I tried a new combo on the bow drill yesterday. I used Rattan for the spindle and Willow for the fire board and i got an ember really quick with this combo.
I tried making/using a bow drill once. Got plumes of smoke and a hot coal, but couldn't work out the coordination to get the coal into tinder and tinder lit before the coal went out. Takes practice! Sticks - do you use that depression in your knife to cup the drill, or something else?
I tried willow once. Maybe it was the moisture in the wood or the humidity, but I couldn't get a good coal to save my life. Never had trouble out of cedar. Red cedar will wear your arm out but it does work. White cedar coals up easy. What other woods have you guys tried?
I did it years ago on a whim. I read an article that said soft drill wood, hard base wood. So I walked out in the back yard and picked up a pine stick to use as the drill and some type of hardwood to use as the base. In retrospect, I could have spent more time with it and gotten better results, but using those two, I did get a lot of smoke and a hot coal which didn't last very long. Used a boot lace and another piece of pine as the bow.
I had real good results clamping the stick in my makita power drill,the bow drill just made a tiny bit of smoke.
Im glad you asked that question because there is a story behind that bow string. I decided to go for a walk and only take my knife and a water bottle and see what i could find to make fire and a warm drink. As I was walking through the woods I found about 4ft of old tent cord,an old tin and some wire. So I made a bowdrill and got a fire going,made a couple of holes in the top of the tin and threaded the wire through it,made a billy can suspender and had a nice brew of pine needle tea. Ive had that piece of cord for 3 years now.
Generally speaking, the fire board and spindle can be made from the same wood. I good test is to try to dent it with your thumbnail. If it will dent with slight pressure, it MAY work well. A lot of pines are too resinous to work with. The resin will come out with heat and harden on the end of the spindle. Hence the reason why Stick always makes glue from pine resin.
Great set up... and thanks for sharing the pics.... Bow and Drill is a tough skill to master... I suck at it... I think I'm better at the fire plough... Good stuff.. Oh and I've seen those bearing impressions on knives ... very handy... Fehrman does it on some of their knives....
