Well I'm going to start this one off by saying first and foremost this skill takes a lot of patience and fortitude. It was not easy it was way harder then I ever imagined it would be. I had watched Youtubers for years making bow drill fires and they made it look so easy. Now that I've been through the process it will be way easier the next time. There is definitely a steep learning curve.
I will share with you guys my experience with it, where I went wrong. Share some insight so your curve is not as steep if you decide you want to attempt this. I will add that all the components I ended up using where stuff I had kicking around the yard. The only things I wished I had was a better piece for the bow. Now the 5 main component of the bow drill fire making system are...
The Bow
Ideally you want to find a green sapling about 3/4inch thick with a slight curve and about the length of your arm. You want it to be a little bendy. I didn't have those properties with my bow. It was the only piece that I had in my wood shed. It was way too stiff which made things way harder when it came to properly tensioning the spindle in place.
The Spindle
Basically just a straight stick about thumb thickness. Softwoods like pine and cedar are some of the best for spindles, well in my area of the world anyways. As for length I would say no shorter then 10inches. Mine was too short. You'll want to completely taper the one end to a point which will go into the bearing block. The friction end make it a blunt point. At first I was making 2 tapered ends and and I was not able to make proper dust or heat.
Bearing Block
I ended up just using a small chunk oh a small tree that was halved. Something you can grip nicely. Carve a hole with your knife for the tapered end of the spindle.
Fire Board
This need to be a dry softwood for it to work properly. I ended up using a piece of Western Red Cedar. You want the board to be long enough to be able to put a foot or knee on it. between 1 -2 inches thick.
Tinder Pile
You need to have a really good tinder pile on stand by ready for the ember you are going to create. I wasted an ember on one of my tries because I didn't make a good enough tinder pile.
All right so lets get to drilling out an ember! First things first cut a little round groove in you fire board. The first groove I made was way too close to the edge of the board so the spindle kept kicking off. Make it at least a thumbs with away from the edge. Alright time to grab your bow and spindle. I ended stringing my bow up with paracord because its something I always have with me. There are a variety of different knots you can use to attach the string. As for tension it's something you need to to figure out. Basically you want the spindle to have tension when twisted in place for spinning. But not too tight or its too hard to spin when it starts heating up. Once you have the tension figured out and the spindle is snapped in place start spinning the spindle. At this point all we are doing is burning in our spindle grove.
Once the spindle grove is burned in it's time to cut in the v notch that will hold your flammable dust and ember.
Time to start spinning. But first you want to place something , a piece of bark or small board under the notch to catch your ember.
Start will light pressure and moderate speed. You want to start creating dust but not go to fast and the burn it out. When you have a good pile of dust built out start putting a little bit more pressure and start heating it up. Smoke will start to rise but don't stop yet. Start going a little faster and do this for about 20 secs.
Put your bow down and check to see if your dust pile is smoldering. If it isn't go again. Now if you do have an ember at this point be happy but it's not yet time to relax. Move your fire board and allow the ember to simmer in the dust pile while slowly fanning the air with your hand. Grab your tinder pile and gently place the ember in it. Swing the pile of tinder in your arms back and forth a bit to slowly enter air into the tinder pile. Now slowly start blowing into the ember in the tinder pile. It should be getting hotter and hotter with every breath.
Then all of a sudden it's hot enough and BOOM!
We Have fire! With a little patience and gumption anyone can master this skill. It took me 4 days and a total of about 2.5 hours to get my first fire so don't be discouraged if it doesn't work right away. Thanks for reading! Watch my struggles and excitement when I was successful.
