A Willow Hand Drill, A Box Elder Hearth Board And A Little Modern Chemistry

   Although this is not your usual bushcraft idea for starting a fire, it does involve at first creating a hearth board with a good sized divot and a suitable sized hand drill that will roll easily between your hands and produce a little friction.
   By adding to this fire making solution a little modern chemistry, you can get fire relatively easily.
   Potassium Permanganate is the prime ingredient added to the hand drill and hearth board combination, along with some common sugar that might be part of any bushcraft or survival kit.
   Potassium Permanganate is a controlled substance in some countries, I believe that Canada is one of them, but here in the United States it can be purchased in bulk at any Lowes, Home Depot or Menards store in the section where water treatment supplies are stored.
   It is commonly used in the treatment of water as a de-ironing agent and for treating water in hot tubs, aquariums and pools and backyard ponds. It is used to combat algae growth and bacterial growth.
   It is commonly found in larger first aid kits and when mixed in the right ratios can act as a wound wash, although there is a lot of information out now that says this should no longer be used and to seek alternatives.
   Some people will have a small amount of potassium permanganate in their survival bag or kit, to use as a water purifier, wound wash and trace maker (if mixed in high enough concentrations it will write a message in the snow in purple).
   Although there are several risks with any chemical, having an awareness of the possibilities of its use in the event of an emergency, can give you just one more thing to try, if you need to make fire.
   So here is a video of my little experiment in mixing a little bushcraft with a little modern chemistry.

   I do not always carry potassium permanganate in my kit, but having used it a few times over the years, it does give a good emergency option. I hope you enjoyed the video and thank you for watching. Until next time, Happy Exploring.

A Bow Drill Fire... An Emberlit Stove... And Nettle Soup...

   Wow, is it June already? I guess I came up short on my blog postings for the month of May, but it was not for lack of adventure. On the contrary, I have been busy with traveling and vacation time and doing some bushcrafting and camping out in Wyoming and Nebraska respectively.
   I will try to finish up my video of the adventure I had in Wyoming and share that with you all a little later this month.
   After finally getting back to work, and getting back to a more regular schedule of things, I was able to get out to my usual wilderness area for a Saturday morning meetup. After waiting around for about thirty minutes for any other BushcraftUSA members to show, I decided to strike out on my own.
  I hiked out about a half mile and decided that on this day, I was going to go with practicing a bow drill fire, get something going in my Emberlit Stove and then try to make use of all stinging nettle that was making its way into the sandy soils that define the river flood plain where I was at.
   Though I do enjoy practicing bow drill and friction fire methods, I have not really ever focused on the process for the sake of making video, but on this outing I decided to make an exception and tried to show the process I go through.
   I had only my SAK Farmer for wood prep, which made it a little more difficult to "baton" the larger pieces, but it was not impossible and with a little care I got it done.
   So here is the video I would like to share of my adventure and I hope you enjoy it.

 

 

    Well, I hope that this will peak your interest in going out and trying to make a bow drill fire and to not just do it to get a flame, but to actually use it to cook something or boil water or craft something. So many times I see my fellow bushcrafters practice to get fire with their respective bow drills and spindles only to just put the fire out and never use it. That is all fine and dandy, when it comes to practicing, but it is even more fun when you realized that the fire you made for making lunch came out of your pocket knife and your boot lace. Until next time, Happy Exploring.

Tried A Bowdrill In The Snow

   Yes, sometimes, you just have to give it a try. You get this idea, it seems possible, everything is in place, it all seems just right. Then you go ahead with the plan and WALLA! it fails. Okay, so it was not really a failure. But it felt like it was.
   I've had many a bow drill fire attempt failure in my time and it always leaves me wondering why? For that reason, if I learned anything by it, it is not really a failure, just a different kind of succeeding.
   I will admit that this last Saturday, conditions were not at their best. In fact, the temperature was hovering around 8°F with a wind chill factor bringing it down to -10°F. Needless to say, this was working to quench any creative muse I might of had.
   I so wanted to make a nice video, work at using my new knife, maybe get an ember from the newly made bow drill set made from materials on site, or get a set of curls with the new blade and set them on fire with my gloved hands and my fire steel. But it seemed like everything was working against me.
  Just one day before, it was 37°F and it rained all day on Friday. So I figured that any wood that was exposed to such conditions, if laying even a little sideways, rather then standing straight up, would be a challenge to get to work as a bow drill spindle or hearth board.
  With all the time I have spent recently, practicing firecraft in my little woodlands, I have discovered that if conditions go from rainy to snowy and then to freezing and back again, any wood you find may feel dry in its frozen state, but will be moist or damp or wet once it begins to thaw.
   To attempt a bow drill fire in these conditions demands the driest wood you can find. Spindles made from the deepest parts of the stock and then means batoning to the heartwood of dead standing and thick trees.
   On this day, I did not take the time to find such materials. I will the next time. I am determined to get a bow drill fire going in the snow, but it will be a large challenge knowing the conditions.
   In the end, what made for a good adventure anyway, was the sudden appearance of my friend "Steene", a Minnesota member of BushcraftUSA. He showed up about an hour and a half after the usual meeting time and found me practicing at trying to light some shavings and curls with my firesteel, without taking my gloves off.
   We had time for a short trip and fire and a hot brew and in the end, after the wind chill had gotten the best of us, we called it a day and headed back.
   Here is the video of my Saturday adventure, half of it solo and the other half enjoying it with a good friend.

