The easiest and most reliable way to make a fire without matches or other modern tools is to use a bow drill. You may have seen boy scouts trying to do this. The bow drill is used by primitive tribes on every continent, and was almost certainly used by your distant ancestors.

The basic idea is, you have four components: the fireboard, the spindle, the handhold, and the bow. The fireboard and spindle both have sockets into which you place the spindle. The cord of the bow is wrapped around the spindle, you put your foot on the fireboard, press down on the handhold, and saw the bow back and forth creating friction. The fireboard has a notch where black dust collects. The notch fills up, you continue sawing, and the dust heats until you get a nice coal. The coal goes into your tinder bundle, you blow on it gently until it bursts into flame, and you place it quickly into a little tipi of sticks. Fire!

As you might imagine, it's not quite as simple as it sounds. You have to get your tools and your form right. For your tools, you want wood of medium hardness, dry but not old and crumbly. If you can press your thumbnail into it, making a nice clean dent without crushing in, it's about right. Cottonwood, willow, sassafras, and cedar are some good woods, though cedar is on the soft side. Hardwoods are difficult, and resinous woods like pine lubricate and kill the friction. But it's okay if you don't have the ideal materials, and in fact the worse the materials you practice with, the better you'll be. In class they gave us cedar that wasn't properly seasoned, just to make it more challenging (though they waited until afterwards to tell us that...). Just like collecting firewood, you want to knock off branches of standing dead trees to get your materials.

The spindle is about the thickness of your thumb, straight as an arrow, round, and about eight inches long. On one end you put a fairly long point, and on the other end a shorter point, less than 45 degrees. Put a mark on one end so you don't get them confused.

The fireboard is a couple thumbs wide, one thumb thick, and as long as the spindle, nice and flat so it doesn't wobble. If it wobbles, the dust will get thrown around and won't form into a coal. You can make it longer and wider if you like, so you can reuse it more.

The handhold is a wedge-shaped piece just big enough to fit comfortably in your hand, with a flat underside. It doesn't matter what it's made of.

The bow is just a curved stick, about arms length, strung loosely with cordage. With natural cord, it helps if it has a little flex.

Now, you're going to need sockets in your fireboard and handhold. Make little indentations with your knife to get them started. You'll be drilling the holes with your spindle. You'll want the completed hole on your fireboard to be about 1/8 inch from the edge.

Okay, now you start to work just as if you're starting the fire. Wrap the bowstring around your spindle. You'll quickly learn how tight the string needs to be--too tight, the spindle keeps popping out, too loose and it slips. The form is just like tying your shoes--Left foot forward, left arm outside your left leg, fireboard right under instep. Foot close to the spindle, left hand holding the handhold, with your wrist locked against your shin. Right hand holds the bow near the back end. Your right knee is tucked out of the way, though not so far that you don't have a firm stance, and your chest rests on your left knee. Press down on the handhold (not too hard at first), and saw away with long even strokes, slow at first and gradually speeding up. Oh yeah, the blunt end of the spindle goes on the bottom. You'll get some smoke, you keep going until you've got nice deep holes, and your spindle is fully burned in on both ends.

Now you've got your sockets. The last thing to do is carve the notch on your fireboard. This is a 45 degree notch, whose point is just shy of the center of the socket. If you go in too far, the spindle tip has no friction, gets longer, and disrupts the dust.

Of course, always be careful when you're carving. Carve away from you, take it easy. One trick: keep both arms almost straight. That way if you slip, the knife won't go far.

Okay, your parts are almost ready. The last thing to do is grease the top end. You can use green deciduous leaves, fat, sap from resinous trees, even oil from the side of your nose though that generally won't be enough.

Your tinder is any dry, fluffy material, such as dried grasses, tree inner bark, or dandelion down. I do mean fluffy, like cotton, so you'll need to work it, pull it apart. A good practice material is jute cord, a natural-fiber cordage you can get at Walmart. You want a good-sized handful of tinder, don't skimp.

Place the tinder on the ground, on top of something dry like a nice piece of bark. You don't want moisture seeping into your tinder--always be very careful to keep it absolutely dry. The bark is a good idea even when you're drilling the fireboard, so it doesn't get moist either.

Set the fireboard on top, so the coal forms right in the tinder. Now you do the same thing you did to drill the holes, except this time the top is greased so most of the friction is at the bottom. Long even strokes, keeping the bow at the center of the spindle. There will be smoke, but don't stop until you really get a lot of smoke. If you just see a loose pile of dust, you stopped too soon--you're done when you get a nice glowing coal (the dust expands and holds it together). When I do it the coal tends to pop out when I let the spindle go, so if you don't see it look on the ground nearby before giving up. Fold the tinder gently around it and blow. It needs to be fed both fuel and air, or it goes out. Keep at it, it can take a couple minutes, gently coax it into flame.

