Corn Cob Bow and Drill

S

skab8541

Joined
Dec 6, 2006
Messages
478
A guy over on BCUSA, Into the Outdoors, posted his try at this and I had to try it for myself.

I have had luck with the corn stalk before, but had never thought to use the cob itself.



I think this is right in line with the rest of my experimenting lately. I have now had success with Mullen, Sun flower, thistle, hemp, Corn stalk, and now Corn Cob. All easy to find materals here in central Nebraska.



[youtube]WZCS-BIFmBQ[/YouTube]
 
I think there are a lot of good materals out there that have either been forgotten about or just never tried due to other, better materals exsisting.

One reason I have gotten back into bushcraft is to keep this knowledge alive and make sure that it's passed on.
 
excellent post.

what did you have to do to prep the cob? just eat the corn off it and let it dry out?
 
jca21 said:
excellent post.

what did you have to do to prep the cob? just eat the corn off it and let it dry out?
Click to expand...

All I did was walk out to the field that is about 20 yards from my house and pick up a corn cob!

For the spindle I took a knife and shaved it down a bit and removed what was left of the kernal hull.

But I'm sure you could do the same with a piece of sweet corn, after you let it dry out for quite some time.
 
skab8541 said:
All I did was walk out to the field that is about 20 yards from my house and pick up a corn cob!

For the spindle I took a knife and shaved it down a bit and removed what was left of the kernal hull.

But I'm sure you could do the same with a piece of sweet corn, after you let it dry out for quite some time.
Click to expand...

awesome, will have to give this a shot some times.

thanks! :D
 
Hi Brandon,

That was a neat way to get a coal. When I read this, I had to
try it for my self.
It works pretty good. Kathy took a few pics.

IMG_1354.jpg


IMG_1355.jpg


IMG_1356.jpg



Thanks for the great Idea.

Bryan
 
Yep a longer cob helps, but I still slipped at one point and scraped a knuckle lol.
I am getting ready to try a 2 stick one and see how that does wish me luck.

Bryan
 
I agree Spook, I'm darn sure somebody somewhere did this back in the day, and the knowledge was just lost or forgotten.
 
Hi all,

Well the 2 stick for me and my corn cob was a no go.
I even used a new corn cob.

IMG_1358.jpg




But on the bright side it worked just fine with a yucca spindle. By 35 strokes I new I had a coal and by 55 I knew I had even a bigger coal lol.

IMG_1349.jpg


I asked Kathy to come and take pics for me, but with coy smile and raised
eye brows she told " you can go play with yourself:eek:, errr I mean
by your self, and besides it is 23 degrees outside right now."
Dames, they can sure be irratiating at times lol lol.

Well anyways I may try some more on that, but for right now using a one
piece for the base board works greats. Just like on Skabs video it takes less than 50 strokes to get a nice coal.

Anyways Thanks again for posting that about using a corn cob for a spindle
Brandon, I really enjoyed that.

Bryan
 
I think this is a great example of thinking outside the box. It also demonstrates that if you stick to looking for good material characteristics it will pay off.
 
marvelous. Now you can make a pipe, a basket, and a fire using corn. Sweet!
 
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