Fire by Friction
If you were to ask a member of the public ways to
start a fire in the wilderness, 9 times out of 10 they’llreply with something along the lines of “rub two stickstogether”. This is indeed the
most basic form of firecreation, short of collecting fire from pyroclastic flowsor harnessing fire from lightening strikes. What the
majority of folk don’t understand is that these two
sticks need to be of the correct type of wood (usuallytwo used in conjunction) and must be seasonedprecisely - a few months too young or too old canmake the difference between success and failure!It is important to consider the most appropriatefriction fire-lighting method
with relation to what’s
around you and where you are. Due to the temperate weather that we have in this country, coupledwith indigenous woods that are found here the practice of the
Hand-drill
(spinning a long thinspindle of wood on a hearth board with the palms of ones hands) could, in many places, beimpractical. Hence in the Northern hemisphere one method was prevalent, being the most reliableand basic to learn
- The Bow-drill.The Bow-drill
is
comprised of four components; The(a)
spindle
, (b)
hearth board
, (c)
bearing block
and (d)
strung
bow.
The spindle as you can see from
figure 1
has a sharp end and a blunt end and is usually made from ahard wood. The hearth board has a socket with a notch carved out to receive the
blunt
end of theupright spindle and is generally made from a softer wood than the spindle. The bearing block has asmall socket carved into it to receive the
sharp
end of the spindle.
Figure 2Figure 1
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