What's this got to do with ART? Well nothing really, except that making a fire by friction is - An Art in Itself. As you already know from looking through my pictures, I love Nature and most anything associated with Nature, like bushcraft and survival, and ever since I was a child and first heard that it was possible to make a fire without matches by rubbing 2 sticks together, I wanted to learn the secret of this magical feat. I am immensely tickled to report that I have at last succeeded.

Yes! 'I have made fire'.

To quote Tom Hanks! I am so pleased with myself that I thought I'd put up a page explaining how this can be done. I'll start with a little warning! It's not easy! Understanding exactly what's happening helps, but this will always be a difficult feat to accomplish as almost every aspect is critical. I can now produce an Ember easily, but the catch is without almost perfectly fine and dry tinder, that Ember is useless.

You'll need the following:

1) Tinder 
2) A Fire Board.
3) A Spindle.
4) A Bow.
5) A Spindle Cap.

First let's start with the theory!
When 2 sticks are forcefully rubbed together the heat and friction produce a gritty, black powder called Spunk. This Spunk must be allowed to gather, undisturbed, into a pile within which the heat builds up enough, so that with a little coaxing it will ignite into a glowing Ember.
When carefully transfered into appropriate Tinder this Ember can ignite the Tinder, thereby producing Fire.

Now let's look at the seperate components.

The Tinder
The Tinder is very critical! It must be absolutely dry and fine enough to ignite with the tiniest of sparks. I am still an amateur at this and thus am still learning what makes the best Tinder. Fine dry grass, or finely shredded inner bark off of a dead tree, are candidates. Gather a small handfull of this tinder and form it into a nest. Make sure the fibres are well packed so that the resultant fire can easily spread through the mass. One technique is to keep the Tinder seperate from the other apparatus and then transfering the Ember, when produced, into the Tinder, but the technique I've been using involves placing the Tinder, right from the start, under the Fire Board where it catches and holds the Spunk and resultant Ember.

The Fire Board
First look at the illustration to see what this should look like. I know that some other woods will work, but so far I've only used Cedar. One crucial factor is that it must be dry. It's handy for your Fire Board to be long enough so that you can step on it to steady it while you work. Carve a small shallow scoop not too far from an edge to get you started. (Once the spindle gets spinning it can actually drill right through the Fire Board.) Use the Bow and Spindle to get the initial hole established. Now cut a V-notch into the Fire Board that extends right into your little scoop and that is wider on the underside. The purpose of this notch is to guide and catch the Spunk. Note that your Fire Board should be less than 2 cm. thick, because if the Spunk has to fall too far it will cool off and will fail to create an Ember.

The Spindle
As with the Fire Board, I've only used Cedar, and again it must be dry. Additional it's important that the Spindle is straight and roughly round. The business end will naturally take on a rounded shape as you work, but you can sharpen it a bit at first to get it started. Notice in the illustration that it is blackened on the business end from repeated use. Thin down the opposite end to reduce friction where you don't need it.

The Spindle Cap
The Spindle Cap is non crucial and its purpose is simply to allow you to hold the Spindle in place while it spins in the Fire Board. The simplest Spindle Cap is merely another piece of wood with a slight hollow to hold the Spindle. I've made one out of a small piece of wood that fits in my palm with a concave piece of tin wedged in the middle that the Spindle can't drill through. A little spit acts like lubricant so that the Spindle can spin freely. I've read about others making a Spindle Cap out of stone or bone.

The Bow
The Bow is also non critical. Any bent piece of wood, that is strong enough, will do. To fasten the cord it is most convenient to drill a hole through both ends of the Bow and use knots in the cord to hold it in place. Notice in the illustration that the cord is slack! This is important because you need to wrap the cord once around the Spindle to use the apparatus. At first there is a bit of trial and error to find the right amount of slack to make the whole thing work. If you've drilled the ends as I've suggested adjusting the length of the cord is relatively easy.

Here is a picture
of my Fire Making Kit.
I'm still looking for a better bow.

MAKING FIRE WITH FRICTION

Well! We're ready to put it all together.
Place the Fire Board in front of you and on top of your prepared Tinder. The notch in the Fire Board should be right over the center of the Tinder nest. It's not important if the notch is facing away from you or not, I've been doing it with it facing me. Place one foot on the Fire Board to steady it while you work. Hook the Spindle into the cord of the Bow using one wrap of the cord. The cord should be applying enough tension on the Spindle so that it is forced to spin when you begin pumping the Bow back and forth with a sawing motion. Place the business end of the Spindle into the hollow in your Fire Board. Spit into the Spindle Cap or lubricate it with some oil and place it over the top of the Spindle. The Spindle should now be vertically trapped between the Fire Board and the Spindle Cap, with the Bow controlling it's only available motion, rotation.

Begin pumping the Bow back and forth easily. No need to exert yourself yet. Once you've got a good rhythm going you should begin to see some wisps of smoke as Spunk begins forming around the base of the Spindle and falling down into the notch you've cut. Now you should apply yourself and gradually pump faster and press down harder on the Spindle Cap. Don't go too fast or press too hard, that you lose control of your equipment. Any disturbance of the precious Spunk means you have to start all over again.

When the Spunk is overflowing from the notch and smoke is really poring from your work, put aside the Bow and Spindle. Tap the Fire Board firmly to release any adhering Spunk and tilt it away from the Tinder nest and your pile of Spunk. At this point you will not see any Ember, but a small amount of smoke should still be coming from the Spunk. Pick up the Tinder nest and fold it partially around the Spunk. Wait a few seconds for it to cook then begin blowing into the Spunk. If everything went correctly up to this point, after four or five good blows, (with you choking and tearing from the smoke in your eyes) you should see more and more smoke and then suddenly the magic! An Ember will appear and grow! Keep blowing, you've got to get the whole thing so exicted that it bursts into flame.

I hope this is as rewarding to you as it was to me. I can now do this every time, but I will continue working on this skill and taking it to it's ultimate goal. Going out into the bush, and making everything from scratch, and Making Fire. I don't know about the cord! But everything else just might be do-able someday.

"We, have made fire!"