A good way of extending an ember (or solar lighting) or catching a spark is using a King Alfred Cake (cramp ball fungus or Daldinia concentrica). A King Alfred Cake is a fungus which grows on dead Ash trees, and when the fungus has died off, they turn black and act like a coal. Only collect them when they have turned black (dead) , not brown (still alive). If dead they should come off the dead tree quite easily - you may need to prise them off using a knife. You can store for a very long time as long as there is no moisture otherwise they will go mouldy!
You need to strike the sparks\add the ember\direct the sunlight onto the underside not the smooth outside of the ball. It only takes a small spark (or ember) to light. You will know when it is lit, as you will see a small red glow. Blow on it and the ember will get larger and it will burn like a coal. You can then place your dry tinder on top, such as dry clematis bark or dead dry grass or bracken. Blow onto the glowing ember, and keep blowing, it will start to smoke and may produce lots of smoke! Keep blowing until the tinder bursts into flame then place your kindling on top. They will smoulder for quite a long period of time so is a good way to extend an ember if the tinder is damp or you're not quite prepared! Originally posted 2016 - updated 2021: The Fire Steel (aka Ferro rod, see left photo) is not to be confused with the traditional Flint and Steel (see right) where the steel would be struck against flint to create a spark. The Ferro rod is made from Ferrocerium which is a man-made metallic alloy invented in the 20th Century using rare earth alloys. When struck against steel shards of the alloy are scraped off which oxidise at a low temperature, which ignite and get VERY hot (3000 Celsius). The traditional Flint and Steel was the prevailing method of lighting fires from the Iron Age until the mid to late 19th Century and even in the early 20th Century; before matches and then lighters became prevalent. Before the advent of steel, a variety of iron pyrite or marcasite was used with flint and other stones to produce a spark. I don't like the Ferro rod at all and I now don't encourage the use of Ferro Rods especially in these times of environmental crisis as it is a modern man-made alloy using rare earth metals which have to be mined and the hot sparks are actually very very hot (3000 degree metal shards.) The Ferro rod is an all too common bushcraft tool which is also used as an easy way to teach fire lighting by many bushcraft and outdoor educationalists. Kid's do like Ferro rods due to the sparks - but they are very hot shards of metal! It has it's use for survival situations but I don't agree in their use for an everyday fire lighting tool. Ferrocerium is used in many applications such as cigarette lighters - but they only use a small amount unlike ferro rods. Please do use common sense if introducing children to fire lighting with ferro rods. The sparks produced from a Ferro Rod are very HOT metal shards and can burn skin and catch things alight (e.g. tents) so children should be supervised when using them. A few sets made with very basic tools - shards of flint and slab of slate. Our stone age ancestors were very skilled with stone and could make far better stone tools than these so they would have been more than capable of making friction fire sets with stone tools. As I have found flint is very sharp and even with small pieces of flint like the ones below , it is possible to make friction sets - it just takes a little while longer. The slate (photo 1 ) was very good for processing the hearth board by scraping the wood over the sharp edge and by sawing the wood up and down the edge it made an excellent v notch (better than some I make with a carbon steel knife!)
This is an interesting method :) A great work out for your legs :) Again just a bit of fun, but it works well once you get the co-ordination right ! This one was just for fun - using my arm as the bow ! I don't take credit for first trying this, qute a few people have tried it and @wur_thaz_smoke had previously cracked it. It's not as easy as it looks here and takes a bit of experimentation to get it right and to get the co-ordination :) A longer spindle helps - this came just below my knee; and it was quite thin so less pressure needed; multiple wraps of the cord were also needed and I found it easier if the end of cord in my hand came off the top of the wraps rather than the bottom. I can't think of any situation where I would need to use this technique - as there is usually a bow of some sort available!
