tinder fungus

feeds@yuku.com (knap123) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:38:05 GMT

heres some pics of the tinder fungus i found. this stuff is awesome! it really smolders for a long time. and i have sucessfully lit it at least 5 times with flint and steel. this is the tree and it came from the top of the bad spot on the trunk you can still make out the base of the fungus there at the top.

hand drill??

feeds@yuku.com (svaldrin) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:05:06 GMT

Hello I have recently started to try and make a fire with a hand drill. For the spindle I am using dried mullen and basswood that I use for chip carving.
My problem is I cant even get it to turn brown the fire board that is so what should I do?

Sparking Stuff????

feeds@yuku.com (Mutt) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:48:50 GMT

Hey, what is that rod that they sell in most commercial fire starters. It usually comes with a small piece of metal on a string and a round pencil shaped piece of rod that sparks like hell when you scrape on it?? Anyone know what the name of that stuff is??

Woo hoo

feeds@yuku.com (scogar) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:53:33 GMT

I DID IT!!!!

After some failures - not as many as I had anticipated - I made fire tonight. I used a 5/8 inch hemlock spindle on a hemlock board. the bow was way too clunky and the cord was not the best. I tried cypress, I tried 7/8 inch spindle, I tried a number of things. It's really cool to see how it actually does work. Doesn't take too much energy and now that I know I can do it and what it takes, I'll refine and change a few things that I'm doing wrong.
...

Chestwood ?

feeds@yuku.com (Altulus) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:51:02 GMT

I was wondering if chestnut would work as a fireboard ? The spindel that I´m working with right now is cattail. I am quite new to this and testing alot of the materials in my area, next on my list is hazelnut for the fireboard.

spindle question

feeds@yuku.com (knapperhead) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:31:05 GMT

i started a hearth board of red cedar and got a coal with a yucca spindle.
first coal! i never thought i would be so excited to see smoke.
now my spindle is pitted and my burn in has a little dome. is it time to start over
or will it work like this. i had to take a break, i'm not in as good of shape as i once was
although round is a shape, right?

Hand Drill & Down Ward Presure!

feeds@yuku.com (alberto hernandez) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:45:25 GMT

Like most of you I use moderate to strong down ward pressure and also at times lots of speed when using the hand drill, on less I am using a cattail spindle, then I use light to moderate down ward pressure. But a while ago I watch a older man that was almost 70 years old and was NOT IN GOOD PHYSICAL SHAPE and had work in a office setting all of his working days, so was not physically strong at all. Get several hand drill coals using horse weed, golden rod and mullein spindles on paw paw...

tinder fungus questions

feeds@yuku.com (rwaterman00) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:06:48 GMT

i have found the orangeish one big with bark like top
it is very hard like wood. is this normal? i ignited a piece of it and it smoldered like insence although not easy to ignite like i thought
secondly whats chauga all about i found a fungus on a white birck the underside looks like a mushroom.
lots of questions if someone knows whats up. i wanna pick your mind.

Ova Harvest for Tinder

feeds@yuku.com (rhymeswithwhat) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:28:26 GMT

After bow hunting with my grandson today he helped me harvest some Milkweed Ova. Yes, ova is plural for ovum, after all those years of Latin from Jesuit Priests, I am sure ova is the plural of that Latin word. My 13 year old grandson also harvested a nice first squirrel with a 25 yard shot of a Judo Point blunt exactly to the heart of the squirrel----whaaaack!

Here is the Milkweed Ova that works fine when dried in a fire piston or for flint / steel set fire starting. These little...

Fire with Yucca

feeds@yuku.com (knapperhead) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:20:19 GMT

I tried making a fire board by tying two yucca stalks together and used a yucca spindle. All i manged to do was drill a hole all the way through
my fire board and drill a pit in my spindle. Anyone try this? Is my yucca to old and dry?
matt

Joe Pie Weed

feeds@yuku.com (rockbob1) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:09:16 GMT

I used Joe pie weed in spindle of bow kit this past weekend.
had fire in 45 sec. what a difference its makes. rockbob

Fire piston question.

feeds@yuku.com (cavemanwannabe) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:01:44 GMT

quick question has anyone made a fire pistons out of bone or antler? I have plenty of whitetail antlers and want to get a jump on X-mas presents.

I didn't take any matches...

feeds@yuku.com (MountainWalker) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:54:31 GMT

or any modern methods of fire making with me this weekend. My son and I went on a little Obsidian camping trip and I left all modern methods of fire starting at home...on purpose. Here are a few pics I took along the way.

Rivercane Fire piston getting close!!

feeds@yuku.com (Huey Tlatoani) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:14:14 GMT

Last night I made my 2nd attemted firepiston, (last one failed utterly) both of which have been made of rivercane. I'm getting close-I use lard as the grease, and last night, for 2 of my test strokes, when I pulled it out the lard appeared to be boiling on the surface rim around the tinder-pocket. Problem is the cane is a bit too small at the lower end, so the piston gets stuck there. I'll keep retooling it, and maybe just make a new tube, but success feels so close I can almost...

Fire plane

feeds@yuku.com (staveshaver) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:07:47 GMT

Has anyone had success with the fire plane? I just read about it for the first time. I did a search of old posts and didn't turn up a Lot. I got a general ideal of how it works.I was curios if any one had a better explanation of it or current info. Thanks

Bow drill lessons learned.

feeds@yuku.com (MountainWalker) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:21:24 GMT

I learned a valuable lesson today with my bow & Drill. The size and shape of the drill makes a huge difference.
I had run my last drill down so short that it was tough keeping my fingers out of the way. (Yes I like to play with my fire making. It makes me feel good )
So, I had to cut me a new drill. I found one that was fairly straight and about an 1" in diameter. I cut it into about a 14"...

Fire plow

feeds@yuku.com (MountainWalker) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:43:39 GMT

Today while out in my shop I was messing around and was thinking about other methods of friction fire. I've got the bow drill down pretty good now. I know that it is used more in the dessert regions. I wondered if I could even get smoke with my woods. I had a 2" diameter of cottonwood lying around so I split it in two. Took a branch about as big around as my thumb and broke it into about a 2 foot section.
Supported the board by kneeling on it and started moving the other one...

A native Making an Aboriginal Fire piston

feeds@yuku.com (BOD) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:11:54 GMT

For those who want to learn these skills, a friend and I videoed this for Worldwild TV.

So get your blades out and start making your own. It's simple!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NKq4ChNOew&feature=channel_page

Today i used...

feeds@yuku.com (MountainWalker) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:34:35 GMT

all cottonwood. It worked very well. I was able to get a coal every time that the spindle didn't flip out of the heartboard. I need to work on that. Actually I learned a good lesson. I need to cut the depression a little deeper than I have been doing it to help hold it in. Also I need to keep a little more down pressure on the spindle during the heat stage. But all in all I am getting a lot better and rolling a...

flint and steel fire

feeds@yuku.com (chimistul) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:47:26 GMT

Hi all!

Finally I had opportunity to try to make a primitive fire. Always I was fascinated by old methods. I hardened some steel from a bearing. And used a piece of flint. Charcloth was made from some cotton ball. Here are some pictures and movies:

Fire Making