In this episode, we take a deep dive into the ancient art of starting fire with a bow drill, covering every detail from selecting the right wood to achieving a successful ember. Whether you're new to friction fire or looking to refine your skills, this guide walks you through the process, troubleshooting, and techniques for mastering primitive fire-making.
Episode Highlights:
Listener Call to Action:
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to the Primitive
Camping in Bushcraft Podcast.
My name's Chris Speir,
and I'm gonna be your guide
to enjoying the great outdoors.
So today is gonna be
relatively different than typical.
We're gonna be
talking about the bow drill.
And I'm gonna try to
do my best to go ahead
and describe what and how to build
and put together a bow drill for your use
in the great outdoors.
And all this, I'm
gonna try to describe it
as I'm reading it from
these pages on this podcast.
So, you know, we're gonna try to do
a very vividly, vivid, vividly,
(laughs)
try to do a very vivid imagery here
because I'm trying to describe it.
For those of you watching the video,
it's gonna be one way
where you can actually see
what I'm talking about.
But for those that are
not watching the video
and are actually truly listening to the
quote unquote podcast,
you know, it's gonna be different.
So we're going to try to vividly describe
the imagery of what we're using here.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna be taking everything
strictly from the book today
and we're gonna be
talking straight from the pages.
And I'll read a little bit,
we'll discuss a little bit,
and read a little bit,
we'll discuss a little bit.
And I'll give you my tips
and tricks and techniques
of what I've done in the
past and what works for me.
Now, notice that not everything,
what I said is that what works for me.
With my book, with my podcast, with
everything that I do,
all the videos that I
outline and that I put out,
I typically do that on the
basis of this works for me.
This is not the end all
be all how to get everybody
on board to doing it.
It works for me and it's
what I've used to work.
If I demonstrate a
tactic or some kind of skill,
it's because that is the
way that I have practiced it
or that is the way that I learned it
or that is the way that I use it
or that is how I have
adapted it to work for me.
A lot of people, what I
find in it, a lot of stuff
is that people are
extremely vulgar, rude,
and non-understanding their, you know,
I hate using the word tolerant
because I think
that's a bunch of garbage,
but people are non,
what's the word I'm trying to look for?
Anyway, but people are rude,
and especially in the world of online,
once you get into the online arena,
every single person is
a armchair quarterback.
Everybody knows all the survival skills,
everybody knows all
the bushcrafting skills,
and it's easy for these folks to be like,
yes, I am a bushcrafter with
so many years of experience
and blah, blah, blah,
you did this incorrectly,
you're an idiot, and they
go straight to name calling.
And we're seeing that now
even with political posts
and politics and stuff like that,
that our country and our
world has shifted so far
from center to, you know,
they got the opposite
extremes on each side.
And, you know, ultimately
neither one of them is correct,
neither one of them is right.
And, you know, you
shouldn't put down on somebody else
just because you disagree with them.
You should be able to have a
conversation with somebody,
even though you disagree
with them about a tactic
or something that they did.
But anyway, that's
neither here nor there,
we're moving right along.
So typically when people
think about starting a fire
with natural materials,
they picture rubbing two sticks together.
And this has been indicative
of fire starting for years.
People believe that when
it comes to starting a fire,
that rubbing two sticks
together is what starts fire.
The friction is what starts the fire,
not the act of rubbing
the two sticks together.
So whether they know it or not,
the method that they're thinking of
is most commonly known as the bow drill,
where you're taking
one stick with the bow
and you're moving
that stick back and forth
and you're causing it to drill into a
hole to create dust,
which generates heat, which
creates an ember or a coal.
And once you know how to
put everything all together,
a bow drill set, it takes
a little bit of practice,
you know, it takes
actually a good bit of practice,
but it will allow you
to start you a fire.
Now, a lot of conditions apply, you know.
I know you've heard of the
commercials where it's like,
I know you've seen or
heard these commercials
talking about how some conditions apply.
(laughs)
So it is the same
situation with the bow drill.
Some conditions do apply.