The tipi it goes into starts with kindling the thickness of pencil leads. You put three little stakes in for support, pile on the kindling and then progressively bigger pieces. It needs to be dense, so you can't see through it. Leave an opening in the bottom to toss your burning tinder in. Once you have a nice bed of coals, you can toss anything on. Build your tipi in a fire pit, about a 1-1 1/2 feet wide and eight inches deep.

Always remember safety. Don't ever leave your fire, clear the area, don't do it where there are overhanging branches, and make sure the ground is bare--underground root systems, peat moss and such can catch fire unnoticeably, smoulder for months, and start a devastating fire. Don't build your fire too close to the shelter, however tempting it may be. But you do want a reflector on the opposite side of your fire (such as a pile of rocks), so you don't waste a lot of heat.

A couple cautions on tinder--don't use hairy vines, it's probably poison ivy. Don't use laundry lint, it's got a lot of chemicals. If you use dogbane, the smoke is a nerve poison that can knock you out, so don't inhale it. And don't use a mouse nest, it could have hanta virus.

After you've worked at it unsuccessfully for a few times, the socket on the fireboard will get a glaze on it. That lubricates it--scrape it out with your knife.

It took me a couple days before I got my first fire. The main problem I had was the spindle popping out--once I made it a little pointier, I got fire in a few minutes. Then I started again, and got another one in five minutes. It did help that I was at the Tom Brown course with people there giving me pointers, but keep at it, keep experimenting, and you'll get it. Once you do, it's not that hard any more.

There are a lot of other techniques, such as the hand drill, where you use a thinner spindle with no bow or handhold, just spinning and pressing down with your hands. I've seen it suggested on the web that this is easier than the bow drill--don't believe it. It's way harder. The bow drill is the way to start. Of course, if you can do the hand drill, it can be a lot more convenient.

I've assumed in this description that you have cordage and a knife, and maybe an axe. These are not strict necessities if you know how to make stone tools and natural cordage. Cordage isn't too tough, just a bit time-consuming. I'll leave those instructions for another post. Stone tools take a lot of practice. A good book is The Art of Flint Knapping by D.C. Waldorf.

For cordage and firewood, it helps a lot to know your plants. Get out there with field guides. Peterson's guides are all good. Newcomb's Wildflower Guide has a really nice identification system, and Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by Steve Brill is good reading. Be careful with your field guides--Tom told us that half a dozen books common in bookstores will kill you. You want to learn your poisonous plants first, then utilitarian ones, before trying to eat anything.

For more detail on all this, take a look at Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival and Tom Brown's Field Guide to Living with the Earth (which covers longer-term techniques). I had these books for a long time but always thought I'd have to take the classes to really learn the stuff. Then once I had taken the first class, I looked back at the books and realized I could have learned long ago, with practice and experimentation.

Feel free to post any questions if I haven't been clear, and have fun!

-- Shimrod (shimrod@lycosmail.com), January 11, 1999

Answers

Thanks!

Also check out your local camping supply store for "short-term" options.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

eyeglasses or magnifying glass when sunny... anyone have leads on solar oven or kits...

-- plain ol`joe (joe@ezweb.net), January 11, 1999.

Very cool Shimrod, thanks a million. Another interesting skill to master.

-- Vronsky (vronsky@anna.com), January 12, 1999.

Get solar ovens at Real Goods item # 63-421 $199.00 1-800-762-7325 Mike

-- flierdude (mkessler0101@sprynet.com), January 12, 1999.

Shimrod: great post. There is also another method that uses the same general principal, but may even be easier once you set it up. It's called the pump drill, and was used by at least the coastal indians to drill holes in mollusk shells, wood, etc. The fire board is the same, but the other parts are a little different. Get a straight stick of the same types as needed for the spindle, make one end of a blunt point, drill a hole in the top end straight through. The spindle should be about 12-18 " long. Make a handle, and drill a hole through it at mid point, large enough to allow the spindle through, but not too large. Should not be snug, but should not allow it to wobble around either. Make a circular weight from stone, metal etc, with a hole drilled/pecked out of the middle and fitted snug to the bottom end of the spindle (near where the point will fit into the fireboard, but about 4-6" up from it.) Make sure its snug and doesn't wobble or rotate around the spindle. Bring a length of cordage, or sinew, or leather shoelace type material through the top hole in the spindle. Make small holes in the ends of the handle, or tie them around ea. end of the spindle, after putting the spindle through the center hole of the handle. The cordage will need to be adjusted to the proper length. Twist the cordage around the spindle, by spinning the handle, and adjust it to the proper length (twisted, the handle should be btwn 1/2 and 2/3 of the way up the spindle) Place the end of the spindle in the socket, twist the handle and cordage around the spindle, then push the handle down towards the fireboard. It takes just a little practice to get the hang of this move. It takes a little work to set up the firestarter, but once you do, it takes less physical work and strength to get the coal going. Might be worth trying.

