I cut down trees at my sister and brother in law's property for the elm, cedar, mesquite and oak. The pinyon was was brought down from southern New Mexico by my parents and it was already cut.
Gotcha. They just don’t look freshly cut. You may want to plan on splitting and seasoning those for awhile. And get some drier wood for next weekend.
Unfortunately the trees were on a hill and had to be hauled pretty far to my tahoe. I tied a rope around most and dragged them up the hill so most have a smattering of mud. A few trees were already felled and one was from a 2 foot tall stump. Also, we've had biblical rains in Central Texas for the last 6 weeks so all the wood is super moist like dblplay1212 's mom. Hopefully a week + in my garage will dry them out before I need them.
Ok guys lets go over the tools... 1. Hearth board - also called a fire board. This is the rectangle board on the bottom left. This will receive your spindle and the friction between the two is what starts the fire. You want to use a soft wood. Cedar is abundant in Texas so that's what I went with. Poplar is another choice if its available. You can test for hard vs. soft wood by trying to make an imprint with your finger nail in the wood, which you can only do in soft woods. Best way to make the hearth board is by batoning the wood, ideally it should be 1/2 inch thick and roughly the size of your shoe. Make a small divot less than an inch from the edge and then notch out a small V-shaped wedge where your coal/ember will fall. 2. Hand hold - In the pic above it is the small piece of wood with a divot/hole right in the middle. This will go on the opposite end of the spindle and is what you use to apply pressure on the top of the spindle downwards towards the hearth board. Notch out a small divot to receive your spindle. Make this by batoning a 2 inch think branch of any type of wood (I used cedar again) in half, and the width should be exactly the width of the palm of your hald. Mash a green leaf or some moist vegetation in the divot. The purpose of this is to decrease friction in the divot as the spindle rotates. You don't want a fire starting in the hand hold. 3. Spindle - This is the think stick with a pointy end and round end above. Mine is a little thick above and I may whittle it down further to make it thinner. Thickness should be in be in between your thumb and pinky finger. Length should be the "hang ten" sign - thumb to pinky when full separated. Make one end dull-round (this will go in the hearth board) and the other like a spire (this will go in the hand hold). The spire shape will also help reduce friction as again we don't want to start a fire in the hand hold. 4. Knife - Hopefully you have one on you but if you don't you can chip rocks until you get a sharp edge. I tried to use a small dull knife because I didn't want too much of an advantage like I would with a big sharp knife. 5. Bow - Very top tool. Ideally should be 18-24 inches long and should have a slight curve like a bow in a bow and arrow. Should be sturdy. My above bow is probably a little too thick and I will whittle it down or baton it to a smaller silhouette. You don't want your bow to be too heavy as it will tire you out faster when you are trying to start your fire. Notch a few grooves at the ends to tie your cordage through at the ends. 6. Paracord - This is the green rope you see tied around the bow. I've outfitted my shoes and hiking boots with paracord for laces so if I ever went down in a plane crash and was all alone in the forest I could use my shoe laces for cordage. If you are not this prepared you can use any cordage you find where you are stranded to serve as your bow string. The two key properties should be strength and zero elasticity. Whatever your cordage tie it tight around the ends of your bow using the notches you made.
This is quite disappointing. Not sure how this thread could be more entertaining than lech starting a bow drill fire (or any fire) with fresh wood.
I've never seen someone pretend to use an ECHO chainsaw. What did that thing cut? It wasn't the firewood stacked up in that garage, 'cause the weathered ends of that stuff look like it was cut weeks ago
I can't wait until OP shows us a pic of his latest culinary masterpiece, with this bow and spindle subtly hanging out on the counter
No, there are only 24 hours in a day. I cut a bunch of wood and made all the tools. Now I am at work, away from my wood. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Sure it will burn. Just will take a little while to get going. Listen I wish the wood was seasoned but I can’t alter the physics of the 4th dimension, time. We made a late decision to go camping and as such didn’t have much time to dry the wood out. But it’ll still burn.
Why would you cut a tree down when there's plenty of dried out deadfall to use? Cutting down a tree makes no sense
Seriously there isn’t any dry wood in Texas right now. It’s rained quite a bit the past few weeks. Enough to have river flooding the past two weeks. We have highways buckling due to the water. I tried to start a fire in my chiminea a week ago and it took over an hour to get it going.
seems like you could have fit in time to go out and buy a lighter or some matches ... maybe one of those flint striker stones
There's a huge difference between unseasoned wood and seasoned wood that has been rained on. Moisture in wood is found in two places, inside the cells, and in the cell walls. Moisture inside the cells dries quickly, moisture inside the impermeable cell walls takes months. If seasoned wood is rained on it can take as little as a few hours in a dry breezy area to dry out enough to burn well. Unseasoned wood would never dry out enough in a day to make a respectable fire, not only would it be a shitty fire but it's also a worse pollutant.
I was just using it in place of using pussy. I was also being really serious when I posted it in a tops thread about bow drill fires.