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RE: Why Steel? (Bushcraft - Fire Starting) - 'Re-Source' - Eggstatic #171
I actually prefer a fire bow to other methods but it is more to carry and takes longer then a steel. Not to mention a steel is basically water proof unlike lighters and other options.
Hi @liberyworms, I've have a few goes with bow drill (dowel and pine planks as oppose to true 'in the woods' materials) and had fairly good success (I follow the MCQBushcraft technique). I have more 3-4inch pieces of workshop files than I'll ever know what to do with LOL and I still keep buying old rusty ones from bric-a-brac shops :)
a small selection
I like the little handles. Very convenient. You can always find a stick for the bow but you have to carry the string since parcord stretches to much for a bow drill. I usually go to the store and buy a plank of wood I want and premake the cuts for the spindle and cut the plank down into small fire boards. This way I just pack the small plank section and the spindle. I prefer a bic lighter but usually like to carry several ways to make fire on my person like a lighter and a fire steel and then several more in my pack. Lighters get wet and small fire steels can get lost so I like around 7 way to make fire if I am actually going to be out somewhere like a several day hiking trip where things could possible go wrong.
Both of those two were welded top and bottom but as my welding skills are highly dubious one failed and so I cut a small portion off the bottom of the threaded bar. It still feels good in the hand though.
With paracord I do have to re-adjust the length and I use my thumb to alter the tension while bowing.
I to like to carry several means of fire-starting. Fresnel lenses, ferro-rod, lighters (I think I bulk purchased about 300 in total lol) and of course flint n steel :)
I think I uploaded a bow-drill video to d-tube a few months ago. I'll see if I can dig it out........
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Next time someone ask you if you have a light pull out a ferro-rod and hand to them for their smoke. LOL you would get a heck of a look.
Even stranger looks if I get out the flint, steel and char-cloth ;)
Been enjoying seeing your post in the prepping sections. I am way to busy right now to get out of the homesteading and into the prepping stuff but I hope this winter when things slow down I will have time. I love to find old quality hand tools that I refurbish and use in my kits. Really like the older true temper carpenter axes that have nail pullers and hammer backs for a great multi tool. Works great for camping, hiking and running trap lines and you can usually find them for $25 or less. My prepping over time after buying land became homesteading since I turned my seed banks into gardens and food storage into livestock. If you have what you need on a homestead you have lots of useful tools for prepping if it even comes to it. Looking forward to you future post.
Hi @liberyworms, I greatly appreciate your kind words :)
I'm desperate to get hold of some land (Ideally in Cornwall or Devon just to mitigate the increasing global crop losses due to building weather extremes) so I can move on from prepping to homesteading. My wife and I are really short on funds and to be honest, homesteading isn't what she's after so while she's training to become a primary school teacher, it'll up to me to tend the vegetables, etc. I'm trying to get some growing skills by some basic beans, potatoes, etc. growing at my mums garden.
Thanks again,
Rob.
btw, On top of my veggie seed bank, I've started on some wild veggies to (stinging nettles, plantain (ribwort & greater) and a few others :)