ive got the spindle,bow,fire board but icant make a suitable handhold to stabalize and add pressure to the spindle.Any ideas?

posted on mobile

Although I have yet to be successful with friction fire I have attempted several times before and the best hand hold I found (if you don't mind being a little modern) is a 3/4 in pvc end cap,  I usually have one on my fishing kit any way anyway and it works pretty well. Good luck

Steven wrote on Oct 15^th, 2010 at 7:48pm:

Yeah. Grease reduces friction, which is a measure of how much energy expended in moving an object goes into heat*. You don't want this reduced.

*All scientists would kill me for this simplification, but it is close enough here.

the best way i've found to lubricate the top of the spindle is to rub it against the side of your nose just prior to use. another tip is to keep your thumb pressed down on the string when working the bow. this keeps the string seperated from itself when wrapped around the spindle and avoids friction that can break it, not to mention widening the contact area for smoother spinning. the key to fire bows is smooth steady stroking until you see a decent pile of charcoal forming in the notch and a substantial amount of smoke. once that happens you apply more pressure with the pommel and really go to town with the bow. do that for at least 5-10 seconds and then stop to check if your charcoal dust is smoking on its own.

Another tip for bow drill is to use green material intro your top hole. To create it put the tip of your knife into any piece of wood (harder or of the same hardness as your fire board) and spin your bow drill. Make sure you are squared off and have a solid base. You do not have to press down hard on the spindle or go very fast in the beginning- once your notch is filled with ash 5 or 6 quick hard spins will be enough to light your coal. Good luck

At the Edinburgh Paleo Skills Camp a couple of months ago one of the guys used a bowdrill to make fire. This is the first time I  have seen it done live and, although I have scoured the many YouTube videos out there it was much more impressive for real. The wood was well dried on the barbeque which probably helped.