- Joined
- Oct 19, 2010
- Messages
- 436
Decided to head out back to practice some skills and just enjoy a nice day outside. I have been seeing more and more folks posting about fire craft with the bow drill. I have never done this before. To those of you who have been successful, kudos to you and maybe I can get some pointers.
I made a bow that seemed to be decent, it started off a little longer and it was flexing and was effecting the rope tension on the drill. So I cut it shorter.
I made a handhold out of bamboo, that also need some additional work because the drill kept binding inside it.
The drill itself was also not perfectly straight, and I mean this was only off a little bit. I cut it back to where the slight bend in it was. Even then it was not perfectly straight. I think the drill was not made of thick enough material. I am seeing in other threads where folks are using a thicker drill. The paracord wanted to slip on it, even after adjusting the tension several times. Does having a thicker drill help with this?
Got some tinder together..
and some kindling..
and went to work....
I got plenty of smoke but never got an ember...not that I could see any way.
I ran this drill, until I flat out ran a hole through my base. At that point I decided I was thankful to have this little slice of heaven...
Found out my striker was a piece of crap and got the Izula out...
At last...fire.
After I got the fire going. I spent some time thinning out the stave's on my survival bow some more and added a cord wrapped handle / arrow rest.
Was a great afternoon, learned several things. I'll do some more reading up on the bow drill and other methods.
UPDATE!
After reading the tutorial provided by Moose, I decided to give this another attempt. Armed with some new knowledge I headed out back. One problem, we had 8 inches of snow fall last Monday that has been slowly melting all week. I was up against another challenge, but figured it would be all the more rewarding if successful.
First I got my tinder together. I scraped the bark and most outer layers off some cedar. This came out in an almost hairy material that was perfect for making my nest. Note: Make more than you think you will need. If you end up with extra you can always take it with you.
I created all my tools from cedar as well, learned a couple things from the tutorial that made all the difference.
I could tell this was a much better set of tools for the job. Working the bow was much smoother this time.
Once you see smoke, lean in to it and increase you pace until you have a good steady stream of smoke. Finally a small ember.... the rest is history
What a great feeling! From start to finish it took 1.5 hours.
Thanks for info and the encouragement.
I made a bow that seemed to be decent, it started off a little longer and it was flexing and was effecting the rope tension on the drill. So I cut it shorter.
I made a handhold out of bamboo, that also need some additional work because the drill kept binding inside it.
The drill itself was also not perfectly straight, and I mean this was only off a little bit. I cut it back to where the slight bend in it was. Even then it was not perfectly straight. I think the drill was not made of thick enough material. I am seeing in other threads where folks are using a thicker drill. The paracord wanted to slip on it, even after adjusting the tension several times. Does having a thicker drill help with this?
Got some tinder together..
and some kindling..
and went to work....
I got plenty of smoke but never got an ember...not that I could see any way.
I ran this drill, until I flat out ran a hole through my base. At that point I decided I was thankful to have this little slice of heaven...
Found out my striker was a piece of crap and got the Izula out...
At last...fire.
After I got the fire going. I spent some time thinning out the stave's on my survival bow some more and added a cord wrapped handle / arrow rest.
Was a great afternoon, learned several things. I'll do some more reading up on the bow drill and other methods.
UPDATE!
After reading the tutorial provided by Moose, I decided to give this another attempt. Armed with some new knowledge I headed out back. One problem, we had 8 inches of snow fall last Monday that has been slowly melting all week. I was up against another challenge, but figured it would be all the more rewarding if successful.
First I got my tinder together. I scraped the bark and most outer layers off some cedar. This came out in an almost hairy material that was perfect for making my nest. Note: Make more than you think you will need. If you end up with extra you can always take it with you.
I created all my tools from cedar as well, learned a couple things from the tutorial that made all the difference.
I could tell this was a much better set of tools for the job. Working the bow was much smoother this time.
Once you see smoke, lean in to it and increase you pace until you have a good steady stream of smoke. Finally a small ember.... the rest is history
What a great feeling! From start to finish it took 1.5 hours.
Thanks for info and the encouragement.
Last edited:
