Success - Cedar bow drill

kgd

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
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Okay, not to be daunted from my fail post yesterday. I set out to recapture my pride. Armed with the helpful hints of everybody I tried to follow through on many of them.

First - taking doc's advice I took the remaining stake and made both hearth and drill from the same piece. When doc first mentioned it I had a sneaky feeling that he was right. Second, I cut a wider wedge out of the drill divot to collect more dust. Third, I loosened my body posture and concentrated so as not to bear down too hard on the drill. I imagined my old grade 5 math teach naked, and everything just went limp!

Okay, here we go, the two pieces of board used to make both drill and hearth. They were both part of the same cedar fence post stake puchased from the lumbar yard a while back.

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The shaped pieces. My drill is ugly and fat, but it works great!

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Just so you guys know, I intended to go all the way. No half hearted attempts here! I swept up all the shavings from my drill and laid ready a pile of kindling for my flame to take hold.

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Okay, I drilled out the divot. This time I was more conscious of the downward pressure. I noticed my instinct was to bear down. I purposely relaxed a bit and was able to get much more speed.

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I knew right off the bat that it was a combination of technique (too much downward pressure) and possibly the drill being unmatched from the hearth. When I finished drilling out the divot, the smoke lasted for a good 5 s or so. I even tried fanning it but not yet. Still I was more confident then yesterday.

Unfortunately, my photographer wasn't around. But it took about 30 s and a coal was formed.

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I wrapped up my coal in the jute twine tinder bundle and blew to flames.

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Threw the flaming jute into my kindling pile...

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Just like that a fire is born.

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Fire is good. Meat is good...

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Thanks for the tips folks. Now I have three woods for making coals under my belt. Weeping willow is next!
 
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From raw materials, to coal, to flame, to meat! Your ancestors would be proud, good stuff :thumbup:
 
I'm betting it was the shower and shave that made all the difference.
Well done!
 
protourist said:
I'm betting it was the shower and shave that made all the difference.
Well done!
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Protourist, you have a knack of cutting to the chase! :D

By the way, Happy Birthday!!! I hope you enjoy it.

k, good on you. One more lesson under the belt. :thumbup:

Just to keep things straight, drill and hearth do not have to be the same material, but if you're using different materials, make sure the drill is as hard or harder than the hearth, at least, that's been my experience.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Protourist, you have a knack of cutting to the chase! :D

By the way, Happy Birthday!!! I hope you enjoy it.

k, good on you. One more lesson under the belt. :thumbup:

Just to keep things straight, drill and hearth do not have to be the same material, but if you're using different materials, make sure the drill is as hard or harder than the hearth, at least, that's been my experience.

Doc
Click to expand...

Thanks Doc!
I'm in Indiana and it is beautiful today so all in all it is a good day!
 
Good job. Now we don't have to hear about you failing tomorrow night ... Ok, you didn't complain that much, but.. :D

Seriously though, great to see that you didn't give up... Persistence pays off ..sometimes.
 
Nice work man.

Here is my unsolicited advice - make your notch cleaner if you can - make it smooth so that dust can flow unabated.

Make the spindle octagonal if possible - you will get good grab that way.

Make the business end of your spindle MUCH less sharp - you want it to come to a point - but almost a dome. Look at the way the spindle looks after burning in - it should look much like that when you get started - you loose a LOT of friction when you start with a point so sharp. You start drilling more than making a friction fire.


However, something is going VERY right if you are getting coals and starting fires - so what the hey! ;)

TF
 
Thanks T. I had some constraints with my drill. The business end of the drill was actually the shaped point from the lumbar yard fence stake. I had intended that end to be the head piece end. However, as luck would have it, there was a huge knot about 3/4" down from the other end and I couldn't easily whittle through the knot. Then as I was sort of chopping it out (the only way to whittle it down), a big chunk of the knot just popped out leaving a notch in the middle of my drill. I knew that if I strung up the bow at that end I'd be catching it there all the time. So I reversed and made the pointy point the drill end. I don't usually make it that pointy. I've had other times when I started with my drill too blunt and it helped to make it pointer. Oh well I don't know.

Slippage wasn't an issue. I know Doc keeps telling me to put on a different cord. I bought some cotton clothesline and then reverse twisted it into a cord. I kept snapping the damn thing. The paracord I keep using with this bow seems to work and it is roughed up enough now that grabs really well. All I can say is it seems to work pretty good. Still, I'd like to make myself a longer bow. I'm keeping my eyes out for one on my walks.
 
kgd said:
Hey I got married didn't I.....And I'm not the prettiest boy toy on the bloc ;)
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You're not :eek:

It was you who set all of those traps that caught everyone from passing your house for your wife not to see :p
 
Good stuff brother.... Friction fire is one of those skills that is a defining attribute of a seasoned woodsman in my opinion... Nice job.
 
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