in today’s video using the simplest of
tools I’m going to teach you how to make
a bow drill fire
hey guys I’m Nate and I’m Cali and it is
really cold out here so I’m gonna teach
you guys how to build a fire with
nothing but this that is we’re gonna use
a knife to make some other tools to make
a fire today we are learning how to make
and use a bow drill the classic holding
a stick and passing a bow over it to
create enough friction that it actually
starts a fire now you guys in the past
have seen Nate and grant teach you
multiple ways of making different types
of fires the reason that a bow-drill
fire is so cool is that it’s been around
about as long as people have and you can
use the simplest of tools to make it so
here’s the basic idea using a nice
paracord in nature we’re going to teach
you how to make the tools to build a
fire it looks like we’ve got quite a few
materials out here but you’re saying we
we basically just start with a knife and
everything is from that pretty much yeah
if you’re in a survival situation you
don’t even really need the paracord in a
pinch you can use a shoelace for maybe
one or two bow drill fires but to make
things simple we’re gonna have some
paracord first off I wanted to show you
why paracord is so essential to have
especially if you’re out hiking in the
wilderness and you might need it for a
survival situation this is a piece of
paracord that has been used several
times but it’s already worn through
so I’ve already cut a new piece of hair
cord to use with this bow this is a
willow bow now with your bow you just
need a piece of wood that’s pretty
decently curved but is really really
strong now willow and juniper are known
for having a nice gentle curve and being
really really strong now what you don’t
want is a piece of wood that’s too thin
for your bow or something that’s gonna
be green or SAP like or resinous the
problem with that is as soon as you
start trying to drill with that it’s not
gonna last
it’s not that willow and juniper are the
only types of wood that works for this
they just happen to be two that make
really nice shapes and strengths for
making bows they’re also native to the
area that we’re in so as long as you
have a non resinous soft very very dry
wood you should be good to go there’s
always gonna be some trial and error but
I bet you can start your own fight
this is a piece of sage root and that’s
called the fire board that’s gonna start
an ember that ember is gonna be what
starts with fire so this is just a piece
of board that’s been flattened pretty
well on both sides and well I think
power tools may have been used to make
this particular one you definitely don’t
need to you can get this shape with a
knife if you’re patient or honestly even
just a sharp rock now this is a sage
spindle now this is a sage branch and
again you can use other things other
excellent fire boards that you can use
is going to be dry cotton wood as well
as yuca but I didn’t have any yuca
available so we are using sage root and
a sage branch this right here is a palm
rocket obviously it’s a rock and it’s
chosen because it fits nicely into your
palm that’s gonna be pretty key because
we need to hold on to it really well Wow
applying a lot of pressure from the top
you can probably see there’s a little
divot in this rock right here and this
you make by just finding another rock
and you start and drilling into it and
that’s gonna take you some time keep
twisting it until you have a divot
that’s just the right size to fit with
the piece of your stick as you can see
I’ve already assembled the supplies but
this is probably my favorite thing that
I carry with me when I go backpacking
this knife has a nice fine edge along
with a saw blade so as long as I had
this knife and some bootlaces I could
probably start a bow drill fire in most
areas in this region so you can already
see that I’ve cut the notches in this
bow we’ve got one on this side one on
the other and that just keeps the
paracord from slipping out of place the
most important thing to remember about a
friction fire is that resinous wood is
not gonna work neither is any sort of
wet wood this needs to be as dry as dry
can get and it’s all trial and error
you’re usually not gonna get a fire on
your first second or even third try but
you will get that alright so for the
very last thing that you’re gonna need
this is juniper bark now juniper is very
common in the desert around this
region now this is incredibly dry you
can see how it’s just flaking off as I
hold it there’s literally like dark dust
falling off of it right now that is
exactly what you want now I formed as
best I can and nest it’s very very loose
because we need air flow to get through
but we’re gonna need even finer bark
dust inside it
that’s what’s gonna catch the Ember and
really get it to spark so Nate let me
show you how to do this so as you can
see very very loose here and I’ve got
quite a bit more so what you’re gonna
want to do almost as if you were trying
to form a rope and then you’re gonna
twist it around see if you can form that
into a nest it’s gonna just fall apart
in your hands now something you might
want to note is juniper bark is useful
as it is just so many splinters so just
a very loose nest air can get through it
to make it kind of nest shaped I just
wrapped it around in a circle and now
I’m kind of holding it in on itself so
here’s a couple of differences that I
was saying this piece of sage root was
cut using power tools
this one will split a little bit more
naturally we’ve taken a knife to it
we’ve cut a notch and then we’ve taken a
stone and split it in half and as you
can see we’ve had lots of successful
