Todays Hand drill friction fire and my coal

S

sicily02

Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Messages
3,987
Hi all,
Today, I was chatting with Doc Canada, about if he had ever used a goldenrod
dried stalk for a hand drill. He said he had used that before and got a coal.

I have some golden rod but I had cut it for the bow drill method of friction fire. They are just to short for me to use with the hand drill, well at least for me anyways. So I looked through some of my other dried stalks that I have.
I grabbed a stalk of Liatris, that I got from a lady that lives up the street from me. She has all kinds of flower plants that she planted last year.

After I studied the stalk some It made me think of golden rod stalk in texture and feel. I decided I was going to see if it would work for a handdrill spindle and see if I could get a coal with it.

I took that Liatris stalk and smoothed it up with the edge of my knife. and then trimmed the end that I was going to use for the drilling into the yucca hearth.

I then took some dreid yucca stalks that I lol got from another ladies yard too.
I cut off a small piece with my knife and then prepared it for my hearth. No pics of that process of hearth making you all know what that looks like, But I do have a pic of the yucca stalk and the piece I cut off and then the Liatris that I used for my spindle.

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Anyways, I took that cut off piece of yucca and cut a divit into it and then did a burn in of it.

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Then I cut my notch,

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then I took the spindle and the yucca piece a leather piece for the coal catcher and placed that on a card board box. To hold the yucca hearth I used 2 other pieces of hearth that I have for holding down the yucca peice.

Kathy took some pics for me.

Then I started spinning that spindle. Not a great pic but you get the idea.

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I started at the top like normal and then by the time I went down and started over at the top. By the 4th time I had some smoke going as you can see in this pic.

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On my on my 6th top to bottom spin I had a coal and took my spindle out of the socket.
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Here is a pic of the coal from the other side.

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Then I got a better pic the coal on my leather coal catcher

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All total I got 4 coals today with this yucca piece.

Anyways I am hoping to find some goldenrod this week and try it out. I will keep you posted.

Thanks Doc for your help.

Bryan
 
Good stuff Bryan, its all about characteristics! Golden Rod being the Nebraska state flower shouldnt be too hard to find a good piece.
 
Hi all,

Thanks, Cody.

Skab, yea goldenrod grows petty much every ware around here, I will get some tuesday and try it out.

Take care all,

Bryan
 
Good job Bryan, The only thing that I see missing is that mini solo and a skillet

with some bannock and eggs.;)

Jeff
 
Pitdog, thanks. No fire as of yet lol.

Jeff, Thanks man, LOL well to tell you the true. The first 2 coals were by my pack and that has my Mini Solo in it. Then I went out in the front room and asked kathy to take some pics.
I did not like the pics she took of the 3 rd coal so I asked to do the 4th one and she got better pics with that one.
As to the bannock. It is mixed up, packed up and ready for the next trip:D


Bryan
 
Good job, Bryan! :thumbup:

Don't know what Liatris is but I'm guessing it's some kind of foreigner.

One plant you may want to try is Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosum). I checked and it should grow in your area. My favourite hand drill of all.

Doc
 
Thanks Doc, I do not know the Latin name of it. The lady that grows it says it has really pretty flowers lol. She is going to grow some more this spring she said so I will get more info then.

Anyways as to the Jerusalem Artichoke I thought I had some once serveral years back, but a lady walking through the woods in my area told me it was not and that what I had was just sun flower. Bummer huh lol. I even showed her the plant book I had and told her it sure has all the charchtristics and even looks like the picture I had. She said nope and told and showed me why.

I love sunflower for the bow drill:D. Since it grows all over here in my area. That was my go to for the bow drill untill I saw Skab0311 using a corn cob. man when I tried that I was like this is so cool lol.

Yucca on yucca is grand and that is what I have been doing for the hand drill, Until today, when I looked at my stash of dried stalks and decided to try that Lictris stalk I had. This Lictris just made me think of goldenrod and decided to ask you about it. In the bow drill godlenrod is a pretty quick coal getter.
I am going to look around and see if I can find a nice 3/8" to 1/2" stalk of goldnerod this week and relatively straight lol.
Like we chatted about earlyer most are on the thin side.

Chat with you later Doc,

Bryan
 
Well Bryan, it looks like Liatris is the genus of quite a few species of flowers. One, L. punctata is called Nebraska Blazing Star, ring a bell? :D In one of my books, Wildflowers of North America, it is also called Dotted Gayfeather.

Might not want to tell your buds you did a hand drill coal with Dotted Gayfeather, though :eek:. It looks like it's a native wildflower, at least as far as I can tell.

Doc

According to Wildflowers of North America, it is native in your region.
 
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Hi all,

That is it Doc, I remember Trish calling it that now lol. Good job on the find.
You are a wealth of knowledge.

Yea, I will just tell others this plant is Liatris or blazing star lol:D.

Bryan
 
Ok enough of these funs pics. Lets see a shop and new knife pics :) LOL kidding
 
NO :eek::D LOL.




May be later though. I am working on a knife for this years
spring, summer, and early falls bushwacking and trail clearing.
I have it cut out and shaped. So far me likes.:thumbup:

Bryan
 
Good Job !!!:thumbup:

guess I'll have to brace up for this eventually.. I was just talking to someone today about yucca, there are many species of yucca..

what is the most common one used??
 
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