Hi folks, this week's blog came as a result of me setting myself a bit of a friction fire challenge for the month of November, that challenge was to produce an ember a day for the month of NovEMBER. I'll be honest I've not managed everyday but i have learnt a few new things and tried a few new methods and wood combinations so it's all good learning.
Submerged drill and hearth board.
Now I remember when I was first reading and learning about bow drill friction fire one of the reoccurring “musts” that i came across in books and on tv programs was that everything must be super dry for friction fire to work and during my early attempts I fully believed that but I've since been told by instructors who I trust and respect that this wasn't the case so while I was out in the back garden playing with bow drill I decided to test it out.
Soaked and dripping water.
I found a tray of rainwater in the corner of the garden and with almost instant feelings of sacrilegious regret stuck my nice dry western red cedar hearth board and hazel spindle into the tray of water, now they weren't in there for long maybe five minutes at most but as I took them out and shook the water off them questioning my sanity and life decisions, I wasn't hopeful about achieving an ember.
Ember success.
So, with water still pooling in the base of my spindle holes I started to slowly warm the set up, a little bit of squeaking but that's ok, apply a little more pressure and speed to stop the squeak and I'm shocked I'm starting to see smoke already, Keep on bowing and my notch is filling up with powdered fuel, once its full I give it ten second of high speed and pressure then stop! I see that little plume of smoke rising on its own from a newly formed ember, I'd just done it, I'd achieved an ember I would have thought impossible a few years before.
Soaking the drill and hearth board.
So, this got me wondering how far I could take this so I brought the set into the house and chucked it in a tub of water and weighed it down, I was only planning to soak it for an hour or so but it ended up being overnight and most of the next day.
A new notch.
With the board being in the water for so long I thought my best chance at an ember came from carving a new notch as far from the end grain of the board as possible as the end grain will have soaked up the largest amount of water. The new hole took a little while to burn in and started off a bit squeaky but I soon had the set burnt in and a notch carved and again not long after I had an ember.
Another ember success.
So, what could I do to make an ember even more unlikely? I chucked the set in the freezer overnight.
Frozen drill and hearth board.
Now while I know bow drill is possible down in the double digit minus temperatures I certainly hadn't done it in those sort of temperatures so I see a damp frozen board as a bit of a challenge. I set up to start bowing and what a noise, the squeaking out of the set was terrible at first but then things started to warm up fairly quickly, I started to feel the change in friction through the bearing block, started to smell that certain smell that comes from a set that's about to start doing its thing and then smoke! Increase speed and pressure until that point where I know the fuel is well enough heated that it's forming an ember then stop and remove the spindle from the board. And there beginning to coalesce is the start of an ember produced from nothing but a couple of pieces of damp frozen wood and cordage some kinetic energy and technique.
Another ember success.
Isn't bushcraft magic!