And let's talk about
some of those conditions.
So first of all, you
could put the most beautiful
bow drill system
together and it'd be amazing.
Like, you're like, dude,
this is gonna start me a good old fire.
And it is top notch.
It is, you know, everything's good to go.
You split you a nice little hearth board.
You made your notches, you
did, you know, your sockets,
you made your spindle, your
handle, you know, your bow,
and you put
everything together perfectly.
And then whenever you got
out there, it didn't work.
It was the wrong kind
of wood that you used,
or the humidity was extremely high.
So high that you couldn't get a fire.
I have actually had
extremely high humidity
here in South Mississippi to where
you couldn't get a bow drill to work.
You could not get a bow drill to work.
I have had a bow drill
here in South Mississippi
in the middle of the summertime
when it is 98% humidity outside,
that it took me three
hours to get an ember.
I mean, it took three hours.
And that's crazy.
And that's a lot of exercise.
And that was doing it correctly,
doing it the way it's
supposed to be done.
It took three hours
because the humidity was so high.
Everything in the woods can be saturated.
All your wood can be wet.
All your tinder's gonna be kind of damp.
And all these factors brought together
make for a hard time
starting a fire with a bow drill.
So what is a bow drill?
Now for all the individuals,
if you're watching this podcast
and you've been into the
great outdoors for a long time,
you know what a bow drill is.
I have no doubt that people do understand
what bow drills are and what they're for.
But there are gonna be the individuals
that do not know what a bow drill is
and what the components of
it are and how it's made.
And so we're going to
start with that aspect
of someone that does not
know what a bow drill is.
Now, a bow drill is
made up of four parts.
It's got the hearth
board, the bearing block,
the spindle or the
drill, and then the bow.
And you wanna make the
hearth board and spindle
from the same type of softwood.
The bearing block can be made out of
hardwood or fatwood.
And fatwood is a resinous
wood filled with pine sap
and it's typically used to start fires.
So it is ideal for
this because it heats up.
It's actually gonna
lubricate a little bit.
It'll lubricate itself
and cause you to be able
to freely spin the spindle.
And then the bow could be made
from any type of wood that you wish.
So we're gonna find the materials
and looking for the materials,
what I look for here
in South Mississippi.
There's several
different variations of woods
that you can use in South Mississippi.
This is not all over the world.
This is not everywhere, but the ideas
and the principles are the same.
So what ideas and principles I use to
locate my woods here
in South Mississippi
will still work for you
in the Southwest.
It'll work for you in the Northeast.
It'll work for you in
Canada or anywhere in the world.
With a bow drill, to find the right wood,
use your knife and
scrape off a little bit
of the bark from a piece of wood.
Now, if you can take that shaved area
and you could press your thumbnail into
that wood pretty hard
and then whenever you're done,
it leaves an indention of
your thumbnail in that wood.
That wood is typically
okay to use for a bow drill.
Now, if it only leaves
a shallow indentation,
then you found hardwood.
And that's gonna be, you know,
which is, it still will
work for your bearing block,
but it's not gonna be
good for your spindle
or your hearth board.
I usually look for standing dead trees
because the wood is
generally more durable
than the fallen down branches,
which they're usually
more prone to rotten.
They've been sitting there a while,
get rained on, you know, stuff like that.
Standing dead stuff is
not gonna be as rotten.
I love using Chinese privet.
Privet trees are hard,
they're extremely durable,
but they're also a softwood
and they actually make a very good,
a very, very good bow drill.
And privet trees are plentiful.
They grow back, you cannot kill them.
They're extremely invasive.
They kill all, so true story.
I have used privet to cut down.
Anytime I do a
demonstration of any kind of wood
or anything making stuff in the woods,
I'll cut down a privet tree.
And the reason why is
because it's a hardwood,
it's a softwood, but
it's hard enough to use
for many different tools and tasks.
Make tripods, beds, I mean,
I made all kinds of stuff with it, bows,
you know, stuff like that.
