View Full Version : Drill and Bow fire Lighting - A First Attempt in the Field
Well in a wood actually but anyway ..
OK here goes, I had my first ever go at fire lighting using the Drill and Bow method today.
No sniggering there at the back please!
I have only ever seen this demonstrated on television before and read about it in books, but since it seems to be some bushcraft right of passage, and I haven't done it (having always relied on a fire steel ;) ), I thought I'd have a go today.
I saved myself a tenner on Ebay and decided to go about this in the old fashioned way, so me and my Swiss army knife headed of to our local woods.
I am no wood expert but had read that selecting similar woods for the drill and hearth was a good idea, so I used some coppiced Birch which I found lying around for the drill and cut an broken birch branch for the hearth and pan. I tried to find a harder wood for the bearing block, but couldn't find one (on account of not being a wood expert ;) ) , so used the rest of the fallen birch branch.
Once I'd assembled the kit and after an afternoon of bowing I'd got through two hearths, two drills and two bow strings. Lots of smoke, charred hearths, Charred Bearing block (I realise now why the hearth should be of a harder wood) but no ember and no fire. I even drilled through/charred through some drill holes in the hearth.
I tried thinner parts of the hearth, off-centre v nicks in the hearth, flatish drill ends sharper drill ends. I tried a long bow and then shortened it. All had the same effect. Lots of smoke but no ember and no fire.
Can anyone offer any advice as to where I went wrong. Or from the three attached photo's can anyone see a glaringly obvious error.
Regards
Paul
Hi Paul.
Ideally the Bearing block will be the hardest of the three peices of your kit, next will be the drill and after that the hearth.
For a bearing block there are plenty of suggestions;
A pebble with a hole in it.
Any of the hard woods (Ash, Oak or Beech) would do quite nicely.
A sea shell (limpet shells work quite well).
A combination of wood with a shell resined into it.
Good woods to use when you are starting out are;
Ivy hearth and drill.
Sycamore hearth and drill.
Lime Hearth and hazel drill.
Ivy hearth and hazel drill.
Red cedar hearth and hazel drill.
No one sniggers if they have tried it, you may get a wry smile as we know where you are coming from and have probably been there ourselves at one stage or another.
You said that you had a lot of smoke, did it start to spiral around the drill/spindle??
If the smoke spirals around the drill/spindle and it is dense then you will probably have the correct speed and pressure.
You say you did not get an ember, what was the colour of the dust formed by the hearth and spindle and did it still smoke even after bowing had finished.
You will want to be looking for fine grains of dust (very fine, small splinters) and the colour needs to be very dark brown almost black in colour.
Any other points, just yell up and at least one of us will endeavour to answer your question:)
Hi Leon,
Thanks for your positive comments.
The sniggering bit was a bit of self-deprecating humor on my part. I have found this to be about the friendliest forum I have come across in all the areas of my interest.
Thanks for the wood suggestions - I think it's time for me to dig out my scouting for boys book, or Observers book of trees, as it's been a long time since I did much tree identifying. I can recognise Oak, Beech, Horse Chestnut and Birch (lots of) and all are present in Jewels Wood. But I'm afraid to say I'm very rusty on things like cedar, sycamore. I can use leaves seeds and nuts to have a stab at identifying the tree they are under or near - but I need practice. There was lots of well-established Ivy in some parts of the wood, but I picked up mostly what was lying around, as I didn't want to cut or chop anything unnecessarily.
You asked whether the smoke started to curl around the drill - Actually it did. Smoke rose from around the complete circumference of the hearth.
I didn't see an ember - but the dust created was black - very fine indeed but didn't seem to stick together and sadly there was no ember at its heart. The drill and the heath were both very hot indeed too hot to touch and I felt I was about 90% of the way there but never got the ember itself. Once I finished bowing the smoke continued for only a second / second and a half at most. There were no minute black splinters produced.
When I examined the drill end it was very charred, resembling charcoal where the grain was cracked and pitted into the grain of the wood. The charring on the drill head was also quite thick 1/2mm deep or so. You can see some of this on the pictures I posted.
My brother called round this evening and I even press-ganged him into giving me a hand. He bowed while I applied pressure to the bearing block and drill. We had smoke almost immediately but just couldn't get an ember to form.
Jeff Wagner
11-09-2005, 23:26
I suggest making the spindle point on the bearing block end much finer / sharper. A smaller surface contact area will result in reduced friction on that end. Aim for a diameter about finger size.
Are you using an ember pan?
Keep going,I got a lot of help at the meet up and still struggled but the first time I got it to work it seemed too easy!
There are loads of threads on here to help you.
Don't forget to practise going from ember to flame, I had embers then lost them so I practised with char cloth, it seemed to help me.