Today I was playing with the #firebrace to experiment with uni-directional friction fire - to see a clip on IG click here Checkout #crookedstickfrictionfire on IG to see @wur_thaz_smoke nail it! (Photo 1 below) All kudos to Rich as it's not easy! @phyredojo also posted an excerpt from Charles Darwin yesterday (photo 2) where apparently according to Darwin the Gaucho’s deployed a method similar to the fire brace (as I am terming it!) - all credit to phyredojo for finding and posting that fascinating #fireancestry snippet (I must read that book.) The advantage with one-directional is that the spindle rotates continuously without stopping - the disadvantage - how do you get the speed!? It is easier to spin spindles fast with cord or hands but not so without! You need to apply a lot more pressure to make up for lack of speed. I’ve tried before and my experiments today failed which I knew they would. My first stick was too thin and snapped as you need to apply a lot more pressure. The 2nd one using my dad’s old woodworking brace failed as I couldn’t go fast enough - the handle too wide so taking too long to turn. Like I say checkout Rich’s #crookedstickfrictionfire as he nailed it - a good sturdy crooked stick with the correct crookedness 😀 and applying enough pressure by putting bearing under his armpit. As I discovered it’s actually not as easy to find the right crooked stick when you want a crooked stick! This is another one on my to do list 😀 Sir James Fraser (19th c anthropologist) mentions another uni-directional method by using a cart wheel for neid fire - the spindle goes thru middle - it is stood upright and spun via the wheel by a few good strong people apparently. You’d probably need a fire churn apparatus but instead of the rope you use the wheel to turn the spindle. This is another on my to do list 😀
Following my successful attempt yesterday, to coax an ember using the "Inuit" mouth drill strap drill method I have been asking myself "did the Inuit’s actually use the mouth drill for fire making ?" Yes using the mouth drill to coax an ember is possible , it isn't very pleasant though as you have smoke in your face which you can easily breathe, and it's not comfortable applying the pressure, you could damage your teeth and I nearly burnt my lips !
All of the pics I have seen have been Inuits using the mouth drill for decorating ivory. I can see the reason for using a mouth hold to decorate ivory as it frees up a hand to manipulate the ivory so to carve designs. I have seen a few similar pictures of mouth drill fire sets in museums but I’ve not seen a picture of Inuits actually using mouth drill to make fire. So it intrigued me – was this technique actually used to make fire… did they use traditional bearing block for making fire (I have seen a picture of 2 Inuit's using the strap drill - see below) or because they were so skilled at using mouth hold did they also use for fire making? Or have us westerners assumed that; and are the sets in museums assumed replicas ?😀 I may do more digging – I do find the Inuits fascinating. Anyway the mouth drill does work for fire making if you wish to use it 😀 1 - Eskimo school boy drilling ivory with primitive bow drill. Little Diomede Island, 3/1942. https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg21/id/952 Pic 2- Man using a bow drill. King Island, circa 1920 by Edward S. Curtis, courtesy of the Library of Congress, 3a16199. https://alaska.si.edu/media.asp?id=643&object_id=670 3 and 4 – Inuit bow drill set. Penn museum https://www.penn.museum/blog/museum/arctic-bow-drill/ 5 Three sides of a ivory drill bow, 1880s. Lowie Museum https://edblogs.columbia.edu 6 - icodemus, an Inuit man sits on a wooden sledge. He holds the two ends of a piece of string which is wound round a pole. Gusdiana, an Inuit woman, bends over and holds the top of the pole at knee height to steady it. 1930 https://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/collection/photos-british-arctic-air-route-expedition-1930-31/p48-16-79 7 –a Inuit fire drill thong with mouth hold – I have seen a few of these but no one actually using one to make fire . Science museum. I can now say I have successfully used the mouth drill ! But I won't be doing it again!
The mouth drill is of Inuit ancestry, where the mouth holds the bearing block and you apply the downward pressure with your head basically! I used it as a strap drill and used a thinner spindle. I needed lots of wraps of the cordage around the spindle to get the tension. It did work very well but it wasn't very pleasant! I’ve seen photos of Inuits using a bow drill and they hold the set on their lap whilst sitting (that has been more for drilling than fire making.) I carved a bearing block so I could hold it in my mouth but I have also seen Inuit bearing blocks which fit onto the chin rather than the mouth. I think the mouth drill was used more for drilling (not fire making) - and they would use a bow so it would free up a had to do other things! |
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