But here's the thing
about the privet tree
is that you can cut it down
and then the next
spring where you cut it down,
there's gonna be 13
different stalks of a new tree.
I promise you, it is so
invasive and it grows so fast.
And it will, when I was growing up,
it was called the switch tree.
That's where we went out,
we got a piece of switch
and mama tore our behinds up with it.
And if we got trouble, she's like,
you go to the switch tree
and get me a switch right now.
And then they go out
there, oh, we come back
with this big long piece of privet
and she'd use it to whip our tails.
But the Chinese privet, our privet,
is an extremely invasive tree.
It really, I don't even know what it's
really used for here
in these states other than decoration.
I believe it was like a yard tree
or something to do for landscaping
or something to that effect.
But other than that, I
really don't see why.
But I like finding a piece of this privet
and I'll take that privet and I'll cut it
and I'll cut a nice
little chunk out of it
and I'll make my
hearth board out of this,
about this big round, split it,
make your board about a
half inch thick or so,
and then you're good.
So you wanna find you a branch or stick
that is slightly larger, two inches
or slightly larger in diameter.
Now with your knife or
saw, cut it so about,
it's the length of your forearm,
they all bowed to fingertips.
So we're talking about from here to here,
about that far.
And then use a knife to
cut it through and split it.
You wanna split it
straight down about an inch thick.
Then use a mallet or a
branch to hammer your knife
through the length of the wood.
This method is called batoning.
And so you're gonna baton you,
essentially you're
making a piece of lumber
and I've had people accuse me of,
yeah, all right, how am I gonna find
a piece of plain lumber in the woods?
Well, if you do it right, you can make
lumber in the woods.
People are so,
oh, try me the same.
So you're gonna do the
same thing for both sides.
You're gonna use your knife,
you're gonna shave the
board down on both sides
and make it nice and flat.
It should now resemble a piece of lumber.
Something that you could
get from a lumber store.
It's gonna look like a
board, surprise, surprise.
Now, from there we're
gonna move on to the spindle.
Select a branch from the tree,
the same tree that you
got your hearth board from.
You want this branch to be of
dead wood, not of green wood.
And it's gonna be roughly
eight to 12 inches long.
Right?
Now, a common method for
finding a good spindle length
is open your hand.
So from the tip of this
finger to the tip of this thumb.
That is typically a good spindle length
that you can use to make a spindle.
Some people do real long ones,
some people do real big fat ones,
some people do, you
know, it doesn't matter
whatever you're comfortable with,
whatever you wanna try, whatever you
wanna practice with,
go ahead and do that.
Using your knife, shave off all the bark
and smooth out any knots and bumps.
Once completed, it
should look like a short,
fat dowel rod on one end
and then carve the point on
the other end like a pencil.
And so it's gonna look
like a pencil and an eraser.
Now, we have that done.
We're gonna round off
the end like an eraser.
That's gonna be the end
that's gonna fit into your socket.
Now, let's go ahead and select us a bow.
Now, the bow is not
very difficult at all.
For the bow, you need a
strong stick slightly thicker
than your thumbs diameter.
So a little bit bigger
round than your thumb, you know,
that way it doesn't really kink up
whenever you're going back
and forth or anything like that.
And then I prefer a green
sapling as a lot of people do.
And often, like I said
before, I use Chinese privet.
Chinese privet to me,
I can build every aspect of the bow drill
from the Chinese privet.
I can use the bearing block.
I can use the hearth board.
I can use the spindle
and I can make the bow.
Everything out of that one tree,
I can make all four pieces of this.
So I prefer to use a
green sapling, you know,
of Chinese privet, which is
plentiful in South Mississippi
and it grows in nature everywhere.
And they actually
naturally grow in arches.
And so you could do this as a bow.
You know, a bow for your bow drill
doesn't have to have a bow, you know,
it'll work as a straight
stick as well, you know.
But some primitive campers
prefer to use a straight stick,
but I always like to
have a slight curve in mine.
When I use a straight stick,
my hands sometimes hit
the spindle, my knuckles do,
and so anyway.