Hi Goose,
Yes I was using an ember pan. You can see it best in the last two pictures. It is the plain oblong piece that it pretty much unmarked.
The hearth in the pictures is the second one I made. There are two drill holes.
The first is charred through the bottom of the hearth and the walls of 'v' nick are charred black. I was pretty close on this one I'm sure.
The second drill hole was the last attempt of the day. The 'v' nick was slightly off centre and didn't cut into the hearth's drill hole too much. As you can see the walls of the 'v' nick aren't charred as with the first one.
I think part of the problem with the first hole in the hearth was that the 'V' nick cut in/ ate in, to too much of the hearth - thus reducing the area of friction of the hole that was in contact with the drill head.
Would a narrower 'v' nick that only cut into the drill hole in the hearth a little have been any better?
Another point I meant to ask in the first post was regarding tinder. Although I never quite got it to light would putting some cotton wool between the hearth and the pan assist in getting the ember to hold and ignite?
Thanks for the encouragement - Having succeeded ing getting lots of smoke and very charred wood, I'm not going to give up !
Paul
Paul, Hi.
A few thoughts arise from your comments and excellent pictures.
1) It appears that the hearth board is curved on the underside? Ideally should be flattened off so the base of the notch is squarely on the surface below. What was the surface below? Did the dust pile into to notch?
2) I am intrigued by the apparent polished appearence of your depressions in the hearth board. This suggests that the drill diameter is too large - just skating over the hearth board hollow. A finer/ narrower drill may be a good move here.
3) The comment about getting a fine black powder is also a possible sign of a problem paradoxically. I have had setups when essentially all the punk seemed to have been burnt away by the time it got to the notch. Just a black expended powder that would not catch even if I put a match to it. Again this suggests the drill diameter may be too large - too much time in the hot friction area and not enough time burning in the notch.
4) I regularly go on about 3 phases of drilling. Cold to smoking, white smoke to blue smoke, and all out effort. The middle one I find is often crucial to include- just doing enough work to get an intermittent trickle of smoke, perhaps resting every couple of bow strokes. Do this for may be up to several minutes as punk collects and fills the notch, the wood dries out the last hint of moisture (the white to blue colour change in the smoke), you perhaps get your breath and strength back. Then go for the final effort when you get not only copious smoke but the dust should not just fall into the notch but should come out as a semi formed sausage of dust - sideways into the notch.
Thanks Richard,
Again some really helpful pointers there and thanks for the encouragement.
1) Yes the Hearth is curved underneath, although I did to flatten it off so that the 'V' notch rested flush to the Pan. And Yes the black dust did collect in the 'V' notch. I am pretty sure it was close to combustion to as the walls of the notch are charred black and there is smoke stains on the drill head.
2) Interesting point about the 'shiny' finish on the hearth. It is shiny. But I think this may be because I was just rotating the drill in the hearth and bearing bloke last night - fiddling in other words - rather than playing the fiddle/bowing. The drill diameter is about 12 to 15 mm in diameter. How much do you think I should reduce this by?
3) This is a really interesting point! I guess you might be spot on here - as the drill head was almost a hemisphere and after I finished bowing was charred almost to the point of resembling charcoal (see earlier point). I think you are right and that the dust might have already burnt itself out by the time it gathered in the 'V' notch. When I removed the heath and blew on the dust it simply blew away in a cloud - ie it didn't bond together as I have seen when demonstrated on TV and in books. I was expecting to see a tight little pile of black dust with a glowing coal/ember at its heart. Instead when I blew on it the dust just blew away. Maybe if I squash down the head of the drill so that it is flatter I will have better results.
4) Your fourth point instilled me with a feeling of dread ! The realisation that even if I do get an ember I will still have to go from smouldering ember to tinder and then lighted tinder to fire. I think I have a long way to go yet.
Paul
its sounds like you are very very close to achiving an ember, keep at it
remember when you do finally get your first ember, dont rush! allow the ember to smoke for a bit and gently waft air into it with your hand, sit back have a breather and get your tinder bundle into place before starting to move the ember
As Jeff said - make the spindle point more acute to cut down on friction. Also stuff some waxy leaves in the bearing block hole to reduce the friction generated at that point.
:)
Looking at your set it looks perfectly decent to me - with only a couple of minor adaptations.
Firstly, as has already been said, make your hearth end of spindle almost flat, and the bearing block end a sharp point - you want minimum contact with the bearing block to reduce friction. There should be almost no blackness on your bearing block end.
Secondly, use GREEN wood for the bearing block - select a small branch and batton it to make a rounded piece that you can use - the greenness will again reduce friction and stop the bearing block getting hot. you can also lubricate the spindle too - rubbing it along your nose and covering it with oil will help.
