Once you have your hearth-board split down to shape, size and thickness, and the divot for the socket started then the next step is burning the socket in. The first thing to do is find a leaf to collect the coal on. Then place the hearth-board on the ground, place your left foot (if you are right-handed) on the hearth board just to the left of the divot, kneel on your right knee and string the spindle. To string the spindle I hold one end of the bow against your body at the waist, and apply pressure on the far end to compress the bow and create slack in the string. Then I insert the spindle, upper (bearing) end first, between the bow and string, pull it against the string and twist. Then holding the spindle and string simultaneously I let the handle end of the bow lay on the ground as I place the tip of the spindle in the divot on the heart. Next I, holding the bearing block in my left hand I hook the left wrist around the left knee and place the bearing block on the spindle
Then holding the wrist tight against the knee (or shin depending on the length of spindle) for stability, and applying a bit of downward pressure on the spindle (which needs to be as perpendicular to the heart-board as possible), I pick up the handle end of the bow and start a push-pull motion which turns the spindle. This needs to be done with a fair amount of speed in order to produce the friction needed to burn in the socket. You should see a good amount of smoke if you are doing this right.
You should get a nice ring of charred dust around the socket once burned in. Do not throw this away, save it on that leaf you will collect your coal on.
Next it is time for the critical step of making the notch. The notch is a triangle that goes from a point at the center of the socket to the outer edge of the board. The general rule of thumb is that the width of the notch needs to be roughly one-eighth of the diameter of the spindle at the point where it passes through the edge of the socket. The reason is that much wider and it gets a lot of oxygen but not enough heat build up, and much narrower and it gets plenty of heat but not enough oxygen. One way to lay this notch out is to use the tip of your knife to “cut” the socket into quarters, then into eighths, and then into sixteenths just where you want the notch to be placed and cut along to two lines that form the triangle ignoring the center line.
Once the notch is marked I general use a small limb as a baton and drive the knife edge gently, using light taps, along the line a bit. Don’t try to go all the way at one time. Then along the other line, and then I’ll diagonal from the outer edge of one line to the depth of cut on the other removing material and repeat in the other direction. Once I have the bulk of the material in the notch removed this way I will whittle out the rest removing little bits of wood at a time until I have a clean notch.
Now comes making a coal, and this is where that saved dust comes into play. Set the hearth-board down on the leaf and push the saved dust into the notch. Resume the position used to burn in the socket and repeat the same actions. You want to take care that your push-pull motion is not directly in line with the notch as that is the weakest point of the socket and pressure in that direction will cause the socket to wallow out. You want to push and pull at solid walls of the socket to keep the socket circular and concentrate heat in a smaller area. Start out slow at fist applying a good bit of pressure because you need to create more dust before you really start building your heat. The dust is what makes the coal once enough builds in the notch and the spindle tip reaches a high enough temperature, roughly 800 degrees. Once you see smoke start increase the speed of the drilling motion as much as you can and maintain for around 20 to 30 seconds. You should see a lot of smoke at this point. Take care when you stop and do not let the spindle bump the dust pile, just stop, lay the handle end of the bow on the ground and use both hands to move the spindle. Use your hand to fan some air at the notch and if you see curls of smoke afterwards you have gotten a coal.
Lightly fan a little more air at the notch and let the coal burn till you see it forming good by the ashes building up at the tip of the ember. This only takes a few seconds
Once the coal is established tap the board gently by the notch and remove the board. If the coal tries to move with the board use the tip of a knife or a small twig to hold the coal in place.
Next you simply place the ember into a tinder nest, here I used cedar bark which burns slower than dry grass, and blow. Blow gently at first and then with more force as the smoke starts. You should get a lot of smoke so turn your head to inhale so that you do not inhale the smoke, go into a coughing fit, and lose the ember. It doesn’t take long to blow a dry tinder nest into the first flames.
Holding the tinder nest down with your kindling while you blow, once you get it smoking good, will ignite your kindling.
Then I used another one of Andy's knives in an in depth write-up on processing and using fatwood for a book I collaborated on with those same friends. I have no problems at all with using my Fiddlebacks.
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