Friction fire – Bow and Drill

                                                     Friction fire – Bow and Drill

  There seems to be a lot of interest in Friction fire making, especially the Bow and Drill or “Bowdrill” as folks commonly call it.

I have always found the B&D fire making method to be pretty easy once you make a set to fit your body and apply the proper technique. I don’t think that there is any evidence to show they American Indians or any other Native people elsewhere in the world used this method to make fire. Hand drill, yes, Bamboo fire saw, yes, fire thong, yes, fire plow, yes, B&D nope. I’m curious as to how it came about and why it is popular with outdoor types today.

A B&D set consists of 5 components;

1. Tinder bundle – can be made out of any combustible materials that have been softened, I like to use cotton wood cambium or juniper bark. Other materials I have made into tinder bundles include milk weed and dog bane fibers, grass, aspen cambium etc. there are countless things to be found in the outdoors that will work.

You can also add extra combustibles to your tinder bundle if you cannot find enough of one type of material; things like thistle or cattail down, birch bark, and pine pitch are excellent fillers.

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socket, (bearing block, top rock etc) – My socket is the handle of my old Green River Butcher Knife I have been carrying for 20 years. I also have sockets made from Mule deer antler, and have a few lying around made of Cow bone, and some of various hard woods. I have also seen a few made from stone.

2. spindle(or Drill) – the spindle for your personal should be about as big around as your thumb and as long as your hand and should be made from a wood that can be easily dented with your thumb nail. Good types of wood in North America are Alder, cedar/juniper, sycamore, cotton wood, or willow. I have a personal list of over 200 different woods I have made friction fires with over the years, some are hard woods like oak, and maple and my list includes Poison Ivy vine. yup, poison Ivy. I cut a large piece of the poison Ivy then tied a cord to it and threw it in the creek for 5 days, after that time I dried it out and made spindles/fire boards with it. The result was an odd colored wood but it worked and made an ember easily enough.
3. fire board – the board is made from the same material as the spindle and needs to be about 2 fingers wide, 1 finger thick , and about as long as your foot.
4. Bow – your bow can be made of any type of wood you like but it needs to be from arm pit to finger tip in length. some folks like a flexible bow with an acute bow in it but I prefer a straighter stiffer bow with no flex.

Recently in Arizona, I went out in the desert and made a complete set entirely from the soap tree yucca plant to include the tinder bundle.