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Fire By Friction - Using a fire-kit made with stone tools |
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Written by Mark Whitcombe
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Page 3 of 4
Close-up of the Bow Hole.
 I used a thin stone drill to bore this hole through the handle end of the bow. You can see that the twine is of several thicknesses. The thick part is the central section that goes around the spindle. It is strong enough to support my whole weight of 110 kg. It is made from two pieces of z-twist twine, each again z-twisted against the other, to give a smoother and more even piece of twine than could be made from just a normal two-strand piece of twine. Boring a hole through the bow means that I have more control over the twine when it is wrapped around the spindle.
The bow is a piece of sumac — nothing special, except that it’s what I consider the right length (approximately 80-100 cm), curvature, and stiffness.
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Preparing the Cedar bark tinder.
 The most easily available material that I use for tinder is the inner bark of white cedar — the same tree that the wood for the hearth and spindle come from. Fresh cedar bark does not work at all for me. I have learned from experience that the cedar bark has to have been exposed to the elements for at least ten years. I pick off the woody outer bark, and then vigorously rub the inner bark between by hands until it’s the consistency of cotton batten.
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Getting Good Smoke!
 The technique I use is based on that of Ernest Thompson Seton in Two Little Savages. I use a stiff bow and a very taught string, and considerable down-pressure from the socket on the spindle — a strength-based technique. It takes me about 15 to 20 seconds to produce a suitable ember. When there is thick smoke pouring out of the hole, and black powder around the bottom of the spindle, and the notch is filled, then it’s time for the next step of gently knocking out the raw ember!
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The raw ember.
 There is just a curl of smoke from a dark-brown or black ember that’s about the size of three or four peas together. I put the edge of the tinder under the hearth board, and gently knock the raw ember out when it’s ready. I then wrap it in the tinder and blow gently at first, then increasingly hard as more smoke is produced.
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The red eber!
 When I get to this stage of being able to see a glowing red ember, I know I’ve got fire! At this point, I can actually relax — in many cases, just wrapping the ember up in the tinder and letting it sit will eventually produce flame. But if I keep blowing ... |
Smoke and promises!
  A couple of good puffs, and then it’s flames! I still get an amazing feeling every time!!! |
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BushMoot, the best event of the year - from 1st -5th August 2008 at Merthyr Mawr in South Wales. 
I used Hazel wood. Choose the
thin long shoots of wood which i would think are a couple of years old.
If you don't catch anything at first don't worry. It may just be a case of
changing a few things.
Most bushcrafters know that Birch bark is fantastic for fire lighting
because of all the oil concealed within it. This tutorial guides you
through the process of extracting that tar from the bark.
Now we could bung a label on (which should always say they type of wine and when it was bottled). I suggest you cross-reference to a book of recipes and notes so that when you get a cracking wine you can recreate it. We are going to add a little something to the presentation of the wine by putting a foil cap over the neck. First we drop a foil cap (available for a couple of pence from a wine shop) over the bottle neck.
Right, we now have clean, fined and filtered wine. We pour it into clean (yes and sterilised) bottles with a funnel. We need to cork it. Its possible to put corks in with a mallet. I use a corking gun and waxed corks that do not need to be soaked (plain corks do)
Well, the finings have worked – the wine is beautifully clear.
As soon as I'd finished my Paracord Bracelet, I'd decided to write a tutorial on making one. A good thing considering the majority of the responses since I posted it were asking me how to do it! Here goes.. You will need approximately 3 metres of paracord with the ends already sealed/melted, and something to make a temporary knot - a twist tie or piece of string should suffice.
I have been asked a number of times recently to provide some advice of guidance on the best way to sharpen an axe. Whilst I am always happy to provide input, I thought that it might be worthwhile to put together a tutorial on the basic techniques. The techniques used in here are intended to provide not only a sharp axe but also a safe and efficient axe.
There was a period in my life where I lived out of a pack for months at a time and this was one of my staples.
I like to coil it like a rope on a stick and bake it over hot coals...
There are many different ways you can make a berry picker but this is just a design i came up with which uses a packet of kebab skiewers and some discs of wood.
The whole kit took less than three hours to finally pull together — though that really overlooks by far the most time-consuming aspect, the preparation of materials. In fact, preparation has two components, actually. The first is the selection of materials. The second is the actual preparation.