Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills
Friction Fire
Scallorn:
The best thing that I've found for tinder that even works when damp is dead cedar bark. You can just peel it off of a dead tree and shred it into fine fibers. That's my number one tinder. Another good alternative is to use dead cattail punk crushed up and then dead grass behind that. I've never used it but i hear dead thistle fluff works too. The key theme here is DEAD! It has to be as dead and dry as you can get it. If it's even the slightest bit green it'll have too much moisture and it won't work.
JoJoDapyro:
Have you seen the cotton and charcoal method? Pretty sweet!
Scallorn:
Yeah the cotton thing is pretty awesome but in my opinion not very practical or efficient. Wood choice is absolutely critical with friction fire too. With the bow and drill method you want the spindle and the hearth board to be of the same piece of wood if possible. Otherwise one will consume the other and not produce. Good choices for wood are softwoods, willow, sycamore, cottonwood, and cedar are a few good choices. You can find a lot of really good videos on YouTube for technique. Wood for the hand drill kit is just as specific. Horseweed, cattail stalks, willow shoots, and yucca stalks are all good spindle choices. the hearth board can be any of the listed softwoods. Technique with the hand drill is really pretty simple. You just have to be patient with it and have the strength and endurance to see it through to the end because it will wear your arms out ;D
There is only so much that can be said about the art of friction fire, the rest has to be learned by experience. So just get out there and try it!
Any other questions are welcome.
mullet:
In the Deep South, Spanish Moss that is dried out is another good tinder. I also keep my saw dust when I cut fat pine, (lighter knot) and mix it with cat tail fluff. It goes up like you poured turpentine on it. ::)
Scallorn:
Yeah Mullet that sounds like a great combination. I bet a ferro rod would set it off in seconds too. I forgot to mention my favorite combination for hand drill kits. Dried yucca stalk spindle and dried willow hearth board. You can get an ember with that combo in a matter of seconds.
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