I've been keeping an eye on a stalk of yucca in our front yard and wondering if it would be dry enough to make a friction fire.  Here's what I found out...

It was a bit of a challenge keeping the ember from blowing away in the wind but I was able to keep it together by leaving it in the notch until ready to transfer it to the tinder bundle.

Hand Drill with Local Materials

A friend of mine on the online forum BushcraftUSA sent me a handdrill set made from a plant called sotol.  The set worked marvellously well so it was a good starting point but sotol is not found in Southern Ontario.  So, a bushcraft goal of mine was to be able to produce a coal using the handdrill method of friction fire but with local materials. 

Yesterday I collected a number of different weed stalks and some willow to use to accomplish this goal.  Many of the thinner stalks did not work but I was finally successfull using a mullein stalk and a willow hearth board.

Here is a video showing how it all went down.  Of course I removed all the failed attempts so as to make it more interesting, I hope you enjoy it.

Hand Drill Fire

The hand drill friction fire technique is, in a way, the holy grail of friction fire methods.  I have tried several local materials including mullein, teasel and cedar without success.  After posting about my attempts on the BushcraftUSA forums a member there (RoadLessTraveled) sent me a set made from sotol, a plant that is abundant in the South Western United States.  Here is a video of my first successful hand drill fire using the set he sent.

For some time I have wanted to make a video that may help people who are struggling to be successful with the bow drill fire.  One of the biggest reasons for failure is the improper selection of materials for the hearth board and spindle and for the tinder bundle.  Before you venture out into the woods I suggest that you first practice at home using cedar from the hardware store and jute twine for your tinder bundle.  In the video I go over some of my favorite bearing blocks or sockets and why some are better than others.  I like using a teaspoon for a bearing block because it is multifunctional and you probably have one in your kit already.

"Bearing blocks" from left to right in order of preference: teflon, teaspoon, Kabar Hobo, rock, deer antler and finally hardwood.

Here is a close up of the process where you can see the dust filling the notch as the spindle is turned.

Fire Starting with Evergreen Sap

Someone asked about using other tree saps to start a fire so I thought I would give it a go with the sap from an evergreen tree in the back yard.  I'm not sure what species of tree it is but it has sap oozing from the bark from nails driven into it from my son.  The sap or resin had the consistency of paste rather than a liquid.  I could not get the resin to ignite using my ferro rod alone.  In fact, it would not ignite using my lighter either.  Once I placed some dried twigs in the resin the resin finally lit.  Once it did light it sustained a fire for nearly five minutes wich would be more than enough time to produce a good fire

Fire by Balsam Fir Sap, Dried Needles and a Ferro Rod

Today's fire was started using Balsam Fir sap, dried needles and a ferro rod.  The young needles of the Balsam Fir also make an excellent tea.

Solar Fire by Punk-wood and Dried Leaves

Here's a video I made a couple of days ago recreating how I started the evening fire using a lens, some punk-wood and some dried leaves.

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.

Firestarting Using Horseshoe Fungus and a Magnifying Lens

Horseshoe fungus, a type of Bracket Fungus, is something I've seen in the forest and never realized it's potential as a firestarting material.  Once you remove the inside orange material, either by sawing or by scraping with your knife, you can ignite it with a ferro rod, or in the case of the video below, using a magnifying lens.  These lenses were scavenged from old projectors which were discarded as trash. 

Friction Fire Using the Bowdrill

Friction fire is a skill that is a great asset to anyone who spends time in the outdoors and will help you to understand the principles involved in conventional fire starting.  The standard for friction fire making is the bowdrill method and should be the first one to master since many of the principles will be identical to other methods.  In the bowdrill method a spindle is turned into a depression in the hearthboard with the aid of a bow.  A coal is produced by heat generated from the friction of the spindle and hearthboard.  This coal is then transferred to a tinder bundle where it is blown into a larger, hotter coal which will in turn ignite the tinder.

There are several variables to consider to achieve success with this technique.  I am by no means an expert but from my research and limited experience I have found the following:

The type of wood to use for your drill and hearth.  Ideally you need to use a softwood like cedar, balsam fir or willow and should avoid hardwoods like oak and maple.  The wood should collected from a dead standing tree that has the bark removed from age.  You should make the spindle and hearthboard from the same piece of wood.  The spindle should be eight to ten inches long and carved to have a point at the end that will go into the bearing block and rounded at the hearthboard end.  The bow should be the length of your arm and not too heavy so as to produce fatigue when used.  I prefer a straight bow because I find it easier to maintain a straight back and forth motion.  A depression should be carved into the hearthboard to accept your spindle with a half an inch distance from the edge of the hearthboard to the edge of your spindle.  Push your spindle into the depression you just carved to get it started before going ahead and burning it in with your bow.  Once you have it burned in you must carve a V notch taking out no more than an eighth of the circle and going no deeper than a quarter of the way to the middle of the depression.  Part one of the videos below will illustrate this better than I can describe it.

