wilderness

How to find, stay, shit and learn in the wilderness even while defending the borders.

The Bow

couple bowdrill bows

  

Bows can be made from any curved branch generally about the size of your arm from shoulder to finger tips. Smaller bows will work fine but a longer bow with a nice long stroke is easier to start out with. The branch should be stiff and not have any flex. Other materials besides wood also will work for a bow as long as it arched and you can tie some cordage to it, rib bones for example can be used to make a bow.

A piece of cordage is tied to each end of the bow and will be used to wrap around the spindle. Just how tightly the cordage should reach across the bow will depend on the thickness of the spindle and how much stretch is in the cordage. Since adjustments are inevitable one of the knots securing the cordage to the bow should be easily undone to adjust the slack. I pretty much always use a knot of some kind on both ends of the bow, other people just tie one end of the cordage to the bow and hold on to the other end.

On cordage. Making and finding cordage is of course a skill onto itself and using natural cordage successfully in a bow drill is a pretty rigorous application of natural cordage. For starting out I found the only cordage material (natural or synthetic) that would hold up was cotton rope.

Handhold

The handhold is used to stabilize the top of the spindle and apply downward pressure on the spindle driving it into the fire board. Anything that serves to stabilize the the top of the spindle while providing downward pressure can be used including wood, rocks, bones, etc. All that really maters is that the handhold has a socket to accommodate the spindle and it fits comfortably in the hand.

It’s always a good idea to lubricate the handhold, especially when using wood. In the video I was burning a new hole in the handhold as well as the fire board and you can see smoke coming out of the hand held as well as the fire board. Once the hole was burned in the handhold I added a leaf for lubrication to keep it from burning in any more. Good lubricators include green vegetation, grease from you hair or the side of your nose or behind your ear, even snot will work.

Fire Board

Long Leaf Pine fire board and spindles made in Ocala Nation Forest, Florida.

 

The fire board, along with the spindle, are the most critical parts of the bow drill apparatus. The fire board is simply a flat piece of wood with a socket into which the spindle is placed and rotated. As the spindle rotates wood is pulverized into hot dust which collects in a carved notch and forms into a coal.

Spindle

The spindle is a a round piece of wood which gets wrapped around the bow sting and secured on top with the hand held and below by the fire board. The spindle does not need to be perfectly round, in fact having a spindle with some edges can help give the bow cordage something to “bite” on to (think octagon shaped – several flat edges that form a circle).

Types of Wood for Spindle and Fire Board

Since the main point of the bow drill is to heat up wood fibers which will then collect as dust in the fire board notch, it only makes sense that one would look for “fibrous” woods. In the video I’m using a cedar spindle and fire board. Commonly mentioned woods good for bow drill fire making are:

• Aspen
• Basswood
• Cedar
• Cottonwood
• Witchhazel
• Sassafras
• Sycamore
• Tamarack
• Willow
• Long Leaf Pine (not sappy)

Generally pine trees have too much sap to make a decent fire board or spindle however some pines like the long leaf pine are not too sappy and make serviceable fire boards and spindles. While at Ocala State Forest in Florida which is primarily a pine/oak forest long leaf pine was really the only wood available that was “soft” and fibrous enough to make a decent bow drill set.

Aside from the bow drill apparatus you’ll also need a piece of bark or dried leaf placed under the fire board to catch the coal and dust.

Tinder

tinder made from saw palmetto and cattail down

Technique
The basic technique for for using the bow drill is to take a knee with one foot placed on top of the fire board. The spindle is warped around the bow string and one end placed in the fire board. The other end of the spindle is placed in the hand held. The key to bow drill form is to keep the hand holding the handhold locked into your shin. You should be applying both a downward pressure to the handhold as well as a horizontal pressure towards your body to keep the arm holding the handhold locked into you shin.

Patience is a virtue.