@Bushman5 tried cotton again today, no dice. The coal in the photo is from an earlier standard attempt. The cotton one kept falling apart on me.
hmmm.....can you try (at your convenience) without the notch? i should be mobile this weekend, going to try as well
Forgot about the cotton again lol. But I did knock out two. Oh buckeye on western red cedar Yucca on western red cedar
I've really gotta start doing this during daylight hours so I can take better pics. Big Leaf Maple on Big Leaf Maple using the ESEE Firesteel. It gets hot, so a heavy leather glove (or a thick piece of bark between the steel and your palm) is needed, but aside from that it's a solid bearing block. Didn't prepare a tinder bundle, but decided I wanted to blow the coal to life, so I grabbed a page from an old news paper.
Haha! Yeah, I'm one of those nutters. Probably shouldn't tell you I do most of my bush walking in the desert. lol If I'm in a new area (scouting) I'll go with something closed toe. I know this area really well though, and I was in and out of water. But thanks! Addicted to hand drill!
Cool photos, all. Here’s a couple of my recent hand drill embers: Goldenrod on arborvitae: Goldenrod on eastern red cedar:
Appealing to all hand drill experts! I've sourced a chunk of dried Yucca stalk about 1/2" to 5/8" diameter, and about 8" long, but it's got a slight curve. What would be the best way of going about this? I notice that @Mudman appears to use a separate piece to act like a drill chuck of sorts. Is that Bamboo, or just wood that's been drilled out? I've got a little bit of Bamboo I could harvest, if the former is the case. Just don't want to waste what little Yucca I have at the moment.
The technique you are talking about is using what is called a “host spindle” with the actual part doing the friction inserted as a bit. It works well as long as you get a good fit of the bit in the host spindle so there’s no slipping. The big plus, like you mentioned, is not needing to find a straight 16” spindle every time. I have a host spindle made from milkweed that I really like.
Using a setup like mine would be the perfect option, for crooked pieces of material. It was first brought to my attention by @jcl.md and later a different version, by James Gibson. The idea is, you have a host spindle as straight as possible. You can use dowel rods from a hobby store. Something like red oak, polar (weak), walnut, etc. Pick a size you like, I use 3/8. Cut it to a length of your preference, round one corner over. Then on the other end, get a piece of bamboo, drill it out to accept the 3/8'' or whatever size your host spindle is. Glue it in, then lash/whip it. On the opposite end of the bamboo, drill a similar size hole or whatever your main spindle will be. Lash it maybe a little over 1/4'' back from the end, then split the bamboo 4 ways. This allows it to expand a little, the lashing is there to prevent further splitting. Your main piece that will go into the socket now created in the bamboo, should be tapered imo, so it has a snug fit. After that, you can pretty much use anything you want, with the benefit of not needing a longer piece/straight spindle. Again, this is not my invention, but something learned from both jcl.md and James Gibson. Using ash on the host spindle helps with grip, or a coating of beeswax. Something I'm currently testing out, is torching the host spindle.
Bloody awesome, thank you! I'll make sure I post my hand drill progress, success or fail. Do you figure Red Cedar would be alright for a hearth with Yucca?
Eastern red cedar works great out here. You probably have western red cedar, which I hear works equally well. With the eastern variety, avoiding the oilier heartwood is a good idea. Not sure if that is an issue with the western cedar as well.