The material you use for your bearing block.  The bearing block should be made from a material that will not eat up the spindle from friction.  You can use hardwood, bone or antler, stone or man made materials that you may have on hand.  Some knife manufacturers make a depression in one of the handle scales to use for a bearing block.

Tinder bundle material and condition.  The tinder bundle or "birds nest" should be comprised of several layers of tinder with the most highly combustible layer first.  The most combustible layer is where you are going to transfer your coal.  For the first layer you could use cedar bark, fine birch bark, cattail fluff or dried grasses.  Whatever material you choose should be ground up in your hands to produce fine fibres which will increase the surface area of the material.  The next layer can be comprised of unprocessed material used in the first layer.  The outer layer can be comprised of dried plant material like plant tops which are easily broken or bent in the hand - no larger than a couple millimetres in diameter.  This last layer will hold the fire long enough for your kindling to catch.  If you were to use just dried grasses the flames would not last very long.

Weather conditions.  It is much easier to use this method if it is a dry hot sunny day.  Humidity is the enemy of this method.  There is not much you can do to control this which is why it is important to practice in all kinds of weather.

Technique.  It's probably best to watch one of the video's below to get an idea of the proper stance you should take.  It's best to rest your wrist, on the side that you are holding the bearing block, against your shin to stabilize yourself and prevent the spindle from moving from side to side.  When you first start to work the bow there is no need to hurry or exert allot of pressure downward on the bearing block.  You want to generate a good amount of dust in your notch first  Once a sufficient amount of dust is collected the speed of the bow is increased along with an increase in downward pressure on the bearing block.  This will generate the heat needed to produce a coal from the collected dust.

Some may scoff at my choice of materials in these videos as they are not from natural sources.  I chose to use a cedar plank for my hearth and spindle, paracord and a hockey stick for my bow, jute and sisal rope as well as dead grasses and plants for the tinder bundle and initially a rock and then a piece of Teflon for the bearing block.  I feel that it is best to initially use the best materials you have available in order to master the technique so that you can put all the odds in your favour in order to be successful before graduating to foraging for more natural sources.

Here is a three part video series describing how I used the materials above to gain success at the bowdrill.  I feel confident that with these materials I can produce a fire in under five minutes with the set already made.  Now on to more natural materials...

Flint and Steel Made From an Old File

After watching some YouTube videos of guys lighting fires using the flint and steel method I thought I would try to make my own firestriker (not to be confused with a ferrocerium rod) from some old files I had lying around.  The first thing you need to do is to anneal the file to make it soft otherwise it will be too hard to work on.  To anneal the file I placed a batch of them in the heat treat oven and turned it on to 850 degrees Celsius.  Once they reached that temperature the oven was turned off and allowed to cool slowly in the oven overnight.  I then cut a section from the annealed file and ground down the edges before heat treating it to make it hard again.  To heat treat it the section of file was placed into the heat treat oven again and taken to 850C.  The file section was then tested on a magnet to make sure it was non magnetic.  This is a critical step to ensure that the heat treat will work properly.  Once that was done it was quenched in water to make it hard.  Here is a short video showing the finished product throwing sparks.  What is happening is small pieces of the steel are being shaved from the firestriker by the flint and the heat generated from the force of the flint striking the firesteel.

I thought I would give it another go and make a firesteel that could fit in the hand a bit better.  I also thought that if you could make the area of the face of the firestriker larger it would be more likely to throw a larger number of sparks.  Here is another more detailed video showing some of the process of making the firesteel along with a demonstration at the end. 

The tinderbox is basically a steel "Altoids" container that is used to store the firesteel, the flint, the charcloth and some tinder which in this case is some jute or sisal twine.  The tinderbox is also used to make the charcloth by placing some cotton cloth within it and placing the box into the coals of a fire.  The material will smolder without burning completely since there isn't sufficient oxygen in the box to complete the combustion process.  A small hole in the top of the tinderbox allows the gasses to escape.  Once the gasses cease to flow from the hole you know it is time to remove the tinderbox from the coals and allow the whole thing to cool before obtaining your charcloth. 

In the video the "birdsnest" was made from teasing some sisal rope into it's individual fibres which provides a large surface area for the smoldering charcloth to ignite.  In the field you could use dried grasses, dried bark like cedar or whatever dried plant material you can find.  I have made several fires using the flint and steel method and have found that it is very important to have all your materials at hand and ready to go so that the fire will not go out before it has a chance to catch and sustain itself.