Basic Firebow / Bowdrill

I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the firebow, firstly most people call it a bow drill, but a bow drill was a wooden spindle with a flint microlith in the tip used to drill holes in wood in our pre history days, so it's a misnomer even from the start..Also people say about going out in the woods and doing it from scratch when they use knives and paracord for the set up, again a falsehood, if you want to do it from scratch do it with NO modern materials and make everything ON THE DAY, including the cordage then I will applaud you. I have much more respect for the hand drill than the bow drill, but that is a skill I have never mastered.

The firebow is very simple provided you keep to a few simple rules, use the right wood, keep it dry and take your time, If you practice in a control situation like your home you will get an ember to flame in the vast majority of times, there's no magic to it, it's simple, anybody who tells you otherwise is simply perpetuating an illusion

Position yourself comfortably and grip the bow and your bearing block securely, here I'm using a long bow (30" sycamore and it's flexible, probably the opposite of what most people tell you to use!) and a limpet shell for the bearing

Start your bowing action slowly to start with, gently heating up your spindle and hearth board, in this instance it's willow on willow

Once you start to get good smoke, start bowing slightly faster and add a little more downward pressure, keep this going for a dozen more good strokes

Once your pile of dust ( and it doesn't matter if it's coarse or fine dust, darker is the key here so go for black not brown dust) is smoking by itself you have a coal, fan it lightly with your hand to feed it oxygen and help it grow. (note the man made cordage, no illusions here!!)

Add it to your tinder bundle whatever that maybe, here I'm using flax but dry grass, cat tail, thistle down, fireweed etc all help make good tinder bundles

Blow gently on your ember to start then gradually increase the force

in a few seconds you will have fire, it's that simple..don't let anybody tell you it's tricky it just needs a bit of practice..this was the first time I've tried firebow in over a year and from 5 attempts I got 4 embers and 4 to flame and only then because I split the hearth board on one attempt, not too bad for somebody who dislikes the method, however I'll take Flint and Steel anyday!!

Thanks to my son Logan for taking the pictures!!