My first bowdrill

Regenerative & Transitional Technology Fire
#21
The gods will give it to you when you know how to make fire-love. You ask with your body, not your mind. Know what I'm sayin?

i think i know what you’re saying, but i’m not sure. if i were trying to blow wax paper into flame, i’d definitely be praying with my mind. something like “mother, these poor dinosaurs and trees have been raped by civilization, but they can be freed into your bosom with this flame.”

until my body knows how to ask, though, i’ll probably keep using my mind/heart to ask brother willow to share his energy with me. he really seems to like me, and i think he’s trying to teach me with all his offerings.

hopefully, as i do more, my body will get it and i’ll have that kind of body prayer you’re talking about. but at this stage, my mind and heart have been in this place for a long time now, drinking up words about fire. now my body is finally getting the chance to try out what my mind has gathered. so my bones have some catching up to do.

#22

animalhands!, what kind of advantage does the Egyptian (-gyptian, -gyptian, -gyptian)* method give you? it seems like (mind you, i’ve never tried) that with that many wraps on natural cordage, you’d just be providing more wear on the cordage–and consequently, you’d have to make more cordage sooner.

enlighten my over-civilized mind

*my lame attempt at a “ready to rumble” echo effect.

#23

Cant imagine anyone would have one around but the metal crown top from a beer bottle makes a good socket for the spindle…

#24

Really good instruction by Urban Scout, thank you!!

Some points from my experience:

most people tend to move the bow too fast…this provocs the powder to take a sausage shape with black colour–> the powder becomes coal before it reaches the critical temperature… Try to work more with differing the pressoure, rather than changing speed… also use the whole length of your bow… I use mostly a bow which reaches from my heart out to my finger tips of my arm extended to the side…

if the powder tends to become flaky or sausages you can first produce some fine powder by moving slower and when you have a enough of it you make a sprint which will produce some hot flakes which fall into the powder and ignites it… (because the black stuff cant hold the glow itself)

to test the quality of powder you have without having succeded to get an ember, you can touch shortly the powder with a lighter flame and see how well a ember developes…

Some wood which will not work with normal bowdrill-prodedure can become very functional if you first drill with a thinner handdrill and later when you are trough the board you can start with a bowdrill set. like this you use the downpressure more effetivly and turn it into friktion (imagine the eye of a hurrikan, where there ist no movement)

as urban scout mentioned, the smoke often changes when there is an ember… often the smoke moves up in a more centralized and denser shape. Often you will feel that the smell changes and it bites you in the nose…

like urban scout I think the shape of the spindle is much more important than loubrication (my eares,nose or hair are out in wilderness (HuuuHuuu…!!) mostly dry by ash and mud, so I dont have bodyfat to lubricate) I often point the upper part of the spindle like a pencil (remember the eye of the hurikan) if you need lubrication you can put leaves into the hand element (some work better than others)

If the tip of the spindel becomes shiny: ad pressure and sand or some of the produced powder

Its beautiful to learn wilderness skills… you always discover new things

#25

[quote=“WildeRix, post:1, topic:116”]i realized while reading tom brown that the old willow that fell down last fall should be some good softwood for a bow drill. i spent the weekend whittling a spindle and splitting a fireboard from a log. i have everything but the hand socket so far, as i don’t have any harder wood for that. i keep checking peoples’ rock gardens for a good river rock with a dimple already spooned out, but i haven’t had any luck yet.

[ul][li]how detrimental will it be if i end up using willow for the hand socket as well? will it just wear out fast? [/li]
[li]how much does greasing up the socket and the spindle top keep the friction and wear down? [/li]
[li]what’s the best thing to use for lubing the socket and spindle–especially if the socket is soft wood?[/li][/ul][/quote]

Sorry to open an old thread !

But I thought I’d post and mention I gave 3 attempts this week with a bow drill, all three pieces made of willow.

It definately starts smoking etc… but on the handle >.<

So a hard handle is a must, I’ll go out tomorrow and give it another round!

One thing I did stumble with alot is keeping the string tight, i made my own using blackberry runners (these are young soft thin shoots that come off a major part of the vine, approx 1 meter long, anything longer than thatgets a little brittle) and they work well, but yea, the string gets loose and the grip starts to slip on the drill.

Any ideas ?

#26

if your handhold smokes, don’t forget to lubricate it with something! earwax, green plant matter, pitch, something!

#27

Well, I tried whatyou said there Willem,a bit of green in the handle really helps lube it up.

The only issue I’m facing now is the dust created is just a medium/dark brown and I get some smoke… no black ember or anything…

My drill is about an inch in diameter i guess, and i make a very obtuse point (160or 170 degrees possibly) which gets full contact.

Using dry willow drill and hearth. (wet willow handle tho)

any ideas on getting it hotter ?