Want to learn how to make fire by friction?

Check it out.

45 pages of photos explaining how to get your first ember.

Bow-drill for Beginners, Friction fire made easy

Willow and elder Hand drill fire collected and used.

Often the challenge of hand drill is finding suitable materials. Here I find a good peice of elder some firm dry dead willow and make fire. The tinder bundle is honeysuckle bark which is exceptional if it is dry.

Hand drill in the Irish woods

Hi,

Just a clip of me out creating a hand drill set from scratch in the woods.

I think a good way to develop your personal skills is to give yourself little challenges.


I usually harvest my hand drill spindle green and then dry them out artifically in the hot-press, same with the hearths. But why not try it from scratch in the woods and see if I can get fire? So i did.

The drill is Elder and the hearth is Goat Willow I had to try and discard 3 or 4 drills before i found one that would work. The secret is findign a second year shoot which is straight, thick enough, dead and dry. It cannot be decayed at all which is a problem with Elder. Finding a good drill is the hardest part. I used a peice of crampball fungus in the tinder bundle to boost the ember and give me more heat to get rid of any damp in the tinder.

I hope you enjoy.

Feathersticks

I do love a nice featherstick and they are good for getting the faimily BBQ going too!
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Percussion vs friction.

Hi Bushcrafters,

I have been looking into these two methods in a lot of detail recently.

I don't think I will ever have to use these skills in anger. I study them because I like learning them.

I look at them in the context of the environment and resources in my local area. Personally I am not interested in the jungle or desert or any terrain we don't have in Ireland. I am thinking in terms of going out with nothing and making fire within a short time. I am also talking about not having a fire already. Think ancient hunter lost and dressed in simple clothes with no equipment.

I am also talking about using all natural materials as our ancestors would have used.

I think they both have advantages and disadvantages.

I have heard people say that our ancestors would not have used fire by friction because of our damp conditions. People say that percussion would have been the thing.

Of course the weather has not all ways been as it is now. It was colder at one time and also warmer.

Personally I am not a fan of percussion. It requires a number of elements which are hard to come by in northern ireland, iron pyrites and the proper tinder. Also these elements require preparation. To go out and make fire by percussion from scratch is very very difficult even if you find a piece of iron pyrites which in itself is incredibly difficult to locate without ebay.

Fire by friction, once a good level of skill has been attained only requires simple carving and a piece of suitable cord if using bow drill. Hand drill is even simpler. I have gone out, when fresh, with nothing and made fire with hand drill from materials foraged on the day. It did require lots of effort but we must remember that our ancestors would be super fit and strong. Failure at fire by friction -if the materials are right is often a case of endurance.

Its a very interesting topic.
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Making a bow drill set from stratch on a damp day

We went out today after a heavy rain shower to make a bow drill set.
All we brought was a peice of cord and a knife.

Here are the pics. The set is Lime.

A nice peice of dead lime on the tree

Testing the wood with my thumb nail for firmness

preping the spindle

paul collects and preps the hearth

Cutting the notch

Fitting the spindle

Burning in

cutting v-notch

Preping some feather sticks for tinder.

Making fire

A nice coal

Into the brilliantly prepared tinder torch made by Paul. All natural materials gatherd on the day. Lime inner bark, leaves

Happy with our sucess