Friction Fire Using the Bow-Drill and Natural Materials

After having success with the bow-drill using cedar for the hearth-board and spindle and jute twine for the tinder bundle I wanted to give it a go with some materials I could collect in the "wild".  The willow that I found seemed to be soft enough as my thumbnail could easily depress into it except for the heart wood which was more dense.  The first hearth-board I created could not produce enough dust to fill the notch and therefore could not ignite into a coal.  The same result was obtained on my second hearth-board but on my third one, the smaller diameter piece, I could tell right away that it was going to work by the amount of dust that was created.  An ember was produced on my first attempt. 

The problem then became keeping the coal long enough to ignite the tinder bundle.  The dried grasses did not seem to catch a flame as easily as the jute twine.  On two attempts the coal either disintegrated and fell through the fibres of the birds-nest or just burnt out because it was too small.  Persistence paid off though as I was successful on the third attempt as shown at the end of the video below.

There seem to be so many factors that must be just right to create a friction fire with the bow-drill.  The most important factor seems to be the correct piece of wood to make your hearth-board from.  On future attempts I'm going to try to make the primary tinder in the birds nest as fine as I can in order to catch a flame.  I'll also try to see if I can find some cedar.