If you are getting a lot of smoke and no ember, then this indicates you are probably going faster over harder. My rule of thumb is to start bowing, at a steady slower speed, with a reasonable amount of pressure until there is a continual flow of smoke from the hearth - then ease off the pressure and increase the speed - do at least 30 strokes at this faster speed (a stroke equals a full backwards and forwards sawing motion). If you've got an ember, then when you stop drilling, the smoke from around the spindle will stop, but there will still be wisps of smoke around the notch in the hearth board.
Finally, check the colour of your dust - it should be a very dark black - almost charcoal colour - if it is a very dark brown (the colour of a knot in hard wood) or a lighter brown then you are not pressing down enough in the initial bowing stages.
Paul, rule of thumb, the drill/spindle should be around the width of your thumb, so 12 to 15mm if anything maybe a little small (my thumb is 21.5 mm diameter according to my vernier) and I use a drill around this size, normally slightly smaller (18 - 19mm).
The others have mentioned the spindle shape, an easy way to remember is think of it like a pencil, one end pointed fits to the bearing block, the other end flattish maybe rounded at the edges a bit fits to the hearth.
At the hearth end leave a slight nipple about 3mm high in the center of the drill (a little point) it will help to locate the drill in the hole cut in the hearth.
The hearth notch, cut in about 2 thirds of the radius of the the hole that you have drilled when bedding the drill in and it should be around one eighth the circumference of the hole.
How deep is the hearth??
If you think depth of a peice of pallette wood, this should do you for quite a while on one hole, if it is not deep enough you will be through it before you reach critical temperature. Once again the thickness of your thumb would be quite good (it will certainly last you) as a gauge.
As Stuart said it does sound like you are very nearly there, try a little variation when you think you are about there, just add a little more speed or add a little more pressure whilst bowing and keep going for another 20 strokes.
Normally it is a small thing like just keeping it going is the thing, but sometimes you can add that little bit of pressure/speed and it will work it out:)
Leon, Match, Marts, Stuart
Again, thank you all for the useful advice.
I am stuck at work today and I am running fencing classes tonight, so won't get the chance to carry on tonight. But I will certainly let you guys know what the measurements, diameter/depth of the bow drill set is.
It does sound as though the Drill might be too narrow in diameter. The drill head might at most, be about the size of my thumbnail but certainly no thicker.
I guess the hearth block is about 2 cm deep. Sounds like it could be too thin? This backed up by the fact that I actually drilled through the hearth (see the close up photo).
When I first started using the drill and bow set, the top of the drill that rested in the Bearing block was sharper, but I suspect it wasn’t sharp enough (ie more wood was in contact with the hearth.) and after an afternoon of bowing both top and bottom are now charred/blackened hemispheres. At the point where I was getting smoke from the hearth I was also getting smoke from the bearing block as well (In the close up photo you can see that both the hearth and the bearing block are blackened, as it the top and bottom of the drill - opps) . It also sounds from what has been said that shortening the length of the bow might have been a mistake.
I suspect the wood of the drill was 'greener' than the wood of the hearth to and I guess this might be causing problems.
I'll take the measurements and reshape the drill tonight and have another go tomorrow evening.
It's a pity I don't have the stuff with me, or I'd be very tempted to find a quiet part of St' James' Park and carry on. But then not much need for Bushcraft kit in central London….
i've never used birch for friction fire, but i wonder if it is quite a dense (hard) wood. i'd suggest trying other species that might be softer. your setup looks good.
I have found this to be about the friendliest forum I have come across in all the areas of my interest.
i'll second that... :)
Paul, I was chatting with Neil1 today, he was saying that he had tried Birch before now and never actually got a decent ember out of it, so as storm suggested see if you can get something else. There are a few in the first post I made. Pallette wood was used quite succesfully during the Merthyr Mawr meet for the hearth with a hazel drill.
I have a list of woods somewhere which has links attached to it (shows you the identification features of the tree), I'll see if I can find it (I have just changed my machines to linux, so it will probably be backed up somewhere):) drop me a PM if you want it.
Birch is considered a medium difficulty wood for bowdrilling. Lime is probably the easiest. Don't try Rowan :rolleyes:
Ok I have taken everyone's points on board. Thank you all very much.
I will aim to have another attempt using more suitable wood this coming weekend.
In the meantime here are the measurements and the more dtailed pics that I said I would post:
Bow: as pictured - 67cm long (was about 85cm +)
Drill: 21cm Long, 1.6cm Diameter
Hearth: 19cm long, 3.5cm wide, 1 - 1.5cm thick
Bearing Block: 10cm long, 3.5cm wide, 2 cm thick
Pan: 12cm Long, 3.5 cm wide, 0.5cm thick
From everything everyone has said I think that the hearth is unsuitable.
