Please also see the Neid Fire section

Updated Oct 2018.
As the end of October is approaching, I thought I would share a piece about Samhain (Samhuinn) and the Samhain fires and in particular Force Fire \ Neid Fire \ Tein'-éigin  - which was a traditional way of lighting a new sacred pure fire, at this time (and at Beltaine.)

"Samhain is the Gaelic \ Celtic festival seen to mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year, celebrated from the very beginning of one Celtic day to its end, or in the modern calendar, from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, this places it about halfway between the Autumn equinox and the Winter solstice" taken from wikipedia.

"The 31st is the modern calendar date for Samhuinn. In old calendar times Samhuinn would be around the 11th of November, now Martinmas. Although in reality, it would have been when the moon was dark or other calendar event such as the first frost or when the harvest was in. The date wouldn’t have been set. Banks suggest that the eve of Samhuinn was moonless and in these northern regions, dark, as befitted the “season of innumerable mystic rites” mentioned by Carmichael (which backs up the idea of a dark moon). " from Cailleachs Herbarium.

Samhain is also seen as a time to remember and honour the ancestors.
"Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times. Some Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with the sunrise around the time of Samhain. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. It was also the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter."  taken from wikipedia.

Descriptions I’ve read say that this method, produced fierce sparks and “forced” a fire, but I feel this is an over dramatization (Oak doesn’t have the properties to burst into flame in this way!) but there would have been much smoke ( and in reality it would hopefully have created a very large ember which could then be used to light the new pure fire. Once lit ,the pure fire would be kept going until the end of the ritual. Other fires in prominent places may also have been lit from this fire, and people would then light their home hearth fire from the "pure" fire.

Some people may question whether Oak was used, but I have proved that Oak does work with the bow drill.

My current project is developing a 6 foot fire churn to be used in the opening of a festival in May. It's progressing well and the spindle turns well and is creating friction and smoke! It needs a few tweaks and currently experimenting with the optimum weight of the bearing bar, and will need a few people to help ,me test it out! The idea is to involve many people at  the festival to help welcome in the fire, as apparently was custom by the Celts at Beltane (and Samhain) using large churns like this.  It seems that ritual welcoming of fire is not meant to be easy and the more challenging then the more magical the fire!

A video of my attempt at a rather peculiar friction fire method - the horizontal fire churn! Not efficient, not effective, best to be avoided unless of course it's for ritual! 
And also see the video from India which inspired me to give it a go!

As I've written previously, Fire Churns were "apparently" used by the Celts and Slavs over 2000 years ago for welcoming in fire in times of distress and at auspicious times of the year such as Beltaine and Samhain. Here is one I've been building in the garage, it is a work in progress and will evolve over time.. I've started with a small spindle but will move to larger spindles and I hope to use these at events. With the larger spindles, more people will need to be involved to pull the rope as was the tradition.

 I have recently discovered "fire churning" or "churning of fire" which is a friction fire method in India, similar to strap  drill made from the Banyan tree, and it seems to be specifically for use during Hindu Vedic fire rituals. There is also the variation of the "fire churn" which seems to have been used in Celtic and Northern European traditions, e.g creating Need Fire which I talk about in these posts: Samhain; Neid Fire
​
This post focusses on the Fire Churn used within the Hindu religion.

The fire sticks are also called the Arani.
The Fire Churn is also known as the Agni Manthan by some.
The Banyan tree is significant and seems to be the only wood that these are made of.

I'm only just learning about this, so I apologise if I get any of this confused, and I welcome any feedback\corrections.

From my searches and limited understanding, it seems the Fire Churn may be used in different "strands" of Hinduism but seems to be primarily used in the Hindu religion for the the "invocation" of Lord Agni (Fire.) In some Hindu symbolism, Agni's parents are said to be the two Arani used to start the fire, and when young Arani was said to be cared for by ten servants who are represented by the ten fingers of the man who starts the fire.
There is also belief that he is the son of two mothers, the two Arani which are female (in Sanskrit the gender of Arani is female.) The Arani were made from the banyan tree.

From "HOW TO PREPARE HOMA YAGNYA FIRE AGNI MANTHAN PROCESS" :
"Fire (Agni) is the primary God in Vedas and the Agni is to be prepared manually using Banyan twigs/logs ,chanting Agni Suktham. The lighting of the Havan Agni with the churning (Manthan) of the special instrument (Agni Manthan) made from a banyan tree, is considered extremely auspicious.
A participant said it required a lot of effort and that is why it is generally not used. It took them about 15 minutes to get it going.
...
​Preparing Homa, Yagnya fire with Camphor as is being practiced now is incorrect."

From an article in the "Hindu" :
"The ‘Yaga Karta' (chief performer of the yagam) Kapilawai Ramakrishna Sastry and other ‘ritviks' (officiating priests) made the holy fire using ‘Arani Manthani', an instrument similar to a hand drill. While chanting Vedic hymns, they vigorously drilled a wooden shaft. The spinning caused black dust to form near the hole of the soft wood. The black dust with smoulder was transferred onto tinder of twigs. As soon as the flames emanated from the plate of twigs, the environs echoed with the words ‘Harom Hara'.“It is Vedic procedure to make fire with Arani Manthani. We can call it as ‘Agni Madhanam' (churning of fire). It is done with ‘Agni Prathisthana' mantras,” explained P. V. Suryanarayana Sarma, principal of the Vedic School run by the temple. "

So  with Fire Churning, it is not about how quick the fire is produced or how easy but it is the ritual of producing the fire and the significance of the materials used (in this case Banyan wood) and the chants and songs that go with it.

In my various googlings researching into the use of friction fire in ritual, I came across the ritual of Force Fire also called Need Fire, Neid Fire and Teine Eigin  or Teine-éiginn (Gaelic for friction fire.) Force Fire seems to have been a ritual within the Celtic tradition and also within other Northern Hemisphere traditions including the Vikings.

Force Fire seems to have been a ritual way of starting fires as part of ceremonies (e.g. Samhain and Beltaine Celtic Festivals) but also as a way to cure ills  - for example: when your cattle came down with foot and mouth, or other times of distress. It may also have been use by the Norse for lighting funeral pyres.

In all these instances, all fires within the local community would be extinguished and a new communal fire would be lit by means of friction (by using a device similar to the one pictured.) Once the new fire had been lit and offerings made, then everyone in the community would light their fires from the new communal fire. In the case of curing ills, damp wood would be added to make copius amounts of smoke and the cattle\people would be paraded through the smoke to "cleanse" them. or in other accounts water is boiled on the fire and then sprinkled over the people\animales. The community would also take a brand from the fire and re-light their hearth fires after the ceremony. It seems different communities would have slightly different rituals, requiring a certain amount of people involved in making the fire, or the fire having to be made in a particular depending on local beliefs and superstitions.

It seems this tradition occurred as recent as until the mid 1800s in Scotland. 

There have been a few written descriptions of the device used to make Force Fire and in the main it sounds like an over-sized Strap Drill, like the ones in the pictures. The one in the above picture wouldn't really work, the reconstructions below are modern working interpretations.

First off, it may seem a cumbersome, over engineered, ineffective way of producing fire in comparison to the bow drill and hand drill but that was probably the point,  and I'm guessing it was supposed to take many people to "force" fire through this contraption as part of the ritual. 

I would love to have a go at building one of these. I have made a small model version, but haven't yet fully tested it.