Hand drill today. My first ember burnt itself out once in the tinder bundle, so I had to spin a coal twice. Didn’t change anything about the bundle, and it went just fine the second time round.
More hand drill. I’m not quite at everyday practice again at this point, but it’s close. Hard won ember this time around. Out of curiosity I made my divot close to a knot in the board. Definitely more difficult spinning, but got an ember nonetheless.
Bow drill today. First ember broke apart while in the bundle, so spun again. No changes made to the bundle. It went up quick then. Probably due to the previous embers charing up the middle already.
Been a minute, but got back at it today. Used a thicker spindle than I was used to using. (Sharpie thickness) Had a couple wobbles in it too....based on the dust color thought I was skunked (light brown instead of black). An ember was made through, and the wood dust was good enough to grow it. Blew into flame in a palo verde needle tinder bundle with a center of dried leaves. Not the best, but fire happened.
Bow drill today. Utilizing one of the burnt in divots from a previous spin session to catch the ember instead of a notch.
My son was doing fire plow under a headlamp the other day. I thought this was cool. Couple of stills from a video. Ember in front and to the side.
Hand drill. Had to spin twice as the ember shifted and broke apart. However, it had charred a good portion of the bundle already so the second ember took really quick.
I picked this wood a few weeks ago, and have had it inside drying (everything is sopping wet here). The base is two small pieces of elderberry, I lashed them together because they are too small and have a pithy core. The spindle is Aspen I picked a few years ago. I was able to get lots and lots of smoke and quite a bit of dust but no ember. I don't know if it is a bad wood combo (dust is kind of chunky)? or still moisture in the materials. I also tried with a spindle made of wild rose.... it smoked really well, a little better maybe but was so thin it drilled down really fast. Kind of stumped. May go pick some more materials and get them drying. Any thoughts?
Im sure Caleb will be along to give a real experts advice so until then... To me it doesnt look hot enough. I like to see black dust like really dark coffee dust. You might try again with more speed or slightly more pressure maybe?
Failed a couple more times today (in the comfort of my home). The first hearth (which was pretty pithy) drilled through, the second one had lots of smoke and dust but no ember would form. I believe the spindle is maple, and the heart is maybe (dead) alder but I’m not positive. I tried both the Wiglaf and ESEE fire tool for sockets. The ESEE tool was more comfortable but got damn hot. any recommendations on changes? Just more drilling? Different woods?
Tie a small lanyard of para cord (3-4”) on the esee fire tool. Use some sort of braid to thicken it up and use that to buffer the steel and your hand. Works great. Use blaze orange paracord and itll be harder to lose. Never tried those woods so i dont know. Cedar is what works best for me. You can get cedar planks from the box stores for an easier time of it or harvest dead standing. The dust looks good and sometimes for whatever reason things just fail. Usually its something we did and we have to learn through the failures and successes. Keep trying once daily.
So I’d try two things before calling it a bad combo. If it’s going thru the material too quick, but you’re getting good smoke and decent dust, try giving it more speed but less downward pressure. The goal with that is to still generate a lot of heat but not wear through the material as fast. Another option would be to increase the size of your spindle. More material means more friction, and that may just be enough to get you over that final ember hump. It has the added benefit of not going thru the hearth as fast either. You can carve the middle of the spindle into a slight hour glass shape to better accommodate the bow string. I’ll also be honest, sometimes combos don’t mate well.....even if they should. Sometimes it’s as simple as grabbing the same material but from a different branch....sometimes for whatever reason, stuff just doesn’t want to go, even when they have the right properties for friction fire.
