Fire the old fashioned way.

[David S.]

I've always wanted to learn how to make fire by rubbing a stick between my hands...like the Aboriginal people. Has anyone successfully accomplished this? Its not a skill that I would use to replace a lighter or matches...I just think it would be cool to be able to do. I saw a man do it in about 30 seconds on the TV the other day. He made it look so easy. Anyone else interested in taking on the challenge? I'm sure a few of you are experienced with this so lets hear how its done! :banana

[mdjeeper]

with practice you can get pretty adept at it, though I could never get one started twirling the stick between my hands, i always made a bow to twirl the stick with. my rfirst attempt (back when i was a scout and about 13) took me almost an hour before i had flame, can do it now in about 3 minutes if needed

[screwysquirrel]

3 minutes? You don't need a lighter if you're that good. I could never in the Scouts get a fire that way.

[oldfivetango]

I've always wanted to learn how to make fire by rubbing a stick between my hands...like the Aboriginal people. Has anyone successfully accomplished this? Its not a skill that I would use to replace a lighter or matches...I just think it would be cool to be able to do. I saw a man do it in about 30 seconds on the TV the other day. He made it look so easy. Anyone else interested in taking on the challenge? I'm sure a few of you are experienced with this so lets hear how its done! :banana Well-since you asked.Some of you may or may not recall that i have some Native
American genes swimming around in my pool.That said, I have ALWAYS wanted to make
fire like the ancients did and my brother and i actually almost accomplished this in our
mother's kitchen once before we heard her coming and hastily threw all the evidence in the
firebox.
- That said- after watching Tom Hanks in CASTAWAY i just had to learn all the ins and outs of the fire making business.So after doing considerable research and ordering a tape from the Midwest Native Skills Institute i am a real pro on this subject.Admittedly i am not a REAL AT hiker yet-still in training for that.
I made my own firebow set from indigenous woods on my own property.A number of woods
will work,including western red cedar that you can buy at the hardware store.I made mine from sycamore,a piece of bone to hold the drill with,and a leather belt to run it with instead of a string which breaks or wears out too quickly.
When you use the hand drill method you have to be alot stronger and more adept at what you are doing.Mullein,teasle, and horse weeds are some of the handrill weeds that run on the baseboard of cedar,sycamore,cottonwood etc.It is helpful if you have a partner with good upper body strength to help you in the handrill as the drill cools considerably when
your hands(which will soon be a blistered mass of goo btw) get to the bottom of the drill
and you have to start over real quick.It is important to note that you have to keep downward pressure AT ALL TIMES on the handrill to keep"fire in the hole" or you aint gonna have a fire.
-That's why i use the bow method.You have to remember that bowing is alot like old fashioned hand sawing and you cut into the bottom board on the forward stroke whilst the
backstroke is to just rewind the cord round the drill.Keep a smooth steady pressure on the
holding piece and dont forget to lube it up with a little bees wax.
-Here's the most importang part-dont let the drill stick be too "pointy" cause if you do you
wont succeed-just keep it blunted with your knife.Run the hole part way and then cut the notch in the board to it.When you run the stick awhile and it starts smoking in the first 30 seconds or so then all you got to do is "saw" another minute or two at the most.I can actually SMELL the difference in the smoke(but then i got those NATIVE genes) when the
little ember is formed in the pile of dust you make when you saw.If you stop and lift the
base board real careful the little pile of "goofers dust" (all this time i thot i was a Bubba and now learn that i am really a Goofer) will continue to have a little curl of smoke come
off of it.Relax for about 30 seconds and catch your breath.Now comes the most important
part.You may have noted that on that show SURVIVOR they can often get smoke but i have yet to see anybody actually make fire on national TV( i thought about trying our for the show just to show'em but nixed the idea after seeing all them babes in bathing suits
out there on that island-like that's what my wife needs to be watching every Thursday night-me and a bunch of babes on a deserted island making fire)well,its because they
have "misunderestimated" the importance of the tinder in the overall fire equation.
-GOOD TINDER MAKES A FIRE-and don't be fergittin that folks.It has to be fine like hair and dry as dust.The AIR has to be dry as well.Daylight in bright sunshine is time for all good chiefs to impress their neighbors with the fire making happy dance-not dusk when dew is wanting to fall or at any time that humidity is high.
-Anyway,just drop that now red hot little pile of goofers dust into your hot hairy tinder and
well-blow on it til you gets FIRE.Then you had better have already made a place to insert
your little bundle of fire or this will have been a moot-but otherwise quite IMPRESSIVE- little demonstration of your native skills and prowess.
-Be ready to blow or wave something to move the air to the fire and you will have a something to dance around shortly.My best time from start to a ROARING campfire was about 7 minutes total.Takes only a minute or two to get the tinder lit off when the weather is good though.
-Goodluck to ya and dont forget to have a bucket of water close by because fire can
get dangerous real quick.As Smokey Bear always says"Only YOU can prevent forrest fires"
Cheers to all,
Oldfivetango:bse

[David S.]