fires with it so your easiest not
honestly on one side and normally the
straighter side you’re gonna go ahead
and put just a regular old square knot
so on the strange side of your bow if
you happen to have one just tie a knot
it doesn’t really matter what’s gonna
matter is the other side if you happen
to have a bow like mine where one side
curves a little bit more that’s gonna be
the side that you want a clove hitch
knot the reason that that’s so important
is that that way we can actually adjust
the tension as we go so that we can make
sure that we don’t drop our spindle all
right so it’s a little bit loose with
that’s now we go hunting with her right
first thing that we’re gonna do while we
do have a usable section here for the
fire board nate is really excited to use
my knife so we’re gonna let him go ahead
and cut a new notch into the board
itself now what you want to remember is
that you’re gonna actually have your
foot placed on one side of this to hold
it in place so you’re gonna want to try
and keep it as close to this other hole
here as possible
near the edge few different ways that
you can do this there’s a pizza cut
there’s a regular notch but what you’re
gonna do is you’re gonna cut a fine line
from here all the way through to the
other side from the bottom you can
choose a rectangle you can choose a
pizza cut at this point it’s really just
preference but the important thing is
that notch that we cut will actually go
all the way down into the middle of this
divot when we’re using our bow drill the
Ember will form in this divot right here
and we need the notch so it can actually
fall out onto whatever surface is below
it not just fall out you need that for
air flow the ember will not form without
that so now are you gonna want to do
you’re gonna drill a very small divot so
the friction of the spindle is actually
going to make the hole much much larger
we start with it pretty little the
reason why you just don’t want this to
slip out of place now everyone has
preferences you can see that this
spindle is a little bit rounder it’s
been used a little bit more than this
one now if you have more of a round edge
here where it goes into the fire board
you’re gonna get more friction more
chance of a fire but this is gonna start
smoking a lot faster so now we’ve got
our fire board ready we’ve got our
spindle are both set up now the last
thing that we’re gonna need with all of
this is we need something to catch our
ember now if you’re out in the
wilderness and you don’t know I’m gonna
have just a piece of leather you can
actually use just a leaf or another
board what you’re gonna do is you’ll
place this underneath your fire board
it’ll catch the Ember so that once the
ember is formed you can drop it into
your juniper nest I’m taking a little
bit of this juniper bark and I’m just
shredding it and pinching it and turning
it into just the tiniest smallest dust
fibers that we can and that’s what we’re
gonna try and get the ember to really
ignite first
so Nate’s got our nest I’m gonna go
ahead and get everything prepped here so
I’ve got my piece to catch the Ember
I’ve got my fire board have my spindle
and I palm rock now I’m taking off my
gloves because as nice as they are it’s
really not gonna help when I’m trying to
hold this bow so what you’re gonna want
to do is you’re gonna have your dominant
hand with your knee on the ground your
other foots gonna hold your fire board
I’m gonna take your your boat I’m gonna
take your spindle now this will take if
you try sometimes I’m probably gonna
fling this across the yard but what
you’re gonna do is you can see I’ve got
this kind of loose here and I can
tighten it as me be with my clove hitch
knot
I’m gonna take my spindle and I’m going
to twist it into my paracord watch out
Nate perfect okay so this is a really
really good tension because it’s tight
still mobile though so what we’ll do now
I’ll hold this I’m gonna take my left
arm because I’m right-handed embrace it
against my left leg
get that spindle into that little notch
that Nate’s made take my palm rock goes
on to the edge of the spindle and now
believe it or not this is all been the
easy part this is the part that takes a
little bit of practice you’re gonna pull
it you’re gonna pull it back and forth
pretty darn slow until you see smoke
once you see smoke you want to keep a
really even pace now this pace needs to
last for about 30 strokes so you can
kind of count the ABCs in your head it’s
about the amount of time it’s gonna take
and as you do that the downward pressure
so all that took was really about 15
seconds you can already see but they’ve
got some friction and we’ve already
darkened the wood we’ve already have a
little bit of smoke so we’re gonna keep
going if at any point you’re feeling
like your VOC stirring just isn’t
staying tight enough it’s pretty darn
easy to take your leftover paracord here
wrap it around that clove hitch knot and
this is why you want to use the more
curved edge where your hand is because
you can actually tighten the string as
you go
at this point you can see that Cali has
smoke coming off of the spindle what
you’re really looking for in an ember is
when you stop using the bow in the
spindle you should see a thin stream of
smoke coming up if you have a successful
ember it will continue smoking after you
stop using the bow still smoking still
smoking okay
nope that one died alright that’s okay
getting it on your first try doesn’t
normally happen but you could see the
smoke rising off of it and you can see
this has been a sharpened point before
we work that way oh very out of breath
we’ve worked that down to almost a flat