-- Damian Solorzano (oggy1@webtv.net), January 12, 1999.

You can by a "flint Kit" at any local camping store. There cheap and last a long time .......get a couple...:)

-- Dave (dave@ptdprolog.net), January 12, 1999.

I think I'll wait until lightning strikes and starts a fire, then make myself a "comet." It's a large tin can, open at one end. The sides are punched full of nail holes and a loop of wire is hooked to the top of the can for a handle; this is so you can swing it like a rope. It's a small portable stove. Any kind of fuel, wood, charcoal, twigs, acorns, etc., will work Always keep coals in the bottom, swing the comet and air coming in through the holes will keep it going, then add twigs. Bank it with moss or thick lichen and this will keep the coats, but will emit a smoke that will keep away insects in summer. It's great for discouraging packs of roving dogs, bugs, biting sows, and maybe it could be used as a primitive weapon against the most dangerous predator of all, man.

An old man I knew as a kid told me about using these when he was a kid growing up in eastern Europe. I personally prefer matches.

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), January 12, 1999.

Lots good ideas. A pump drill is described in Tom's Living with the Earth book, and he says the same thing, longer to make but very effective. Haven't seen the camp store flint kits but will try a magnesium firestarter. Normal flint and steel worked for the pioneers but it's more demanding of your tinder, since the spark is so much smaller than a bowdrill coal. The "comet" sounds pretty cool, and might be good in combination with a magnifying glass to maintain coals between sunny days. Don't know about waiting for lightning though...stone age is one thing, but humans have been able to make fire for a long time--I'd hate to regress that far!

Fire is so fundamental that I like the idea of being able to make it completely from scratch. If I remember my anthropology courses right, we've been able to do it for a couple million years. It always bugged me that I couldn't do something so basic to the human species.

-- Shimrod (shimrod@lycosmail.com), January 15, 1999.

shimrod: what you say is exactly how i feel. You may never find yourself in that situation, but just knowing some basic survival skills is so important. It's something that can't be taken away from you. The pump drill is easier to develop the friction, but i think that i want to start practicing with the bowdrill. I have seen it done, but never had the opportunity to do it myself. Have you ever heard of the firepiston. From my understanding, it's another form of friction firestarter. It was a native philipine firestarter, and was brought to europe, where it started catching on prior to the development of the lighter, which caught on, and the rest is history as they say. Anyway, i found the link. If you go to Tom Brown's pages, and click on Links, scroll down to Fire, and click on firepiston, it will tell you what it is, and show you pictures. Pob Perkins also makes and sells them. They cost 60.00, but last a lifetime, and take less work (from what i understand) to master than a bowdrill/handrill, etc. His webpage is www.bps@atlatl.com. He doesn't list these on his page since his major thing is atlatls, but if you e mail him, he will reply back. Anything else that you can personally share from your classes with T. Brown would be appreciated by many, i'm sure.

-- Damian Solorzano (oggy1@webtv.net), January 16, 1999.

Excellent stuff everybody - I plan on buying a few cases of bic lighters - very very cheap in bulk - to be used for barter and, uh, lighting fires!

Andy the doombrooder :)

"We're doomed I tell ye, doomed!"

Private Frazer, Dad's Army, Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard, 1939 (Undertaker)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 16, 1999.

Never had heard of the firepiston, but it looks really cool. Actually works like a diesel engine, you shove the piston in hard, the air trapped inside heats to about 800 degrees as it compresses and ignites the (extremely dry) tinder you've placed inside. Sounds pretty challenging to make, but it's quick as a match.

I came across another idea the other day, to make a hand drill a lot easier. Just attach a loop of cordage at the top and hook your thumb through it, so you can give downward pressure without your hands moving down. It's still harder than the bow drill (and tough on your hands till you build up calluses), but the big advantage is that the cordage doesn't have to be nearly as strong. Haven't tried it yet, I want to get good at bowdrill first.

-- Shimrod (shimrod@lycosmail.com), January 19, 1999.