Willow on Ivy Fire Plough

Retrying the vines with the fire plough.

First up was Clematis Vitalbae (Travellers Joy, Old Man’s Beard) a creeping vine. It is soft wood and favoured for the hand drill hearth. The Greek botanist Theophrastus (300BC) sang it’s praises for friction fire in his work The Enquiry Into Plants over 2000yrs ago!
Anyway, Some people use it successfully for the fire plough. I can’t get on with it, I may go back and try different woods for the blade, the dust was just gritty and fine, and I prefer to save my precious stocks of Clematis for the hand drill 😀I tried Hazel and Willow blades.

Next up was Ivy, you want the real thick old vines growing up trees, it can grow very thick. Again, Ivy is soft and works well with Hand and Bow drill. Again, dust very fine. I tried Hazel no good then Willow (which is softer) and after a few tries, and experimenting with speed and pressure, I managed to tease out an ember 🙏🔥

I’m learning with the plough, it’s not just about going all mad for it, sometimes a steady rhythm with steady pressure works better, but other times you need that extra umpfff!

It’s all about experimenting.
Great fun, I’m addicted!

vines don’t have same consistency as wood- try splitting them 😀 so that may have an affect on the plough.... or not....

Anyway I’m Well chuffed with today’s experiments!

If you didn’t see the earlier post, I have also been successful with Willow on Willow 🔥

Happy Ploughing 🔥🙏