Good Friday and two new woods for bowdrill

[kgd]

This is a double post against one on BUSA but I thought I'd put it up here as well. A buddy of mine called Ranger Joe from another forum got together again this morning. This time the dogs stayed at home and we explored a different little conservation area in Essex County (Maidstone Conservation Area) just for a change of scenery.

On the way in we stopped at my father's house who has a 3 acre lot that is bordered by the Belle River in Woodslee. It was pretty cool, he had all his maple trees tapped for sap. He said that most of the sap really ran in March and they collected enough to make a few liters of syrup. They had about 40 trees or so tapped. Their friend had the machinery to boil down the sap into syrup.

Along the river bank was a muskrat or racoon tracks.

Then we ran into this wonderful punkwood stump. This stuff was so well conditioned. You just tear off chunks with your hands and you could rub it right into powder. I used some of this today with a bowdrill coal and shavings (no tinder bundle) to get a flame going. The pics are at the end of the post. Awesome stuff and a great tip learned from videos put up by Skwoodsman.

My dad has a rather tame groundhog right around the banks as a tenant of his place. We never had ground hogs in the region until about 15 years ago. This guy let us get right up to him.

I harvested some willow wood from a downed limb from a tree on my dad's lot. It was a limb that fell about a year ago. The tree is one of this giant weeping willow trees (with the dropping yellow branches) that grow around the river banks. This was the first time I tried bowdrill on willow. Turned out to be one of the easiest coals I ever popped off!

Now, onto the little conservation area. This tree must have had a million sap sucker holes drilled into it.

The trout lilies are starting to push up now, another sign of spring!

More coming...

 

[kgd]

Didn't know what kind of shrub this was but the leaflets were really cool.

Muscle wood, or blue beech

Some cool hobbit holes

A wild strawberry pushing up and an unknown flower

Joe Ranger had brought along one of his custom scandi's from a maker called JustLikeThat. Very nice blade. The sheath was made by a British gentleman by the name of Kepis. I didn't get a shot of the dangler sheath by Kepis, but it was really quality stuff. Right on par with Rick's and Talfuchre's work.

More coming....

 

[kgd]

As common thing around these parts, there were downed ash trees all over the place. This is a consequence of the emerald ash borer invasion to the region. Mountain ash is a very hard wood, but Joe commented that the roots could be soft. So we stopped and decided to try it out.

I can't believe how soft the root tissue is in juxtaposition of the hard, hard above ground parts! I ended up using a piece of ash as the spindle. It worked, but really drilled through the hearth fast. In fact, I drilled right through on my first hole because I was using too much pressure. I found I had to lighten up on the pressure and focus on high speed strokes. But I was successful!

Still more coming....

 

[kgd]

This is just a shot of peelings shedding of a shag bark hickory tree.

We gathered a bit of the ash and walked over to the pick nick table area and set up my little folding stove. Both made each made a pot of Mr. Noodles for lunch. My combo was Mr. Noodles without the packet, I added Lipton onion soup mix instead and a can of Tuna. Joe went for the plain Jane Mr. Noodles and chicken soup stock packet that came with it.

There was a bunch of rosehips that I pointed out to Joe. I ate a bunch but Joe didn't like them. He's the first person I know not to like the flavor of rose hips. They were good ones too!

After dropping Joe off back at home, I decided to give that willow wood I harvested at my dad's house a go.

This was probably the fasted coal I ever popped off. I tell you, it was like 30 seconds! Beautiful stuff to work with! The tree was one of those giant weeping willows you see by river banks. It shed a large limb probably about a year ago.

Then, taking advice from a video posted by a guy called SKwoodsman, I tried to nurse the coal into flame using only punkwood (harvested from the tree on my Dad's lot) and the shavings from the willow wood used to make my spindle. I didn't use a traditional tinder nest. To my surprise, this worked great!

So all in all it was a great Friday! I got to do bowdrill on two new wood types and had success in each. Had a nice walk and learned a tonne of things from Joe and his tree-lore.

 

[ratamahatta]

great pics.....

 

[tonym]

Excellent stuff Ken! That Willow is quick eh? I can never find any dead or broken off Willow around here....

 

[dboles]

Weeping willow going to give that a try.Thanks for the heads up!
Ground hogs make good eating and some of the toughest leather for shoe strings and such (even friendly ones)lol
Great Pictures
Thanks
Dan'l

 

[Walkabout]

Great pics, and well done on the friction fire! :thumbup:

I wish I was as skilled at that as you are... I need to put more time into practicing. I usually just become tired and frustrated, and smell like smoke.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[grunt soldier]

awesome sir. looks like a great day. way to go with the fires. i am also trying to get on that level but not their yet, and so i usually end up frustrated but i keep coming back.

again looks like a great time

 

[sicily02]

Ken Great pics and comentary As always
Bryan

 

[Rick Marchand]

Great stuff, Ken.... My phone must not have been working that day, eh? I'm sure you thought to call me........... JERK!


Lol... looks like you had a blast.

 

[kgd]

Hey Rick,

We should set up a new Peche Island day for this year...I've got a couple inquiries about whether that will be on again this year. I just gotta get my boat in the water....