Hand Drill Friction Fire Tips

[TheWoodedBeardsman]

Got it! Yup, after about 25 tries, I got it lol My home dried poplar branch did the trick on the first go. No doubt my mullein is total junk (you should see the video haha). But the hearth wasn't right. I think I was maybe using some off species, not even sure, but figured it was poplar but maybe it wasn't. Anyway, night and day difference. It made really good dust and caught and held the ember. I'm just airing out the rest of my series and will post up my saga. Long, but will help illustrate and newbie to ember approach! Hardest thing I've had to do thus far. Now I can work on becoming more reliable with it :)

[melbolt]

Probably the best instructional on this I have found yet and I've watched many many videos. I've succeeded at hand drill here and there but am not consistent even after probably a hundred attempts. I notice right away a couple of changes I want to try to apply from this video. thanks again.

[ShinyKnife]

Great video! Thanks for sharing! I hope your having a happy Thursday ;-) thumbs up 👍🏼

[survivorjohnny]

Thanks you for making this video public. I see several things I need to change.

[elzorrovo]

Tim my friend this video is awesome! I am so glad that you made it! This video will surely help anyone who is interested in learning the hand drill method of friction fire making!
I will like to add a few things too! Like how important a really good hand drill set is when you are learning. I remember years ago before You Tube while i was teaching my self the hand drill. The many difficulty's that i had while teaching my self the skill. I would practice till the spindle would be bloody from all the blisters that I had on my hands and the pain that I went through each night trying to sleep because of the painful sores and blisters!
Then one day I came to the conclusion that it was not my hand drilling that was the problem that the material that I was using was the problem. So someone that I knew mail me a good hand drill set from Arizona and as soon as I took it out of the package and I try it out withing a few seconds i had a large coal! LOL
Grip is also very important and Pine sap works great with grip and thanks to crunksnuk I learn about beeswax that stuff is fantastic for grip also!
I have been very fortunate through out the years and had the opportunity to speak to three anthropologist that had study the Amazon Indians, the South African Bushman, the African Pygmies and Australia Aborigines and they all use the hand drill to start their fires and they are very protective of their hand drill sets and always make sure to keep them dry.
Hope some one finds this information helpful.
Tim my friend thank you for taking the time to make this outstanding video!
Alberto

[WillyGonka]

Excellent pointers! Thanks for the upload!

[madisonciowa]

That was really interesting and helpful. I never really knew if the hole went all the way through to the other side or not, lol. The close up really helped. I think you should sell those sets so lazy people like me dont have to make them ourselves. LOL :-) Another excellent video.

[WAGONJON]

great demo!! thanks for the additional info!!

[NathansFerroceriumrods]

Good tutorial. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[SamnangThong]

Awesome tutorial and thanks for sharing knowledge. :-) 3

[billyjoedenny]

I'm listening brother, very good info. i have been looking for a good spindal and harth.
..bill

[TheWoodedBeardsman]

How long would you guess that you need to run after seeing good smoke? I did some reviews on a variety of videos and it looks like 20-45 seconds after getting good smoke (with notch cut and a good dust pile) is enough to get the ember up on it's own? Does that sound like a good estimate? I know it can't be boiled down to that in all cases, but I find myself stopping too early just to see if it's working properly. I can count out 20-45 and then recheck, but I don't want to lose all my heat and stop too early. With the bow drill I usually just keep hammering it until I'm sure, but is it possible to drowned out the ember by going too much or can I just blast it to stay on the safe side? With more experience, I supposed I will know when enough is enough! What's a good way to know if the ember is going on it's own? I see lots of smoke, but a lot of it seems to be coming from the spindle base rather than from inside the ember. I'm getting there with my new poplar hearth!

[hobbexp]

haha you still did floating motions with your hands, :)