- Joined
- Jan 6, 2009
- Messages
- 286
Went out for a ride a couple days ago on one of the many mountain roads in Brinnon, WA. It's about an hour long ride from my home in Bremerton which is just West over the water from Seattle. Passed a nice looking rock face (you can see it to the left) and as many of you journeymen at heart can relate to, I was blessed with the need to get myself to the top of it. I traversed myself along side softly through the trees and up the steep grade as to try and not disturb the pattern of the forest. Unfortunately, the pines ran out and the rock towards the top was just too wet and steep to try and climb, so I decided to explore my surroundings. In my wanderings, I happened upon a beautiful downed Red Cedar. This was a great opportunity to practice some primitive fire-craft. Cedar happens to be one of the prime selections for the bow-drill. Second only to Willow.
First step I took was to strip some of the loose bark at the bottom of the trunk. This will be used for making my tinder bundle. The fact that it is out of reach for the most part from precipitation will make it ideal.
In order to make this material fluffy enough to accept a coal it needs to be teased. The easiest way I found to do this was to roll it vigorously between my palms. This loosened up the fibers quite well. I then used just my thumb and index fingers to break it down in even more detail. The more the better.
Here you see my bundle. I made it about the size of a baseball. If my need for fire were imminent, I would have probably quadrupled that in case I needed it.
I then started on my board. I was able to gather all components from a single cracked section of the tree. I like to make my boards about 8-12" The longer your board the more fires you can make from it.
I find 3/4" to be a good depth for cedar. If it's very dry, it will burn through fairly quickly so a thin board will do you no good. Especially if it ends up taking you multiple tries. Cedar is very straight grained so batoning your wood into shape is a breeze. NOTE: Whenever possible, it seems best to make your board flat on both top and bottom. It will be more stable and you will have less wobble when in use.
I generally like my board to be a bit wider than this. It's about 1.5" but 2"- 3" is usually what I like.
The spindle was next. I make them about the same length as the fire-board. I baton them squared and about the width of my thumb.
CONTINUED IN PART II
