Fire from a Bowdrill [Pic Heavy]

[Grimble Grumble]

I have seen much about flint and steel fire on this forum. Certainly it is the most Tolkienesque method. I do use a flint and steel often but my favorite is the bowdrill. I guarantee Aragorn would have been a master of it. Items are needed to achieve a bow drill ember: the bowdrill, a slightly bent stick with a cord from end to end; a handhold with a smooth hole in it;a fireboard ; and a spindle.
Wood choice is the key to an easy ember. Choose soft dry wood. Years of practice have allowed me to be capable of embers with practically any type of wood but dried yucca stalk and basswood are my preferred choices in the eastern US. Choose very dry wood as rotten, wet, or green wood is almost impossible. Also avoid hard woods like oak or resinous woods like pine.

The fireboard is simply a flat plank about as thick as your thumb. Cut a very slight dent in the surface of the board. The spindle is a rod with a diameter of .5 to 1 inch. I find a spindle 2 feet long to be most comfortable. Make both ends of the spindle concave but have one rough and one side as smooth as possible.


Wrap the cord around the spindle and place the rough end of the spindle in the dent made earlier. Place your foot on the end of the fireboard to hold it. Hold the bow with the dominate hand and hold the handhold on top of the spindle with the other.




Push and pull vigorously with the bow. It will be necessary to adjust the cord length till it no longer slips. Stop when you see smoke.
Smoke is not an ember! You must now cut a small notch in the board reaching almost the center of the hole. It will look like a slice from a pie.
Reset the bow and continue. Charred dust will now fall through the notch. Continue till you see a lot of smoke. It is best to have something to catch the ember under the hole.

If this is your first attempt and it takes 2 hours to accomplish this do not dispair. Experience makes a huge difference.
It took me 30 minutes of rotating the spindle to make my first ember. I can now make an ember with my best set in literally 5 seconds.


Then just place the ember in a tinder bundle as one would with a flint and steel ember to make a fire.

[wulfgar]

Very impressive! I remember trying this with the Boy Scouts when I was an Assistant Scout Master and it can be very nerve wracking. Materials really do matter in this case as not all wood types will work, like you have explained. Are you going to give it a shot without the bow, just doing the hand drill? I have seen only one person ever do it that way at a rendezvous long ago.
Once again, I applaud your skills at mastering this art form!

[Ringulf]

I have tried the flint and steel in my tinder box and also my fire piston with charcloth but I have not done this since Boy Scouts either. I am going to have to give it a whack since I am going to be called upon very soon by my Shire to teach some outdoor skills! I suppose this would round out the old matchless firestarting class!

[Grimble Grumble]

I have successfully used a hand drill several times. Actually there are two thin sticks that are hand drills in the pic above. I would not say I have mastered it however.

I would never recommend the hand drill to anyone in an emergency situation. It's just too physically demanding and materials must be selected very carefully. In an emergency one could always at least tear a strip from their shirt and make a bow drill from it.

To those who do not know what a hand drill is, it is a spindle resting on a fireboard that is rotated with both hands.

[deadextra]

While it's surely a fun skill to have, I know of no medieval reference to the use of a bow drill and the methods of fire starting written by Tolken include matches and a tinderbox. There are several points which I feel make it inferior to flint and steel.
1. It is a definite skill, it takes much more training than learning to strike flint and steel.
2. It is subject to more wear with use than the inorganic components of flint and steel.
3. The bow, board, and upper pivot are larger and possibly heavier than flint and steel.
4. In order to work, they must be absolutely dry.
5. Using of a bow drill requires a stable platform.
6. It's more complex; would be difficult to set up and kindle flame in the dark for instance.

[Grimble Grumble]

Superiority is a very difficult thing to define. Friction fire is the fallback if one is without other firemaking tools. When a ranger has been plundered and left for dead by orcs in winter would it be simply a "fun" skill?

On a more general note, Tolkien's world is not identical to Middle Ages Europe. Middle Earth contained a variety of cultures and technological developments ranging from aboriginal Wild Men who likely used friction fire to civilized peoples using matches (an invention from the 1800s).

[Frothgar]

Senor Grumble,

I greatly appreciate you posting this. might just be the push i needed to get off my ass and put together a friction kit. Thank you.

Everyone else,
can someone provide a cite for matches in lotr? i dont remember that at all.

Frothgar

[Ringulf]

The friction method might also be a bit quieter and less alarming than clashing a piece of rock against steel. The loud clack clack of this method of fire starting might alert enimies to your presence...then again so would a campfire so perhaps this is not as valid a point as I had hoped...

[kaelln]

Well, if stealth is what you're looking for, try a Dakota fire pit. You dig a small hole about a foot deep to build your fire in, then a secondary smaller hole a foot or so away, then connect the two with a tunnel. It's best to dig the second hole in the direction of the wind. The second hole and tunnel feeds air to the fire, but the fire stays mostly hidden in the hole. Great for stealth cooking! Here's a video showing one:

http://wn.com/Dakota_fire_pit

[Grimble Grumble]

Everyone else,
can someone provide a cite for matches in lotr? i dont remember that at all.
Frothgar

from The Hobbit--

"After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely. Just as well for him, as he agreed when he came to his senses. Goodness knows what the striking of matches and the smell of tobacco would have brought on him out of dark holes in that horrible place. Still at the moment he felt very crushed. But in slapping all his pockets and feeling all round himself for matches his hand came on the hilt of his little sword—the little dagger that he got from the trolls, and that he had quite forgotten; nor do the goblins seem to have noticed it, as he wore it inside his breeches."

[wulfgar]

Also in "The Hobbit" matches are referenced while the dwarves are making a fire in the Eagle's eyrie. Something along the lines of "Dwarves have not taken to using matches yet." I take that as a hint that other races in Middle Earth were using matches, but Dwarves were old fashioned.

[Ringulf]

Well, if stealth is what you're looking for, try a Dakota fire pit. You dig a small hole about a foot deep to build your fire in, then a secondary smaller hole a foot or so away, then connect the two with a tunnel. It's best to dig the second hole in the direction of the wind. The second hole and tunnel feeds air to the fire, but the fire stays mostly hidden in the hole. Great for stealth cooking! Here's a video showing one:

http://wn.com/Dakota_fire_pit

BTW, I had forgotten all about this tipe of fire! I had been taught this back in boy scouts! I was so excited about it that I went out to a private wooded area that I have permission to camp on and set up a small camp and built one of these just to see if I still could.
I cooked some sausage and beans and made coffee in my little cast iron tea pot, read a little and packed it all up and went home.
The making of the fire took very little time and was aided by my metal two ended map tube that I used as a 45 degree chimney to the secondary hole. It was in a pretty sandy area but the dousing and cleanup was a breeze and the whole excursion took about 2 1/2 hours. Most enjoyable I plan on using it at the Moot! Thanks Kealin!

[dwayne davis]

I my self was a Boy Scout, i remember having more luck with a bow drill back then. recently ive started looking at them again,mainly as a was to make fire in the event i lose my flint and steel kit. but so far its harer than i remember it being. guess im gonna have to dive into it all the way till i get the hang of it again.

[Rhys ap Ieuan]

I find a lot of things are harder than they were when I was a Scout...I think gravity changed or something.