Friction Fire

[Scallorn]

Just wanted to share something with y'all. For the past 5 years or so I've been fascinated by the art of making fires with primitive friction fire techniques. So naturally I began studying the methods of friction fire and eventually started trying it myself. I started out with the bow and drill method, as most people do when using friction fire. It took me a long time to learn all of the little details of wood type and condition of materials, and how to vary the pressure to create different types of dust. I failed more times than I could count and i gave up several times out of frustration. Sometimes I would go months at a time without trying again. But eventually I prevailed at creating that miraculous little ember. After becoming proficient at my bow and drill technique, I began the next challenge. The hand drill! It was another difficult task, but surprisingly it was not nearly as difficult as the bow and drill, because the details of wood selection and preparation are all the same.Over the years I've made made many fires with both methods in all types of weather and with many different materials. So nowadays I build all of my fires with a hand drill or bow and drill kit simply because I can. And I will never need to carry matches again anywhere I go.

[Pat B]

Friction fire is something I haven't given enough time to. How about sharing some of your techniques and materials. I'm sure, like myself others would like to know.

[Oglala Bowyer]

Re: Friction Fire
« Reply #1 on: Today at 06:31:42 am »
Quote
Friction fire is something I haven't given enough time to. How about sharing some of your techniques and materials. I'm sure, like myself others would like to know. 

+1

[Zuma]

Friction fire is something I haven't given enough time to. How about sharing some of your techniques and materials. I'm sure, like myself others would like to know.

X2

[Stringman]

I'm also interested in this thread, but don't stop at the coal. I have an equally hard time turning it into fire once the ember is created. So let's see some of yall tricks and tips!

I have dried flax stalks stored in my workshop that make an awesome tinder nest, but it's not always easy to find dry stuff in the wild that works consistently.

[Scallorn]

The best thing that I've found for tinder that even works when damp is dead cedar bark. You can just peel it off of a dead tree and shred it into fine fibers. That's my number one tinder. Another good alternative is to use dead cattail punk crushed up and then dead grass behind that. I've never used it but i hear dead thistle fluff works too. The key theme here is DEAD! It has to be as dead and dry as you can get it. If it's even the slightest bit green it'll have too much moisture and it won't work.

[JoJoDapyro]

Have you seen the cotton and charcoal method? Pretty sweet!

[Scallorn]

Yeah the cotton thing is pretty awesome but in my opinion not very practical or efficient. Wood choice is absolutely critical with friction fire too. With the bow and drill method you want the spindle and the hearth board to be of the same piece of wood if possible. Otherwise one will consume the other and not produce. Good choices for wood are softwoods, willow, sycamore, cottonwood, and cedar are a few good choices. You can find a lot of really good videos on YouTube for technique. Wood for the hand drill kit is just as specific. Horseweed, cattail stalks, willow shoots, and yucca stalks are all good spindle choices. the hearth board can be any of the listed softwoods. Technique with the hand drill is really pretty simple. You just have to be patient with it and have the strength and endurance to see it through to the end because it will wear your arms out 
There is only so much that can be said about the art of friction fire, the rest has to be learned by experience. So just get out there and try it!
Any other questions are welcome.

[mullet]

In the Deep South, Spanish Moss that is dried out is another good tinder. I also keep my saw dust when I cut fat pine, (lighter knot) and mix it with cat tail fluff. It goes up like you poured turpentine on it.

[Scallorn]

Yeah Mullet that sounds like a great combination. I bet a ferro rod would set it off in seconds too. I forgot to mention my favorite combination for hand drill kits. Dried yucca stalk spindle and dried willow hearth board. You can get an ember with that combo in a matter of seconds.

[Pat B]

Thanks Scallorn.
 This is a ferro stick with a fat lighter handle I made as part of my fire starting kit. Not quite friction fire but a good addition to any fire kit.

[Outbackbob48]

One of my favorites for hand drill is horseweed with a Rose of Sharon hearthboard, and for tinder certain birds nest work real good, can't be the rough sticky type , need to be real fine stuff.  I also like mullien, yucca  for spindles and pawpaw and white pine for hearth boards. I have a hard time getting enough down pressure so a little pine pitch on spindles helps alot Bob

[bubby]

I cut down a chinese tallow tree a while back how thick do i make the hearth board

[Outbackbob48]

Bubby, I try and make my hearth boards thickness the same as drill diameter . I like my hand drills pretty thin 3/8 or so and bowdrills 5/8 to 3/4. Bob

[Scallorn]

Yeah, what outbackbob said. The hand drill spindle needs to be about the diameter of your little finger, maybe a little smaller. The smaller the diameter of the spindle, the higher rpm's you can get, and thus more friction. I make mine about the size of my ring finger but that's only because I am using premium wood from my area and I've had enough practice that I can spin it allot. I don't know about Chinese tallow wood, but whatever wood you use has to be really soft. The way I've always tested it is to press my thumbnail into it. If you can leave a pretty good mark in it with your thumbnail it's about the right hardness.