Fire-craft: a humbling experience

Fire-craft

Preparing the Parts:

There is a certain respect to take into consideration when practicing fire-by-friction. Once you start exerting a lot of force, the habit is to focus on what your arms are doing. Being aware of your breath is important.  Also, well made/selected parts increase the likelihood of desired results, so I will try to be as specific as possible. Variation is key to understanding what parts fit you best. I try to collect material in a variety, but still sticking to basic rules (Ex: a straight spindle or level footboard). Collecting a variety of material also means that you have more for later which you will literally burn through in discovering how to make fire. If you are actually starting a fire instead of testing your ability, prepare a teepee fire. That is, prop super thin sticks (toothpick thickness) into a teepee shape, mentally marking an opening. These sticks should be brittle and dry enough to make a snapping noise. As you build, make sure you layer progressively thicker sticks. Another tidbit of advice that will be revisited is to keep breathing.

Fixed-blade Knife - NO pocket knives.

Rope - Beginners should use a synthetic rope. Nylon is kind of difficult. Para-cord works pretty well.

Footboard - This wood should be the same as the spindle. An easy way to prepare a footboard is to saw a branch to about the length and thickness of your fore-arm (possibly thicker; at least twice as wide as your spindle, also shown), prop it vertically and split it by hammering a knife or hatchet through. Common Indiana woods to use are (in order of difficulty) basswood, cedar, cottonwood and tulip poplar. Always try to shave the bottom of your footboard so it rests flat on the ground and doesn’t wobble very much.

Spindle - This should be as straight as possible, and as long as the tip of your pinky to the tip of your thumb. I like spindles that are the thickness of my thumb. When carving a spindle, use the thicker side (which grows further from branch tips) for contact on the footboard, and the thinner side (which grows closer to the branch tip) on the handhold. In the rest of the article, I will be referring to the top and bottom of the spindle. The bottom of the spindle (bottom left) should be more blunt as to create more friction and heat. The top of the spindle (bottom right) should be sharper so that it rotates in the handhold easier, making the heat build up on bottom (the footboard) and not the top (the handhold).

Bow - This can be made from anything sturdy. I find that invasive species like honeysuckle are good for an area like Indiana, or Russian Olive for Colorado. The bow should be as long as the tip of your fingers into your armpit. When tying the bow, tie one end to have a permanent, immovable knot. Tie it tight on the other end with a less permanent, but sturdy knot. You want it tight enough that you feel the rope “snap” into place around the spindle, and that it does not slip loosely about the spindle.
Tinder bundle - This material can be found anywhere in Indiana. Just look for any tulip poplar trees that have dead branches or hanging dead bark. Gather this material and run it between your palms. The more you run it is the finer it gets, and therefore, the easier to spread. However, when working with fire, we go from small material to larger, so I put finer tinder in the middle of progressively coarser material. In addition, before I begin starting a real fire, I build up a teepee fire, leaving an opening to drop the burning tinder bundle, so the fire will spread quickly into a comfortable campfire.

Procedure:

After preparing the parts, there are a few steps to getting a successful fire. The most important thing to remember is to KEEP BREATHING. Once you stop focusing on your breath, your body and muscles lock up quickly.

1. Burning into your footboard and handhold

2. Carving the notch

3. Creating the coal (ember)

4. Dropping the ember in the bundle

1. Now we must burn the spindle into the footboard and handhold. This is done by creating a circular notch with a knife on the bottom-right side of the footboard and a notch in the center of the handhold. The spindle will slip out. Don’t get frustrated. One will know where to make this by placing the spindle on the edge of the footboard. Where you carve the center of which to bore into should be just past that.

In addition to having a notch burn into the footboard, you must also do so for the handhold so that you can more directly apply the amount of pressure needed. However, unlike the footboard, you don’t want to burn in too far. Once you’ve burned enough into the handhold, make sure to grease the spindle and the burn-hole in the handhold. This can be done with wiping the top of the spindle in your sweat on your face or grinding pine needles between the top of the spindle and the handhold. This reduces friction up top and puts it where it is needed: in the footboard. When making your first burn, and as always, make sure your rope wraps around your spindle tightly and that your bowing is even and steady. When bowing make sure you remember to breathe and that you use long strokes that use the length of your bow while keeping your spindle vertically straight. Your board (left) and handhold (right) will look like the picture below. Be sure to save the dust that comes off around your spindle.

2. Ideally, you should have your spindle burn into the footboard just a little past the point where your spindle slips out. So after exhausting yourself, you need to carve your notch. This is where the by-product of burning comes off: coal-dust. You want the size of your notch to be about 1/6 of the overall burn hole. Imagine dividing the hole in half length-wise with the footboard, then in thirds. This middle third is the one you carve out. Put a piece of bark (tulip poplar is everywhere) or something dense like a sliver of wood under your footboard. This will make it easier to transfer your coal. Pile your saved coal dust up to the notch

3. Now comes the strenuous part: creating the coal. Before starting, I recommend oiling the spindle and handhold again. Use the same bowing technique as described before, with straight bowing and a vertical spindle. Start slowly and eventually build up speed and pressure. Remember to breathe. Otherwise, you’ll burn yourself out and have no energy for the rest of the day. A trick I use is to breathe in after four pulls, breathe out after four pulls, in after three, out after three, etc. When smoke comes put down more pressure and remember to use the whole bow. Full pulls of your arm build heat while the milliseconds between changing direction cause the dust to cool rapidly. Keep going until the smoke is thick and everywhere. Yes, you will smell like a camp fire all day.

4. Now is the time to be delicate. If you’ve pulled long and hard enough and applied direct pressure, you may be lucky enough to have a smoking pile of dust. Gently pull the footboard away from the smoking coal. Tap out any coal dust on the footboard onto the ember. You want the burning part to get as big as possible. This can be done in several ways. First, you can pile coal dust on the delicate ember, causing the ember to burn upwards, as the dust is your ember extender. If you are not letting out exhaustive puffs of air, you can lightly blow on the coal, but make sure not to blow it or any loose dust away. Otherwise, fan the coal with your hand to make it spread. Still keeping delicacy in mind, gently drop the coal into the center of your tinder bundle, near the smallest fibers that will catch the soonest. Cup the tinder bundle like drinking from your hands, and spread your bottom fingers out to allow air through. This is trial and error, a balance between giving your ember enough material from your bundle, and giving it enough oxygen so not to smother it. When the fibers really start to catch blow progressively harder until the bundle bursts into flame. Drop it into your pre-made teepee fire.