Thanks for the detailed repley!

So if a person is lost in the woods and its the slightest bit damp out and this was your only method of making fire, does that mean he may as well forget trying? If its wet out, would there be a way to dry out your tinder enough to make a fire?

[Tha Wookie]

Wow! Great summary of the friction fires, oldfivetango. You nailed it.

I learned in 2003 at Ray Jardine's camp and have become able to make a fire in wet conditions, as long as I keep a little dry tinder in my waterproof fire kit bag (which I made out of sil-nylon). I have been hiking with it on mulitday hikes and using collected materials, except for my bow and leather thong (that means a leather strap, the other thong).

Using the bow drill is a true lesson. I mean, the bow drill is a good teacher. The hand drill might be even a better one. I still haven't made a handrill fire, but haven't really practiced much on that. The first time really gave me blisters.

I read in a Tom Brown book that the act symbolizes lovemaking and the coal is the child. Then the child breathes light and heat to the otherwise cold and hanging night.

Making a bow drill fire is probably my singlemost worthy skill I have ever learned.

[Footslogger]

Haven't made a bow drill fire since I was 12 or 13 in the scouts. I remember the basics ...but I wonder if I still have the nack ?? Gotta try that the next time I'm out in the woods.

Hey Wook ...what'd you use as your "starter" ?? We used to fray some hemp rope.

'Slogger

[saimyoji]

I use lint from my drier. I collect it in a zip lock to keep moisture out. Don't compact it too much: it loses too much surface area and isn't as flammable. A great source is the local laundromat! It packs easy and weighs nearly nothing. I guess on a thru-hike when you stop to do your laundry you could scrape some up.

[RenaissanceMan98]

Bowdrill firestarting is quite a worthy skill, and will teach you a great deal long before you actually start a fire this way.

If you are into nifty firestarting techniques, check out this link: http://www.firepistons.com

I have one of these, and it is very cool.

[minnesotasmith]

Is to roll up alternating layers of birch bark and either dry leaves or paper (not the kind containing clay such as glossy magazine pages; newspaper works MUCH better). The birch bark gets it going, and the paper or leaves burn for considerably longer than the bark alone would. I've started many a woodburning stove and campfire this way. Do put your kindling on top of the tinder before you strike a match, and use WAY more fine kindling (bone dry, of course) than anyone else would; you'll greatly reduce the number of "more-than-one-match" fires. I've heard of campers even carrying sealed containers of small dry twigs for kindling if they thought it would be hard to find at their campsites, although it would be better ultralight hiking to just whittle shavings off the inside of thicker sticks if you couldn't find any dry twigs near your campsite.

[Tha Wookie]

Haven't made a bow drill fire since I was 12 or 13 in the scouts. I remember the basics ...but I wonder if I still have the nack ?? Gotta try that the next time I'm out in the woods.

Hey Wook ...what'd you use as your "starter" ?? We used to fray some hemp rope.

'Slogger
Hey Slogga' (and PhD BA),

Tinder bundles are everywhere. Everytime I go out on the trail I find good materials for them, even in rain. What I do is stagger my bundles usually, meaning I always use the one I gathered the day before, which I carry with me (they weigh nothing since they are ideally light and fluffy) and pull it out at night by the cookfire (although I opt for the stove sometimes).

Look for dried flower heads. Those work great. The fluffier the better. Also, you can use dried grasses. If you run your hands through a Mt. grass field, you'll find that you pull out the dead blades between your fingers. This makes excellent tinder. On the GA Pinhoti hike, along a roadwalk, I harvested some cotton from a field. That worked great!

The real secret and true magic is hiking along, and saying, "I need a tinderbundle." Then clearing the mind, opening the heart, and just hike with your senses open. Then you will find your bundle, or it will find you. All of the sudden you will find yourself taking a pee and you'll see the perfect material for a bundle hanging right in your face. It's everywhere.

