with this method.

TF
 
Yeah, I tried this a bit Tal, but did not take it to an extreme. Rick loves doing this, he calls it idling and he says he'll idle for 10 minutes before really getting a coal. I'm admittedly want to premature bow-ification syndrome.... That really is great advice though and sometimes it really does work. I've yet to get really fresh wet wood to work under this method but I've seen Rick do some nasty wood with patience. Of course, I've seen mother nature make him squirm and plead mercy twice now to :D :D
 
Nice thread. That Breeden is such a sensible looking design. I've been meaning to place another order for a while.
 
Nice attempt. I have had many fails with the bow drill myself but am pretty sure it's the materials. I get a ton of smoke but only once got an ember. So I can't wait to test this on some other woods. I was just trying it using pine from a left over 2x4.
 
Tyrkon Lawson said:
Nice attempt. I have had many fails with the bow drill myself but am pretty sure it's the materials. I get a ton of smoke but only once got an ember. So I can't wait to test this on some other woods. I was just trying it using pine from a left over 2x4.
Click to expand...

Pine can be tricky if it has any resin content, the resin acts as a lubricant. Try some white cedar next time. That stuff works quite well!
 
Pine IS hard. I don't have GREAT technique, but I can get a fire going in many cases - and pine gives me fits.

Start with Basswood, White Cedar, or other types of medium hard woods.

TF
 
Thanks for the pics & info. ! I have had my peacemaker for about 2yrs now I think & you know I have "Never" used it :eek::o I did wear it on my belt 1 time & took a few pics but It has never cut anything ! I need to get a new set of pants for it...the sheath I have for it is a piggy back style & it's a little to bulky for me :p
 
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