The length of your bow should be
approximately three feet
or at least one arm's length, you know,
from here to, you know, from the shoulder
all the way out to
your tip of your fingers.
And which you can
determine by measuring the distance
from the top of your
shoulder to your fingertips.
Use paracord or a
tarred and twisted bank line
as your bow string.
I typically, and if
you've watched this video
for a long time, if
you've watched any of them,
if you read my book, if
you've watched my podcast,
if you've watched any
of my videos on YouTube,
you will know that I typically use
the tarred and twisted bank line.
It is one of the most bang for the buck.
And, you know, I have
an individual, Mr. Armin,
he has been really
contributing to the Facebook page.
He's really been
contributing to the community.
And he's really took to this book
and he has been putting
aspects of this book together
and demonstrating it and
going out and filming it
and really been working with this.
And actually I talked
to him the other day,
I was like, "Hey, I need
to get you on the podcast."
So I'm gonna be
arranging that eventually.
And starting getting
individuals from the Primitive Camping
and Bushcraft community on Facebook
to actually start coming on
and talking about Primitive
Camping with me on this podcast.
So what I like to do with my bow string,
and this, some people are like,
"Nah, you can't do that."
And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, you can."
So what I've done with my bow string
is I will take the end of my bow
and I will cut about an inch deep slot
all the way down into
the bow with my saw.
And I'll cut it.
And then on the other
side, I'll do the same thing.
Now I will take my bank
line, I'll put a overhand knot,
slide it in there on one end,
and then I'll wrap it around my spindle.
Two times, I'll wrap it around twice.
And then I will measure
it out on there to where,
okay, now I come
down, I'll put me a knot,
and then I slide it back on there
and then feed it through at the top.
And now my spindle will be
held securely tight in the middle
and I will have made my bow.
Now, once that spindle's not in there,
the bow string's gonna be
relatively loose, you know?
But that works for me.
I've done it countless times.
I've done this, I've
done it so many times.
I've demonstrated how to
do it for certain TV shows.
But you can do the
same thing on both ends.
You put your knot in.
If you haven't checked,
I'll see if I can put some photos up
while I'm talking about these in here.
I don't know, but we'll see.
So now that you got your spindle,
you got your hearth board,
and you got your bow done,
it's time to mate the
bearing block, all right?
So for the bearing block,
we're gonna use green hardwood
or we're gonna use resinous fatwood.
Resinous fatwood, as
I demonstrated earlier
or discussed earlier,
is a way of actually
self-lubricating as it heats up
that resin will actually lubricate,
turns more into an oil the hotter it gets
and will actually lubricate.
I've watched people use
green wood, the green wood,
the moisture in there
tends to cool the spindle down
and cause it to lubricate.
I've watched people actually spit in it.
I've seen people put
green leaves in there
to use as a lubricant.
But you could also use a stone
or a piece of metal.
This rock right here,
I tried drilling a
little hole right there.
I didn't wanna crack it or anything.
It had a natural divot there,
but I wanted to make
it a little bit bigger.
And that's actually all you
need is a little small divot.
And you can actually,
(imitates
divot and a little bit better
than some of other methods.
This one has a nice
little thing right there,
little hole right there.
But the more you use it,
the more it'll sand out.
But you can use a rock
with a divot as your hole.
Now, there are nice knifes out there
that will actually do
what we're talking about.
These dudes are in the handle.
They have a, in the micarta handle,
they have a divot in the handle.
And that divot is
actually used for making
these bow drills go back and
forth and for your spindles.
So now for the bearing block,
use green wood, resinous
fat wood, blah, blah, blah.
Your bearing block should
be the width of your hand
and roughly the same
diameter as the stick you found
for the hearth board.
Who knows if you
can't tell with my voice,
I'm getting over being sick
and this has been driving me nuts.
All you need to do is
split it down the center
and use your knife to create a divot
in the center of the stick.
And so those are there.
Now, I'll give you a piece of advice.
In the book, I know I put center.
