I saw these bow drill kits for sale online -
http://www.a-finlay-primitive-crafts.co.uk/bow_drills.html
Personally, I can't quite grasp the logic of buying a ready made kit. Surely the whole fun of creating fire this way is the fact that you have been able to get an ember from nothing by shaping a few bits of wood and using a bit of elbow grease. I can see the point of buying something that is difficult or impossible to make, but it doesn't take long to knock up your own kit, so where is the satisfaction in using a bow drill that someone else has produced commercially?
Whilst creating fire using a bow drill is fun, in my opinion it is really only a party trick. If you were in a survival situation and your life depended on you being able to create fire by making and using a bow drill (especially if you had no other survival gear, 'cos if you did, you would be using the matches that you brought with you!) I would say that you are pretty much stuffed anyway!
I have no problem with the site that offers the kits for sale - good luck to them I say. It just seems to me to be against the spirit of bushcraft to buy a set instead of making your own. Or perhaps I am just becoming a grumpy old so & so!
http://www.a-finlay-primitive-crafts.co.uk/bow_drills.html
Personally, I can't quite grasp the logic of buying a ready made kit. Surely the whole fun of creating fire this way is the fact that you have been able to get an ember from nothing by shaping a few bits of wood and using a bit of elbow grease. I can see the point of buying something that is difficult or impossible to make, but it doesn't take long to knock up your own kit, so where is the satisfaction in using a bow drill that someone else has produced commercially?
Whilst creating fire using a bow drill is fun, in my opinion it is really only a party trick. If you were in a survival situation and your life depended on you being able to create fire by making and using a bow drill (especially if you had no other survival gear, 'cos if you did, you would be using the matches that you brought with you!) I would say that you are pretty much stuffed anyway!
I have no problem with the site that offers the kits for sale - good luck to them I say. It just seems to me to be against the spirit of bushcraft to buy a set instead of making your own. Or perhaps I am just becoming a grumpy old so & so!