   I have to say, that after my friend Wade showed up, I started to find my creative muse and I did finally come away with another adventure and a good time. Thanks Wade. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
   

On Bushcraft and Strangers... Part II

   Now normally I am pretty cautious and on this day, even more so, since I was already in the company of two people I just met. At this point I did not even know their names. And now we were about to go into an even more unknown situation. Looked like a time to be real friendly.
   As the three of us approached the three young men, I noticed right away that they all had commercially made blow dart guns leaning against the trees. One of the guys was wearing OD green and muted natural colors and the other two wore blue jeans and a mix of "hunting" type garments, but not a lot of camo.
   I asked right away if they were "bushcrafters" and if they were out just practicing skills. They said almost in unison that they were not really bushcrafters, but were out for the morning to cook up a couple pounds of bacon and to maybe try to bring down some small game with their blow dart guns and to use their small game licenses. They wanted to kill some small game, dress it and prepare it for a meal right in the field. One of the guys said that he had seen almost every survival show on television and that he and his wife and family were thinking of moving to Alaska to try homesteading. He had watched a lot of Yukon Men on the Discovery channel along with Alaskan Frontier and all the Dual Survival shows.
   After a few interesting moments of getting acquainted, they asked if we would like to see a demonstration of their blow gun prowess. We said sure and one of the guys succeeded in putting several darts in a small group about 10 yards away. I was impressed. I could see why they wanted to see if they could bring down some small game. They mentioned that most of the small game they saw so far, seemed to scatter anytime they tried to move up on it. They would continue to practice.
   They had a pretty good fire going by now and the fry pan was on. They started on the first pound of bacon and invited us to have a few other breakfast treat items. They seemed like pretty good fellows and were family guys and were out to just have an adventure. I could not fault them for that, though I did inform them that they were still on state park property and would have to get a lot closer to the river for that to change.
   Of course, once the subject of survival TV shows and the like came up, I steered the conversation towards bushcraft. Since they had a fire going, we naturally got onto the subject of methods of making fire. I offered to demonstrate the use of the bow drill to start a fire by friction and quickly set to working finding the pieces I needed near by. It wasn't long and I had a spindle carved and a hearth board made and was starting to hunt for what I would need for a bow. Soon I had all the pieces together and set to work making the first burn in divot.
   One of the young men was very interested in the process and asked if he could take some video with his phone for reference later. I said I didn't mind and started to explain the process a little more for the camera.
   Well the burn-in revealed what I suspected was going wrong and that was that I was not getting any good black dust, but rather a brown and cooler dust then I had anticipated. I suspected some moisture, but went ahead and cut my notch and tried again to coax an ember out of the spindle and hearth board I had made.
   Failure. Sometimes that happens. It started to smoke, but would not cherry up. I could tell from the squeaking sound it made as I spun it up, that the hearth board was just a little moist. But the spindle looked good, so I would have to try a different hearth board. I found one, carved it up nice with my knife and set work. But now the pressure was on, and all eyes were watching. Could I really get this to work? Will the hearth board be dry enough this time? Will I succeed in even getting the tinder to work, after I get a coal?

   Read more about this adventure with strangers in Part III... Happy Exploring.
  

For Friction Fire Tuesday...

   Well, as it was Friction Fire Tuesday at BushcraftUSA, I decided to join in the fun and try my hand at it. More specifically, I wanted to try a wood combination that has been giving me trouble for quite awhile. So today it was Norway Maple on Norway Maple.

   To preface this, I would like to go back to the Hardwoodsman Meet 2012 that I had the privilege to attend back in April. Before the meet, I looked upon friction fire methods as something to know and to try occasionally, and I did have successes over the years, but it was nothing that I would "practice" on a regular basis. It was just "back pocket" kind of knowledge and more like an occasional party trick to pull out on a camping trip with friends.