And I'm not sure if
that was an editing mistake
or if it was a mistake on my part,
putting it in there.
I usually do it on the second third.
So you want that bearing
block to be two thirds of the way,
not completely cut in center.
So you got your stick right here.
You don't wanna cut it
straight down the middle right there.
You wanna cut it two
thirds of the way right there,
giving you more
material on the handheld side
for you not to burn your hand.
All right, so now, now it's time to
prepare your hearth board.
Now let's place your spindle on the point
where you want to make your socket.
Twist it a few times to leave an
impression in the board.
You gotta remember this is soft wood,
so it's gonna leave an impression
where you move that socket or,
your spindle.
Now the socket should be slightly off
center from the board
and approximately a half inch
to three quarters of an inch
from the edge of the board.
So using this as the board,
you're gonna be like right here.
You're not going to,
you're not gonna wanna be all the way
in the middle of the board
because then you have to make
notches and stuff like that.
And we'll get into that in a bit.
It does not have to have a huge hole,
but rather a nice seat
for the spindle to sit in.
Now what we're gonna do
is we're gonna burn it in
where you are going to,
that's what it's
called the burn in process.
Now it's time to process,
for the process known as burn in.
You will need something under the board
to capture all the dust placed.
And it's called a cold catch.
Now I typically use a leaf,
but you can use bark or anything else.
You have handy.
And I don't understand that's
an editing issue right there.
Wrap the bow string around the spindle,
carefully lay the spindle against the
string and twist it.
And until it wraps around the spindle.
Now once, place one foot
on top of the hearth board.
And this is to hold it steady.
Now with your bearing block in hand,
place the spindle in the hearth board
and then start moving it back and forth.
Add slightly downward
pressure to the spindle
via the bearing block
and begin to move the bow back and forth.
The goal is to mate the
spindle to the socket.
So you're gonna slowly
and steadily add pressure
as you move the bow string back and forth
until you start to see smoke.
And you're gonna keep
going back and forth,
back and forth, back and
forth, till you see smoke.
And once you start seeing smoke,
then you have completely
burnt in your bow drill.
So we're gonna take the hearth board
and we're gonna cut a
notch in the shape of a V.
This notch will extend from
the outer edge of the board
to nearly an eighth of
an inch inside the divot
that we just burned in.
So we don't want it to go
all the way to the center.
We want it to collect the dust
and fill that notch up with the dust.
And then as it keeps
coming back and forth,
it is actually gonna heat up that dust
and that dust is what
actually generates the fire,
it generates the ember.
So flip the board over
and we're gonna carve a V into it.
All right, so we got this.
Take the hearth board,
cut out a notch in the shape of a V.
This notch will
extend from the outer edge
to about an eighth of
an inch into the divot.
This step can be done with a knife,
but it's much easier to
do with a folding saw.
That's one of the reasons
why I have a Leatherman with me
and I'm able to cut a
notch into that board.
So now we're gonna flip the board over
and we're gonna carve an angle
onto the bottom portion of the notch.
We're gonna cut a little bit slight angle
and get rid of that 90 degree
and make it more of like a 45
all the way back to the back of that V.
Doing this allows more
oxygen to reach the ember
once it starts combusting.
So, here we go.
Place your foot close to the socket.
That's gonna add stability.
And we're gonna do repeat the process
just like we would
for the burn in portion.
We're gonna insert the
spindle into the socket
and we're gonna place
the bearing block on top.
Lean forward
and you're going to lock that handle,
that hand hold to your shin.
You're gonna slowly and
steadily start moving the bow,
applying steady
downward pressure, all right?
If the string is slipping,
you're adding too much pressure.
Slow, slow down, slowly
move the bow back and forth
until the V notch is filled with dust.
You're gonna just slowly,
this time you're just taking your time,
you're just filling the hole with dust,
you're not trying to make smoke,
you're not trying to do anything,
this is you're just taking
your dear Jesus time on this
and you're allowing this V
notch to fill up with dust.