Firstly the underside of the hearth is curved which means that it does not sit flush to the pan and the dust is not nestling, protected in the 'v' notch - this appears to be a real problem. Secondly it is far to thin. The thickness at the drill hole end is barely 1 cm thick - I will aim for at least 1.5cm thick.
The drill will be reshaped a flatter end to go into the hearth drill hole , and a sharper end to fit in the bearing block reducing friction at the top of the drill.
I'll let you know how I get on net week.
Paul
Good luck and keep it going, let s know how you get on, Leon.:)
If it helps, I used a piece of birch bark for a pan,it worked ok as long as you stopped it rolling up.
My earlier post was from the point of view of a competent hand driller. I can now, after a morning session comment from the perspective of another learner at bow drill although I have dabbled with it with mediocre success over the years. I learned/ relearned a few things this morning.
1) The wood should we well seasoned and have been kept in a dry (preferably with a least a little background heat) place for ideally a few days.
2) The collecting surface, V notch and hearth board should be an absolutely stable unit, no rocking, no gaps under the hearth board allowed. Ideally this should be on a raised support like a bench.
3) The drill should spin absolutely smoothly. There should be no squeaking or vibration.
4) The coal will normally only begin to form when the dust/ char moves sidways out of the socket onto the pile of earlier dust as a semiformed "sausage" of material, and a good pinch collects.
5) The bowing is smooth and easy and not rushed, at a pace you can sustain over a couple of minutes. Enough to allow a gradual increase in smoke. Only light pressure on the bearing block should be needed. You should find a relaxed, natural posture that you can sustain.
6) The bearing block is firmly stabilised against the leg that is stabilizing the hearth.
If you have not suceeded in the first couple of minutes - pause to reflect on where things may not be ideal and try to correct it before having another go.
My biggest error I think is trying to put up with vibration due to the drill not being perfectly formed. I need to elliminate all rough or elliptical edges back from the smooth black tip that then knock on the hearth taking away the efficiency.
has any had any success using dog rose as the drill
has any had any success using dog rose as the drill
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/wildlife/images/108-1e.jpg
Yes and no. With hand drilling I have had a lot of success with a garden rambler rose with stems about 1cm diameter. In the early days of my bow drilling I used to try hard with some 1.5cm diameter wild rose, and always seemed to get a rather coarse, gritty punk that would not burn. It might have been my technique.
How about you Wolf?
Well in a wood actually but anyway ..
Paul
Paul,
Just spotted your comment about doing your first attempt in a wood. Interestingly enough trying in a wood may be far harder than in a field! I can go down to the local wood, pick up some seemingly dry wood not lying on the floor and attempt to create a coal by drilling. Never seems to work. I can take the wood home to my garden or shed and it works.
A key issue here I think is that under the trees you have a high humidity. Doing it in a dryer atmosphere such as in the open, or in a dry shed is more likely to be successful.
had alot of smoke with dog rose stem but no ember,got an ember from elder,but this stopped working dont know why,will keep at it,want to try iron pyrite and flint with tinder fungi... :)
Paul,
Just spotted your comment about doing your first attempt in a wood. Interestingly enough trying in a wood may be far harder than in a field! I can go down to the local wood, pick up some seemingly dry wood not lying on the floor and attempt to create a coal by drilling. Never seems to work. I can take the wood home to my garden or shed and it works.
A key issue here I think is that under the trees you have a high humidity. Doing it in a dryer atmosphere such as in the open, or in a dry shed is more likely to be successful.
Hi Rich59,
Interesting point because, I brought the bow and drill set home and over the next few days tried some of the techniques that fellow community members suggested - lubricating the bearing block with green leaves, changing the the shape of the drill bit that fits into the bearing block. Even without these changes I did seem to get a lot of smoke much quicker in my garden than I had in the woods. On Sunday 11th September when I made the attempt there was constant drizzling rain and it was quite warm - I am reasonably fit but was sweating buckets while bowing - and am sure you are right that the extra effort was because of the high high humidity.
I have been trying to get back out into the woods to change my selection of woods for the drill set as I know there are a few beech trees around - but due to a Fencing Competition last weekend (that's the swordy type rather than the living hawthorn variety ) and training the previous weekend haven't had the time .
I have been trying to contact a local scout camp to see if I can camp there 'off season' and practice some bushcraft skills but I haven't heard back from them - and I've been sending PMs to Lawrence Dell, who knows some land areas within driving distance of me but I haven't heard back from him.
Grrrrr, need lots of green and a complete absence of Londony stuff !