That's one of the things that made the Native American experience. I doubt that tribes made a fuss like we do when we need to go grocery shopping for stove fuel. They just felt it all around them. And the tinder bundle is just one thing, imagine how deep their connections ran to the earth!

Learning how to made a bow drill fire is great. But learning how to gather the materials and use what is available is the next level, which is exponentially more connecting. Of course, I learned using frayed jute twine. I still carry a little for a backup.

A fire made with a bowdrill is a sacred thing. When that thick white smoke hits your nose, you can feel thousands of years of artistic, cultural, and functional refinement.

[Footslogger]

Geez Wook ...man, you make it sound so good I wanta make up a bowdrill and go hiking this afternoon. Then again, it's pretty cold out here right now and the snow has all the tinder pretty well buried. But hey, the native Americans had fires in the Winter too, right ??

Guess I'd better quit whining and get my ragged butt out on the trail.

Thanks and best regards ...

Oh yeah, Dr BadAss sends along her greetings as well !!

'Slogger
AT 2003

[oldfivetango]

Wow! Great summary of the friction fires, oldfivetango. You nailed it.

I learned in 2003 at Ray Jardine's camp and have become able to make a fire in wet conditions, as long as I keep a little dry tinder in my waterproof fire kit bag (which I made out of sil-nylon). I have been hiking with it on mulitday hikes and using collected materials, except for my bow and leather thong (that means a leather strap, the other thong).

Using the bow drill is a true lesson. I mean, the bow drill is a good teacher. The hand drill might be even a better one. I still haven't made a handrill fire, but haven't really practiced much on that. The first time really gave me blisters.

I read in a Tom Brown book that the act symbolizes lovemaking and the coal is the child. Then the child breathes light and heat to the otherwise cold and hanging night.

Making a bow drill fire is probably my singlemost worthy skill I have ever learned.
Very well said Wookie! I forgot to mention in my rather wordy treatise on the friction fire thing that there are few accomplishments so rewarding as
making your own fire from friction.For some reason i got the feeling that in
the ancient times the firemaker guy was pretty popular with the ladies as well.:clap
Cheers to all,
Oldfivetango

[IdahoDavid]

Here's a website with information on starting fires tghe really old-fashioned way:
http://www.primitiveways.com/#anchor694080

[David S.]

I just got my first flame with a bow and drill method! After doing a bit of research online I starting trying this a few days ago using the hand drill method. I have managed to get a coal with the hand drill method several times in the last day or two but wasn't able to blow the coal into a flame. After getting sore hands, I decided to cheat last night and make the coal artificially to practice blowing it into a flame. I took the dust from previous attempts and lit it then blew it out so there was a coal there just as if I had made it from friction.
Then I put this coal into a much thicker and more robust mass of dried grass and other tender. (During my first attempts, my tender was to loosely packed and not enough of it.) I managed to blow it into a fire last night fairly easily. I knew that all I had to do now was combine the two together to be successful...i.e. 1. making the coal from friction and 2. blowing that coal into a flame.

Today, was the day! It took all of about 2 minutes of drilling with the bow and drill. It was smoking pretty good and I was tired so I stopped. The black powder coming out the notch kept on smoking. I blew on it a little and could see a little coal form in the dust...kind of like the coal at the tip of incense. I carefully scooped the burning pile of dust onto my pocket knife and moved it to my bundle of dry grass. It didn't take long to blow it into a flame. The spindle was made from a Silk Tree limb (they seem to grow nice and straight) the hearth base was made from a dead limb whittled down to make a small board...I have no idea what kind of wood it is.
The bow was made from another limb and some utility type cord. I used a piece of 2x4 to hold the spindle steady.

I have always wanted to do this since I was a kid. I've wanted to do it even more after seeing all the failed attempts on Survivor...and knowing good and well that it must be possible. After seeing a guy on TV do it in about 30 seconds, I was resolved to learn how.

I won't stop carrying matches and a lighter into the woods, but its always nice to learn a new skill.

[squirrel bait]

Thanks for the link Idaho Dave. Interesting stuff. Spent a summer, winter and spring in Pocatello in the seventies. I was there when the Teton Dam busted and what a mess it caused. If I remember right it killed something like 10,000 head of cattle and dumped them in the resevoir. Pretty country.