And then, once it
starts filling up with dust
and you start seeing
dust fill up in that hole
and you'll see it and as it
turns and turns and turns,
it'll start filling up,
fill it up, fill it up,
fill it up and you'll see it.
It's unmistakable.
But once you get that
thing all the way filled up,
then it is time and
then it'll start compacting
that stuff down and
once it starts compacting
that stuff down, then it
is time to start hammering
down on it, then you're gonna
start going faster and faster,
adding a little bit of pressure as you go
and you're gonna keep
going back and forth
and back and forth.
If you're gonna see
smoke, you just keep on going
and you just keep going and keep going
and keep going and keep going.
Now, don't stop until you
see a steady stream of smoke
coming from the pile
of dust in the V notch.
All right, once you see
the steady stream of smoke
coming from it, kind of like a cigarette
or kind of like a incense
or something to that effect,
at that point, your
ember should be smoking
a pretty good bit slowly and
gently tilt the hearth board
and tap the ember and the dust out.
This will allow, you'll see the ember
glowing bright orange
at this point.
Grab your tinder bundle, take your time,
it's not going anywhere, you
don't have to rush anything.
It is, as long as it's
protected from the rain or water,
it is pretty much good to go.
Grab your tinder bundle,
carefully transfer the ember
into your tinder bundle.
This is the most critical
point because a lot of people
don't have it tight enough
and whenever they flip it,
that ember just goes poof and it just,
a million different
pieces and it goes out
and they have to start over.
Raise your bundle and blow
into the ember slow and steady.
Blowing slowly will
allow the coal to grow hotter
as you start to see some more smoke.
More smoke gradually
blow harder to feed the coal
plenty of oxygen, allowing
it to rupture into flames.
When you start your fire outdoors,
especially during primitive methods,
it is the most
gratifying and satisfying thing.
And once you do a bow
drill for the first time,
and I'm not gonna exaggerate,
the first time is the most difficult,
but once you do a bow
drill for the first time
in the great outdoors,
your confidence of the great outdoors
will be extremely boosted.
Now, here's the difference.
Boost your confidence in the outdoors.
Don't over exaggerate your confidence
in the great outdoors.
Just because you started a bow drill fire
doesn't mean that you
are now a trained assassin
and you are ready for your first mission.
It's not gonna happen.
You have created a
fire for the first time.
Now you have to practice again.
Now it's time to practice it again.
Now it is time to practice it with
different materials.
Now it is time to do it
over and over and over
until you are sick of doing it,
until it becomes a
second nature type habit.
Then you can start
working on the hand drill.
I personally have not
started a fire with a hand drill.
I have not.
The only hand drill I've used is a dewalt
with a stick in it up against, you know,
but a bow drill is the
most amazing way to do a fire.
Now a hand drill would
be a very primitive way
of doing a fire.
I know several people that do.
I mean, you got people
online that do it all the time.
Donnie Dust, you got, you know,
Corporals Corner has
done it several times.
You got Buckeye
Bushcraft, Jake Trent, you know.
Now there's other
variations of this that we've done.
You know, you can use the same method,
you know, with a shotgun bow drill.
Add the gunpowder to a,
to a hearth board and add in heat.
I know, what's his name?
Ranger Philcraft and Survival.
He does one where he heats
up a piece of wire like a saw,
heats it up, empties the
gunpowder of a shot shell
or a bullet on there and
throws that wire in there
and it lights it, you know,
and there's different ways.
There's different ways to do this.
So, all right.
Well, anyway, that's it for today.
I really do appreciate you guys.
I thank you so much for your time.
I hope you found this enjoyable.
I hope you found it educational.
Don't forget to swing by and the links
and go ahead and pick you up
some of the primitive camping
in Bushcraft blend coffee.
Also swing by Amazon, pick you up a copy
of the Primitive
Camping in Bushcraft book
to go along with the
Primitive Camping in Bushcraft podcast
and the Primitive Camping in
Bushcraft group on Facebook.
And so I'll see you in the next video
or the next podcast.
God bless you.
(upbeat music)