Well not quite but I had my first fire from a bowdrill coal last weekend and how satisfying was that. As everyone says it's difficult getting the stupid grin off your face!
For anyone that's struggling here are a few observations and things that I found helpful.
I had oak, elder and big bits of dead ivy at my disposal plus new ash for my bow. I made my hearth and finally successful drill from some big, seasoned elder - from the main trunk so it was about 3" (76mm) in diameter.
I've read somewhere that ivy is good but I couldn't really get anything to happen with it, either as hearth or drill - I think it was just too old and too hard.
So hearth from the 3" elder. Drill about 1.5" diameter from the elder and about 9" long. Blunt one end, sharpened the other. With hindsight I reckon it could have gone better if it was a bit thinner. Bow from new ash about 30" long. Top bearing block oak.
Cut to much elbow pistoning, knuckles hitting the ground and being kippered as the drill beds in - roughly in that order.
Nice even notch up to the middle of the drill bed and away we go. It seemed quite easy to generate smoke even after just a few seconds and there seemed to be quite a lot of black dust produced but no coal. Every time I took the hearth away there was just the dust nothing else.
Tried lubricating the top bearing with green grass and that definitely helped. Then tried just drilling for longer, concentrating on getting as much friction as possible into the hearth. Drilling past the point where I wanted to give up because I was getting knackered seemed to be the secret eventually. Also using all the dust from the previous unsucessful drillings in the notch seemed to work well.
In the end I made about 3 coals and 1 fire which brings me on to something that seems obvious to me but I haven't read anywhere. Making your coal and then making a fire from it are two different skills which you can work on independently and then bring together for your fire-lighting finale. I reckon it's difficult enough to make your coal sometimes without the added stress/excitement of then putting it to your tinder and coaxing fire from it. If you're proficient at lighting fires from tinder with tiny pieces of ember it's going to make your drilling easier because you haven't got to worry about the next step. Just my 2 penn'orth.
Cheers, Wavey.
For anyone that's struggling here are a few observations and things that I found helpful.
I had oak, elder and big bits of dead ivy at my disposal plus new ash for my bow. I made my hearth and finally successful drill from some big, seasoned elder - from the main trunk so it was about 3" (76mm) in diameter.
I've read somewhere that ivy is good but I couldn't really get anything to happen with it, either as hearth or drill - I think it was just too old and too hard.
So hearth from the 3" elder. Drill about 1.5" diameter from the elder and about 9" long. Blunt one end, sharpened the other. With hindsight I reckon it could have gone better if it was a bit thinner. Bow from new ash about 30" long. Top bearing block oak.
Cut to much elbow pistoning, knuckles hitting the ground and being kippered as the drill beds in - roughly in that order.
Nice even notch up to the middle of the drill bed and away we go. It seemed quite easy to generate smoke even after just a few seconds and there seemed to be quite a lot of black dust produced but no coal. Every time I took the hearth away there was just the dust nothing else.
Tried lubricating the top bearing with green grass and that definitely helped. Then tried just drilling for longer, concentrating on getting as much friction as possible into the hearth. Drilling past the point where I wanted to give up because I was getting knackered seemed to be the secret eventually. Also using all the dust from the previous unsucessful drillings in the notch seemed to work well.
In the end I made about 3 coals and 1 fire which brings me on to something that seems obvious to me but I haven't read anywhere. Making your coal and then making a fire from it are two different skills which you can work on independently and then bring together for your fire-lighting finale. I reckon it's difficult enough to make your coal sometimes without the added stress/excitement of then putting it to your tinder and coaxing fire from it. If you're proficient at lighting fires from tinder with tiny pieces of ember it's going to make your drilling easier because you haven't got to worry about the next step. Just my 2 penn'orth.
Cheers, Wavey.
You deserve it!
