Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills
Friction Fire
riverrat:
talk about finding stuff { twine} i found this.... at first i thought hey look a rock with a divit in it already i might be able to use this, then on closer inspection hey this was made a long long time ago. a real "abo" bearing block.i tried it out. but the spindles i use must be a little skinnier than this one was designed for . and besides id rather put this one on a shelf with my collection.so i made my own, the 3rd picture picture. it works. then i found out i was just holding the first one wrong. it works too. lol theres pecking on the opposite side of the one i found as well. the second picture.3 small pecks. you can tell the person making it thought about pecking the other side. the inside of the divit is smooth like glass. however the outside is a grainy texture. my new one fits my hand nice. but now i like that first one. :)
Tony
Outbackbob48:
Pearly, if ya look closely on the side of yucca's It says HIGHLY FLAMMABLE, I just twisted out a coal from Mullien drill and cedar hearth, never tried Lilac, but Rose of Sharon hearth worked great. Bob
stickbender:
Thanks for posting this thread. As with the cedar bark, down in Florida, and wherever cypress trees grow, you can use that bark, just as you did with cedar. Mullet, do you mean the hot water "element", or thermostat? The element is what heats up the water, and that is what you replace to get hot water again. Which issue of Backwoods was that in? I have plenty of mullein. Too damn much of it! Most of it got weed whacked, but there are still some growing. Thanks again.
Wayne
Forest_Farmer:
Hey guys,
I just returned from a nice 90 mile backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail. While there, I had a goal of collecting materials during the hike to make a friction fire. I was able to collect decent, but damp materials, and was very close to getting and ember. I made some key mistakes that kept me from being successful, and i've listed them below.
1) I got lazy and used the same soft popular wood that I made the hearth board and spindle from, for my bearing block. This caused high friction on the top of the spindle, just as the hearth board was smoking good. This would ultimately make the spindle "seize up" before getting and ember.
2) I made a short bow, about a 12 in working stroke length. This might had been ok, if I didn't have the bearing block problem, but it does require more effort. I've found that with bows with about a 18" stroke length or more, it so much easier to build up heat with less effort.
I hope this is helpful.
Ed
Forest_Farmer:
After reading about Pearlies success, I had to give the hand drill another go.
So I collected some new Mullien spindles here in TN and sat down this morning and tried to twist one out. Much to my surprise I was able to get an ember in about a minute. Not quite as impressive as Chris's 10 seconds, but I'll take it. This was the first time I had solo success with a hand drill, so I tried it again, and was able to twist our another one in about 45 second. I was using a white cedar hearth board, and white cedar bark for a tinder bundle.
I also collected some tinder fungus while on the Appalachian Trial, and tried to see how long I could keep an ember going. This stuff is magic!! It will keep an ember going for hours with a little attention, pretty cool.
Here is a pic of my hand drill set up from this mornings success.
Enjoy,
Ed
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