ok, i finally made fire with a bow and drill! ive got a question though...

S

SkaerE

Joined
Sep 9, 2001
Messages
428
bow was green cherry, dowel and board were seasoned cedar. tinder was some dryer link i found in the pocket of my jeans. i imagine i could have scraped enough cotten off my pants and shirt to make a nice bundle as well. it all worked well (after about 45 minutes of cussing) ;)

i found it way easier if i tilted the dowel and handhold (which was oak) and rested them on the top of the arch of my left foot (this allowed me to speed up a lot when the smoke started but not loose control of the dowel - which happened WAY too many times. - generally sending me around the yard looking for the dowel) :)

anyhow, i used a piece of nylon cord as my rope for the bow.

what on earth could you use if you didnt have a good piece of rope? i made some cord from blackberry bushes today but i cant imagine it would have held up for long on the bow, hell the nylon started to fray - and it was 1/2'' wide.

advise?
 
Definitely a boot lace.

But who goes anywhere without a length of 550 with them, anyway? :D
 
Dogbane is about as tough as it gets for natural cordage and will handle the bow drill. Yucca can handle it too.

You can also make a quickie cord for the bow drill out of the young bark of some trees like oak. Cut a slit down the length of a 1/2" diameter branch and peel it off. Fold it on to it self lengthwise and and attached to bow. This method is difficult and you only have one shot in most cases to get a coal.

You can also 'cheat' with weaker cordage and do the Egyptian bow drill:

http://www.primitiveways.com/e-fire.html

You should learn how to make cordage as it doesn't necessarily have to come from a natural source. For example, you could make cord from a bandana or t-shirt if needed and they would be strong enough for the bow drill.

Here are some links that may help:

http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/Survival/Pages/lashingandcordage.html

http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/cordage/index.html
 
SkaerE said:
... dowel and board were seasoned cedar
Click to expand...

Granted I am a bic user, but I have made a few fire bows for fun. The common wisdom is the dowel should be a hardwood (seasoned) and the board should be of a softer wood. Rubbing the same type of wood together is too much work. It would wear me and the cordage out.
 
Don't you just get on the internet and order more 550 cord and have it delivered.

OH - you guys don't have your sattilite uplink with you when you get stranded do you?

How can you keep up with American Idol when you miss it?

TF
 
i am seldom without a knot of 55o cord, boot laces or even a leather belt to cut into strips and braid, i always double my 550 cord and twist it together and square off the drill to give better grip to the cord.


alex
 
could a cotton shirt cut into strips be used as a last ditch effort? what about the stuff under armor is made of? it seems to be pretty durable i bet if it was pulled tight it would work
 
JimMLa said:
The common wisdom is the dowel should be a hardwood (seasoned) and the board should be of a softer wood. Rubbing the same type of wood together is too much work. It would wear me and the cordage out.
Click to expand...

Respectfully, the common wisdom is incorrect. Think about it from a logical point of view. If you use a drill with a harder wood and a hearth with a softer wood, just about all the wear would occur on the hearth. If it is of the same material, you will create charred powder much more quickly because wear will be occurring on both drill and hearth, not just on the hearth. Not only that, but with all the wear occurring on the hearth you may drill through the hearth before you achieve the coal, and then you have to start all over again. The easiest combinations of wood in my area is Basswood (Tilia americana) on Basswood, and Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) on Cottonwood, drill and hearth being the same materials.

Now, in case I misunderstood your post and you mean that if one material is harder than the other, then the harder one should be the drill, then I agree.

As far as natural materials you can use, pretty well anything you can make half decent cordage with, will work - Milkweed (Asclepias spp.), Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), Wood Nettle (Laportea canadensis), (as Quiet Bear mentioned) the Dogbanes (Apocynum androsaemifolium and A. cannibinum), Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennies), well, you get the idea.

For those users of 550, reverse twist it first or you may go through a pile of it (as mentioned by alco141).

For those people that wish to become proficient with bow drill, learning how to make cordage (from natural and man made fibres) is strongly recommended.

Doc
 
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