- Joined
- Mar 19, 2007
- Messages
- 7,443
I remember reading a while back on these forums to check out the heart wood of a tree to build a bow drill fire. The person argued that the heart wood was softer than the branches of a tree - and thus could perhaps produce a good fire.
I had always used the branches, and because I have time on my hands, I decided to give this a test.
I recently broke down a standing dead Mexican Sycamore (Platanus Hispanica), on of my favorites to make bow drill fires, and used a portable saw to cut a section from the base.
My shoe is in the picture on purpose - to show size. I wear a size 12. You know what they say about men with big feet right? Big Shoes.... ahem
I used a Fiskars axe and split this log in half. Then I used my Koster's Bushcraft to baton two portions of wood. I made a heart about 2 inches by 2 inches (a little big - but I was tired of splicing after a time) and a spindle a little over 10 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.
It was not easy to get the wood to be square in order to make an easy spinning spindle. I spent a LOT of time carving the wood instead of getting warm.
After this I did the same bow drill proceedure as seen in many places. Dimple, burn in, notch, produce coal. I used a 550 corded bow with a rock as a top bearing.
You can see the coal in this picture. This is one thing I love about Mexican Sycamore, although it takes more pressure to get a coal than say white cedar, once you have a coal, it is VERY stable and burns for a long time.
I transferred this to my protected tinder box (there is a burn ban in my area so I wanted to make sure it was contained) and with the wind being gusty - I soon had a rager.
Even Doc could get a fire from this (I miss the guy... okay...)
Conclusions:
I chose this wood because it is a little more dense and I thought perhaps the heart wood would make for an easier time in making a coal. I could not tell, nor did I find that it was any easier. In fact, unless trees suddenly stopped making branches, or I could not find any dry wood without cutting deep the heart wood of a tree, I would not choose the make a fire this way.
The only advantage to this fire was that I had good kindling due to all the split wood and shavings I had produced in making a kit this way.
It is nice to know that there is no disadvantage to using heart wood (other than the time) and that it can be done - but I, for one, felt like I was wasting a lot of calories (thank God I have a lot stored to spare) making this type of fire.
It is one to file away in the brain matter for future reference.
TF
I had always used the branches, and because I have time on my hands, I decided to give this a test.
I recently broke down a standing dead Mexican Sycamore (Platanus Hispanica), on of my favorites to make bow drill fires, and used a portable saw to cut a section from the base.
My shoe is in the picture on purpose - to show size. I wear a size 12. You know what they say about men with big feet right? Big Shoes.... ahem
I used a Fiskars axe and split this log in half. Then I used my Koster's Bushcraft to baton two portions of wood. I made a heart about 2 inches by 2 inches (a little big - but I was tired of splicing after a time) and a spindle a little over 10 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.
It was not easy to get the wood to be square in order to make an easy spinning spindle. I spent a LOT of time carving the wood instead of getting warm.
After this I did the same bow drill proceedure as seen in many places. Dimple, burn in, notch, produce coal. I used a 550 corded bow with a rock as a top bearing.
You can see the coal in this picture. This is one thing I love about Mexican Sycamore, although it takes more pressure to get a coal than say white cedar, once you have a coal, it is VERY stable and burns for a long time.
I transferred this to my protected tinder box (there is a burn ban in my area so I wanted to make sure it was contained) and with the wind being gusty - I soon had a rager.
Even Doc could get a fire from this (I miss the guy... okay...)
Conclusions:
I chose this wood because it is a little more dense and I thought perhaps the heart wood would make for an easier time in making a coal. I could not tell, nor did I find that it was any easier. In fact, unless trees suddenly stopped making branches, or I could not find any dry wood without cutting deep the heart wood of a tree, I would not choose the make a fire this way.
The only advantage to this fire was that I had good kindling due to all the split wood and shavings I had produced in making a kit this way.
It is nice to know that there is no disadvantage to using heart wood (other than the time) and that it can be done - but I, for one, felt like I was wasting a lot of calories (thank God I have a lot stored to spare) making this type of fire.
It is one to file away in the brain matter for future reference.
TF
