Newbie failures with the bow drill

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David Morningstar	Newbie failures with the bow drill	Lead	[-]
Posts: 168 (04/20/09 9:52 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None I have made lots of sweat and smoke but no fire. The mistakes I have made so far are: Making everything too small, like these - http://www.primitiveways.com/pt-small-fire.html Cute yes, but much harder to use. When you are learning you need a big handful as a bearing block, about 12" of spindle and a hearthboard with plenty of length to stand on. Using a broken arrow as a fire spindle. It too weak, snapped and ended up even shorter. When it was too short the slightest wobble would pop it out. Skimping on depth when carving out the holes in the bearing block and hearthboard. This also caused lots of pop-outs. Not enough depth in the hearthboard. The one time I got it going really well I drilled clean through it. Things I did right: Using the Egyptian knotted cord from here - http://www.primitiveways.com/e-fire.html It doesnt rely on cord tension to grip the shaft. I was using a straight stick with the cord tied on at one end and the other end of the cord just had a thumb loop. This was very effective once I got the hang of it. Grinding green leaves into the bearing block hole to keep it cool and slick. Once that was worn away I burned my finger on the top of the spindle. I will give it another go on another day
Southtexasatlatl		#1	[-]
Posts: 166 (04/22/09 6:32 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Don't give up dude! I've made a couple of fires from the bow drill, but not consistantly. Some days are frustrating and can't even produce an ember, oh well, just keep at it.
NeoNeanderthal		#2	[-]
Posts: 93 (05/07/09 8:12 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The thing that helped me the most when i was getting started was starting out slow, with minimal effort until the notch is full of dust (darkbrown to black.) Once i'm there THEN i give it everything i got to superheat that dust and make a coal. This way i dont get burnt out when i need my energy the most. Also what you said about green leaves are KEY. Lubricating the toppiece makes it alot easier. Even better then green leaves is pine pitch. (the hard knarly stuff) keep up the good work. remember the best way to learn is in person so if you can find someone in your area willing to help you out that really speeds up the learning curve not to advertise but checkout my schools instructional web videos. http://www.youtube.com/wa...amp;feature=channel_page
dbowser		#3	[-]
Posts: 220 (05/07/09 5:51 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	David Morningstar, I had to grin when I read the following in your post. "Grinding green leaves into the bearing block hole to keep it cool and slick. Once that was worn away I burned my finger on the top of the spindle." I just read and posted a reply to the thread "Calusa indian hand drills" In which you said that the stone probably was used on top of the drill spindle. OK now take the stone and put it on the bottom, spin the spindle and allow the sawdust to gather and turn into a coal. You burnt your finger on the spindle, just imagine having some dust and tender in that hole. Dave
martybobcat		#4	[-]
Posts: 13 (06/04/09 7:00 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts
T13 Boy Scout	Bow Drill top bearing	#5	[-]
Posts: 1 (06/18/09 12:40 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I make my top bearing from a piece of limestone about an inch wide, half an inch thick and 3 inches long. I drill a 1/4 inch deep hole in it with a masonry drill and then polish the hole with valve grinding compound abrasive. This makes a virtually frictionless bearing for the top of the spindle that is easy to hold. Pop-out of the spindle is never a problem. All of the energy goes to the fireboard.
bluedograins		#6	[-]
Posts: 621 (06/21/09 6:16 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Martybobcat, that video was a real treat. Thanks for posting. Blue
liana		#7	[-]
Posts: 1 (08/22/09 6:12 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I'm new to using the bowdrill-- a few months ago a friend tried to help me make one, but we were using the wrong kind of wood (pine). So over the past week and a half I have collected some better types of wood that I have read should be good for bowdrill: red cedar, birch, willow, maple. There are willow and maple trees around where I live everywhere, the birch and cedar were collected in Wisconsin. I tried making a spindle and hearthboard out of the cedar, but it was very hard to make the hearthboard. so I ended up splitting the birch and making one, it seems like the perfect choice for a hearthboard. So here's what I've been using recently. Willow bow, cotton cordage braided red cedar spindle red cedar socket birch hearthboard. The cedar was pretty good at burning into the birch, I have acheived smoke, but the cedar spindle is to short, only about 5 inches. The surface has also smoothed due to the friction from the cordage on the bow, so it's gotten harder to turn it. I got a lot of brown wood punk, but I've read that it should be black. Part of my willow bow broke, so I have switched to a harder but longer maple bow. My cordage always seems to wear out before I can get smoke sometimes. After the one time that I got smoke, my cord broke. I've decided to split the other piece of birch I had and make a new spindle. I read that using the same species of wood for spindle and hearthboard is good. Any opinions about this? Perhaps I need a stronger cordage? Tomorrow I might be able to make a video of myself so people can help me with my technique.
David Morningstar		#8	[-]
Posts: 351 (08/23/09 4:09 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	My bow cord did eventually snap but it lasted a good while. Have a loook at the Egyptian spindle knot I linked to, I am sure it reduces cord wear. The wood dust changes from brown to black about the time you get serious smoke. Dont go full speed right from the start, take it easy while the wood heats up and the dust gathers then pick up the pace once you see the first smoke.
weaselbear5		#9	[-]
Posts: 242 (08/23/09 6:35 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	wowo...i thought that was me on that vid for a minute..lol. get on more level ground, get away from the water, slow down with less pressure at first, try slow long strokes to heat the set up.. relax and breathe... you'll get it ..and then there'll be no stoppin ya...hand drills are fun too..
liana		#10	[-]
Posts: 2 (08/23/09 11:09 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Thanks for the tips. Today I tried my new birch spindle, it's a little longer than the puny cedar spindle I was using. So now it's birch spindle on birch fireboard. It seems to work a lot better, I get more brown punk faster. I'm also using a shoe string, it's a lot better. I've been starting and staying slow with the bow until I see smoke, but I didn't actually get any smoke. Which leads me to another question: I've read that in order for the spindle to start smoking and for the punk to ignite, the notch needs to fill with the punk. My notch was really full of punk, but at a certain level (near the top) the punk would start to spill out onto the bark that was under the notch. I kept going for a long time, slow and steady, just to see if that's all I needed, and still nothing. In order to get first smoke on the spindle, do I need to go slowly for a long time? Maybe I should try a longer bow for longer and fewer strokes, I've been using one that's just less than the length of my arm. Oh, and after a while it seems like I have to put more pressure on the shoe lace with my fingers, which is fine, except that after a really long time of doing that with a lot of pressure my hands start to cramp up. I start out with the string tight enough so that the spindle will flip out on it's own, and over time the string seems to stretch a little, maybe as it wears? Last Edited By: liana 08/23/09 11:12 AM. Edited 1 times.

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Newbie failures with the bow drill

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