Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills

Friction Fire

<< < (3/20) > >>

Pat B:
Thanks Scallorn.
 This is a ferro stick with a fat lighter handle I made as part of my fire starting kit. Not quite friction fire but a good addition to any fire kit.

Outbackbob48:
One of my favorites for hand drill is horseweed with a Rose of Sharon hearthboard, and for tinder certain birds nest work real good, can't be the rough sticky type , need to be real fine stuff.  I also like mullien, yucca  for spindles and pawpaw and white pine for hearth boards. I have a hard time getting enough down pressure so a little pine pitch on spindles helps alot ;D Bob

bubby:
I cut down a chinese tallow tree a while back how thick do i make the hearth board

Outbackbob48:
Bubby, I try and make my hearth boards thickness the same as drill diameter :o. I like my hand drills pretty thin 3/8 or so and bowdrills 5/8 to 3/4. Bob

Scallorn:
Yeah, what outbackbob said. The hand drill spindle needs to be about the diameter of your little finger, maybe a little smaller. The smaller the diameter of the spindle, the higher rpm's you can get, and thus more friction. I make mine about the size of my ring finger but that's only because I am using premium wood from my area and I've had enough practice that I can spin it allot. I don't know about Chinese tallow wood, but whatever wood you use has to be really soft. The way I've always tested it is to press my thumbnail into it. If you can leave a pretty good mark in it with your thumbnail it's about the right hardness.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page