Learn Bushcraft skills by videos
watch the best bushcrafters explain techniques and skills

Fresh Bowdrill Kit From Scratch -Tree to Ember to Fire

Description

Mitch, Mitchell, Alone, History, Channel, Survival, Nativesurvival

Tags: mitch,mitchell,alone,history channel,shelter,hunting,bushcraft,survival,nativesurvival,native,fire,water,primitive,aboriginal,navigation,shooting,shooting tips,trapping,modern,frontier,pioneer,field dressing,butchering,trees,plants,edible,poisonous,medicinal,knots,sharpening,knife,trap,bow,arrow,hand drill,bowdrill,flintknapping,arrowhead,self reliance,nessmuk,kephart,boone,ray mears,last survivor,ns community

Video Transcription

how you doing so Mitch with the native survival school today we're gonna make a bow drill kit from scratch first thing I want to do is look for something dead standing the spine will fill the bill now let's down the section i'm looking for to use is towards the top where over time from the tree not being alive pushing its fluids and SAP around the SAP recedes down towards the bottom of the tree so this area is going to have a blanched bleached-out look it's going to look like it's lost its bark and it's more white as less yellow at some of the other areas that still have a lot of sad pine gets a darker a more amber coloring the more SAP content is in the wood that's why I want to find towards the top or it's white also still has a solid sound has it gone crumbly yet that's also very important this section is more than enough to make many kits there's a spindle with parth with spindle are that can make two kits out of this quite easily

start with my buckle saw I'll take off from the side now this is my hearth I like it about the width of my spindles pinky to thumb stretched out so my heart will be about this long

in the same for my spindle now that I'm back in camp I'm I to pieces I'm going to inspect them this has a crack running through it I have to carve that out I've gone down to right where the crock starts it takes away its strength its ability to be a problem okay this is my hearth next we'll start my spindle spindle is very similar to a hearth except i need to make it more narrow so it's more like a cylinder first thing I'm going to do let's get rid of these cracks just by carving down below their origins it's hardwood in the middle and this sat put on the outside the heartwood is going to be a little harder on the spindle the woods going to be a little harder and that can cause problems with a bow drill sometimes so I'm going to have it be offset to have some SAP wood in it so this side of the sapwood has more yellow in it probably has some more resin inside its fibers the other side is more white that's the side i'm going to use i'm going to carve away the yellow side i have a hump right here i'm going to just use a scandinavian grip so i can watch My Line as i carve take that down I'm going to flatten the top lastly i'm just going to find my spot i'm going to put a just off the edge line the edge of the spindle up with the edge of the hearth as you can see i don't want it too close to the edge because it'll break off not too far in the middle or my ember will be bored bound and off to carve a really deep notch to try to reach it get some air to it and off to take some of my board out is my divot so my bow drill kit is now carved the other pieces to my kit it's just a straight piece of wood with rope tied to it and a simple round piece of wood that I just carved a hole into for the top of the spindles are going aren't in it's not a very happy kit you can tell it's fighting you this wood is definitely fighting me

all we can do is see what happens we've gone this far feels like might be a little too much heartwood heartwood tends to sit and spin while the sapwood sinks in and turns the turns to the dust that turns into an ember really quick only thing I'm going to carve now is my notch

so my notch is all set nice simple V one thing I am going to get from my hand hold is a sassafras leaf that has a Mew cyllage inside the leaf creates like a gel a lubrication inside the handhold first-rate had one growing right next to me didn't have anywhere really to go Oh SAS for us chew on the stem mmm i use the leaf

alright let's even get a number out of this kit I like brand new bow drill kits it's like an unknown entity I know what all my other kits do I know how they feel I know how easy they make embers or not I know how many embers they have left before they all used up my build up some energy this kid's gonna fight me a little bit

need to take my strength wow this kit has a lot of resin still in it when the kit squeaks like that it means it has some resin still inside of it you can power through it sometimes other times not all right so this kit right now is teaching me that it's a kit that takes a lot of work I have some kits real simple real easy real gentle they don't need a lot of pressure don't need a lot of arm strength this needs a lot of both I'm really working hard on this one have some dust built up not quite enough to make a number I'm going to tweak my notch a little bit it's a little off center just a tiny tiny bit take this edge I'm also going to narrow this a tiny bit make it a little bit smaller and work on taking away the side of it that has all the sapwood I'm sorry the heart would I want more sad boy as the hardwood much harder than the Sabbath you

I'm also going to take some thickness out of the bottom make the hearth a little thinner because if it's this much work to make powder then the powder has to fall that much further with the thick board before it touches the other powder can build up this was a set that burnt in real easy real fast made a lot of powder really quickly I'd want to thicker set this is the opposite I want to finish that so I'm going to just take down the bottom a little and thinned my board out this is what it means to listen to the wood to listen to what the wood is telling you this wood is telling me it prefers to be a thin hearth board not a thick one all right now on the spindle I'm gonna just take out a little

of the hard work like so

alright my friend what do you say huh try for a number move that green plant little piece we're off the bat okay work it hard nice got a number i love new bow drill kits

you

I actually don't even have a tinder bundle prepared how funny is that you know what

you

we'll try these girls out and a little bit of cattail a little improv all right wasn't really interested in making a fire want to make a number get some cattail in here buried here we go and there's bundle of curls I'll just drop some cattail let's see what happens just like

the circus version rajendra bundle

uh-huh I'm prepared tinder bundle rah awesome yeah so we have a brand new bow drill kit beautifully carved with the nsk love us knife right on a little circus trick at the end using the curls what's in the bundle this been mentioned a survival school I encourage everyone just on a whim go out make a bow drill kit make a fire make it work I appreciate all you've use all your comments all your time thank you for watching my films sure to check out my website miss Melville calm as always enjoy the outdoors you

About the Author

NativeSurvival

NativeSurvival

Mitch is a Wilderness Living Skills Instructor, he has been featured on The History Channel's program "ALONE" and written articles for Outdoor Magazines; he owns and operates The Native Survival School which provides woodland living and survival classes, as well as offering quality outdoor gear he's designed. Defintely, he is a master at bushcraft's techniques.

You can find all his videos on his YouTube channel.

More articles from this author