   But at the HWM, I learned that it was something to be practiced, and studied and favored as one of the best and most advanced of skills you could learn as a bushcrafter. My eyes were open. I was hooked.

   On Thursday night, just before the Meet started on Friday, two guys came by my tent as I attempted to try a hand drill fire with a piece of mullein I had harvested and a piece of box elder for a hearth board.

   One of the guys, if I remember correctly was "Scooter" who I later would learn, would be the winner of the skills competitions for the Meet. The other guy was Ross or aka "Redmech", who I would later learn, was a friction fire wizard in his own right and had been studying friction fire methods almost exclusively since the last Hardwoodsman Meet in 2011. These two brothers, stopped long enough to help me get some finger loops fashioned and attached to my hand drill spindle. In the end, they helped me to succeed in getting an ember. Whoo Hoo!!

   I later discovered Ross had a great collection of wood types for spindles and hearth boards, all organized in what I think was a couple of large cases that made moving it all around, easy to setup, and to practice a great number of combinations. He showed me that organization was key to building a good practice  set. So from this, I started to label all my wood types. I am still looking for a case like his. I think it was something for storing a compound bow perhaps? Maybe a large gun or rifle case? I am not sure. Long, flat, wide. Something.

    Anyway, back to Friction Fire Tuesday. I just had to have some fun and got this video in the process.

   Before I wrap this up I would just like to say, "Where has the month of July gone?" Here it is, July 13th or rather Friday the 13th, my lucky day! and this is my first posting for the blog this month.  I have been really busy with lots of bushcraft adventures, I just need to stop long enough to just share it all with you, my friends.
Hopefully I can get some more video taken about some upcoming adventures. I will be meeting with some bushcraft friends soon to help them with bushclass lessons and I know that will be fun. Also, there will be more fun with friction fire. Until then, Happy Exploring and remember to get out and get dirty.

Failed Bowdrill Friction Fire

   Okay, so sometimes things just do not go as planned. Practice anything long enough and you will discover how many times you fail. You can not get good at anything without practice.
   Many years ago, a preacher friend of mine would tell this simple story. He had a friend who could sit down at the piano and play just about anything you put in front of him music-wise. He could play all the tunes and all the classics. He could even improvise for jazz, the blues, rock and any different venue. Then my preacher friend would say, "How do you suppose he had the freedom to play just anything he wanted?" It always came back to the same answer, lots and lots of practice and the learning of all the fundamentals. Personal discipline focused on the goal of learning everything he could about playing piano had given him the freedom to do what he wanted to do.
   Now flash forward in time to me, struggling today to get a bowdrill fire going. I know all the fundamentals, I practice friction fire methods all the time. As of late, I have been practicing almost everyday. I am almost addicted to making fire by friction. It is so primitive and yet feels so right. Yet, I know that I cannot get better at it without testing myself over and over again with different kinds of wood in different situations. I need to challenge myself with friction fire all the time to find the freedom to make it work more consistently. I am trying to build a collection of experiences both successful and failures, to teach me what works and when.
   Every friction fire attempt is different. Some days, the combination of woods fails utterly and then a couple of days later, you will get success almost immediately with the same combination.
   So earlier this month I attempted to challenge myself with making a bowdrill friction fire constructed from one single piece of dead standing willow I found along the trail. The only thing I allowed myself was one knife, one rope and my bearing block. The rest had to come from that one piece of willow. I fashioned my spindle, my hearth board and my bow and set to work, trying for an ember.
   So here is the attempt.

   I don't think I failed completely, because out of this I learned that my choice of cordage makes a big difference under certain conditions. The failure raised more questions for me, that I will have to explore yet in another outing, trying to do the same thing, the "One Stick Challenge."
   So until the next time, I will keep practicing and hope that this will encourage you to not give up on any friction fire challenge you set for yourself. It is truly a big part of the bushcraft adventure and well worth mastering. Until then, Happy Exploring.

Fire by Friction

   One of the most primitive bushcraft skills is being able to make fire by friction. Most would call it rubbing two sticks together. Many believe that every boy scout or girl scout learns to make fire in this fashion. But the truth is, fire by friction is one of the most difficult things to get right, and it is a very select few that ever get the hang of it. I believe it is still something worth chasing if you have never done it before and something that you need to continue practicing once you do figure it out. I enjoy trying out many different types of wood and materials for the spindle and the hearth board. One of my favorite setups is using willow for a spindle and box elder or cottonwood or aspen for the hearth board. Pairing willow with any of these three gets me a successful ember nearly every time. But what about the rest of the parts? Are there any other tips to finding the right kinds of wood? More after the jump.