Fire By Friction

Where there’s smoke…

- Paul Donovan

Since humans as we know them first roamed the earth, fire has been made by rubbing two sticks together in one of a number of ways.

What is interesting is that where these methods (with a few minor differences) are found to be used throughout the world by indigenous people, the techniques are the same. The three techniques I will discuss here are the hand drill, the fire bow, and the fire plough. Just before we start, a brief note on the type of wood to use. Choosing the right wood is the key to fire by friction. The hearth should be a softwood, and the drill a hardwood. One of the woods must ‘breakdown’ to produce tinder for the creation of an ember, and this will be extremely difficult if both pieces are hardwood; the wood will just ‘glaze’. Equally, if both hearth and spindle are softwood, they may consume one another without producing an ember.

Fire bow

For the fire bow, you will need the following:

Socket: This is used to apply downward pressure to the drill and hold it in place. It needs to have a slight depression in it to hold the drill, and can be either a stone or a piece of wood.

Drill: This should be a straight piece of wood approximately 30cm in length and 1.5-2cm in diameter. The top should be carved to minimise friction, and the bottom carved to maximise the friction surface. Do not use wood with a thick pith core, as this will not work properly.