@Bushman5 I forgot to mention, tried the cotton thing. No go first attempt, but ran out of time before I could try again. Cotton was tearing and flying out, but I did get it to smoke before it did.
cool! i have a few ideas i want to try, sill down for a bit im thinking a deeper drill hole, so the ember and dust cannot fall out.
So something without a notch cut into it? Other issue with that, might be needing thicker base boards. Problems I've experienced with too thick of a base board, is the spindle tends to bind a lot. But I'll give it another go.
This thread inspired me to go give bow drill a whirl for the first time in a long while. Made a Red Cedar hearth board, and used a Maple branch for a spindle. I wasn't able to get a coal this time, but it was good practice. Although dry to the touch, I think the spindle had a little residual moisture from the past week and a half of rain. I'm sure the 85% humidity didn't help either. I also find that Western Red Cedar produces a very coarse powder that doesn't easily ignite, even after the fact with a ferro rod, for example. Next I'd like to try Maple on Maple, due to how much of it we have around here.
It's a start Reno. I've been using red cedar for my base boards hand drilling. No issues like what your having, but I'm using either Yucca or Horseweed for the spindle. I did get very similar results with red cedar on red cedar though.
I probably went through about 50 or so different combinations when I lived up North. I recall my favorite being Cotton Wood (poplar) on Pine. I'm thinking the issue stems from Red Cedar having very hard growth rings, with very soft wood in between. I bet the hard growth rings, when abraded by another hardwood, or even more Cedar, produces that coarse powder. Now I'm tempted to go out right now and make a Maple or Pine set...
Well, I did it. I went back out and made a Maple hearth board. Messed my first notch up (went too deep), but got it right on my second try. Used the same Maple spindle from my above attempt. Maple on Maple seems to work well. This little guy decided to use my bow as a hiding spot, glad he was at the opposite end that I grabbed, Hobo Spider bites suck.
Nice work! I hear cotton wood works good also, never thought about pine though. I always had it in my head, that any kind of pine was terrible for friction fire. Might give a go at bow drill soon. I stopped after being bopped in the face by a spindle. Spiders are also a no go for me, I know they'll leave me alone if I leave them alone. But they still give me the chills.
Thanks! Yep, can absolutely vouch for cotton wood. With Pine, I find you just have to be selective, make sure it's not too resinous. I've still got the scar from a Hobo Spider. Their venom causes the flesh around the bite to turn necrotic, and it can get pretty nasty if you don't treat it right.
I'll give it a go, although I'm horrible at tree i.d., and nothing is super close to go out and collect in the wild. strange name for a spider, luckily I avoid them as best as I can. How did the first incident occur? No sir, I was working my way towards the thicker part of the hearth to try it. One more drill and I'm there.
You could always see if you could source a pine 2x4 or other dimensional lumber, just to play with. Generally speaking, the really white lumber is pine. As for the bite, I was on our ground floor, leaning up against a counter with my hands behind me while watching my brother play a game, and I suppose one of them had crawled onto my hand without me feeling it. I sorta half sat on my hands and the counter and I guess the pressure of my hind end on the top of my hands was just enough to cause the spider to freak out and bite me, but not enough to kill it. Only reason I knew it was a Hobo Spider was due to having seen one in the same area about an hour prior.
I always try to catch and release as well. Worst timing for that bite too, got bite at about 2200, so I was awake into the wee hours monitoring it, finally got to sleep at like 0330, then got a rescue call at 0530. Spent the entire day walking in sub zero, windy/rainy/snowy conditions on the beach and damn near got frostbite on the same hand with the bite due to failing "waterproof" gloves. Fun times!