edge now so that’s what it looks like
through just a few passes all right Nate
I’m tired I’m give it a shot nice
okay now hold it up don’t breathe on it
hold it up there you go see that this is
what we want he’s got one okay now stand
up and just sort of pass it through the
air back and forth gently and don’t do
this over anything flammable he’s got a
Wow I made fire he’s advanced to the
level of caveman now obviously we
weren’t looking to create a bonfire here
today but if you’d had a pile of
kindling ready to go some nice dry wood
and tinder this would have caught you
would have been good to go so it’s been
a couple of days since Nate and I showed
you how to make a bow-drill fire now
grant wants to try what can I say I like
just smoking stop smoking from smoking
just walking good okay cool he’s got one
didn’t say I was the best but I do like
taking the fire alright very carefully
it is just a little baby fire way didn’t
happen you got to cradle it be gentle
ah there we go you finally warm up burn
these goosebumps away Thank You Kelly it
works so just some thoughts after having
done that the ember that I got to
actually start and catch on to that it
was little there was quite a bit of
burned wood material you probably saw
that it looked like it was about that
the area of a dime and stacked up maybe
quarter of an inch tall so like there
was a lot of stuff that looked like it
might have worked but the actual Ember
the one that was still burning that was
about just this tiny little glowing
orange spot and that’s what we got to
catch and grow into all of the bark and
the shredded dust that we made out of it
and what you want to remember there is
there’s one point where Nate even
thought it wasn’t there anymore the red
glow doesn’t stay you’ve got to remember
that it’s still surviving so long as you
can see smoke chances are you still
probably have a viable ember you still
just need to transfer it over and let it
sit for a second and it should be okay
that’s all you need guys that’s all we
have for you today but the fun doesn’t
end here if you click that box to the
top that will take you to our latest
video the box the bottom will take you
to a YouTube thinks you should be
watching next and this bomb in the
middle will let you subscribe don’t
forget to ring that Bell and we’ll see
you in the next one talk to you then [Music]
tools I’m going to teach you how to make
a bow drill fire
hey guys I’m Nate and I’m Cali and it is
really cold out here so I’m gonna teach
you guys how to build a fire with
nothing but this that is we’re gonna use
a knife to make some other tools to make
a fire today we are learning how to make
and use a bow drill the classic holding
a stick and passing a bow over it to
create enough friction that it actually
starts a fire now you guys in the past
have seen Nate and grant teach you
multiple ways of making different types
of fires the reason that a bow-drill
fire is so cool is that it’s been around
about as long as people have and you can
use the simplest of tools to make it so
here’s the basic idea using a nice
paracord in nature we’re going to teach
you how to make the tools to build a
fire it looks like we’ve got quite a few
materials out here but you’re saying we
we basically just start with a knife and
everything is from that pretty much yeah
if you’re in a survival situation you
don’t even really need the paracord in a
pinch you can use a shoelace for maybe
one or two bow drill fires but to make
things simple we’re gonna have some
paracord first off I wanted to show you
why paracord is so essential to have
especially if you’re out hiking in the
wilderness and you might need it for a
survival situation this is a piece of
paracord that has been used several
times but it’s already worn through
so I’ve already cut a new piece of hair
cord to use with this bow this is a
willow bow now with your bow you just
need a piece of wood that’s pretty
decently curved but is really really
strong now willow and juniper are known
for having a nice gentle curve and being
really really strong now what you don’t
want is a piece of wood that’s too thin
for your bow or something that’s gonna
be green or SAP like or resinous the
problem with that is as soon as you
start trying to drill with that it’s not
gonna last
it’s not that willow and juniper are the
only types of wood that works for this
they just happen to be two that make
really nice shapes and strengths for
making bows they’re also native to the
area that we’re in so as long as you
have a non resinous soft very very dry
wood you should be good to go there’s
always gonna be some trial and error but
I bet you can start your own fight
this is a piece of sage root and that’s
called the fire board that’s gonna start
an ember that ember is gonna be what
starts with fire so this is just a piece
of board that’s been flattened pretty
well on both sides and well I think
power tools may have been used to make
this particular one you definitely don’t
need to you can get this shape with a
knife if you’re patient or honestly even
just a sharp rock now this is a sage
spindle now this is a sage branch and
again you can use other things other
excellent fire boards that you can use
is going to be dry cotton wood as well
as yuca but I didn’t have any yuca
available so we are using sage root and
a sage branch this right here is a palm
rocket obviously it’s a rock and it’s
chosen because it fits nicely into your
palm that’s gonna be pretty key because
we need to hold on to it really well Wow
applying a lot of pressure from the top
you can probably see there’s a little
divot in this rock right here and this
you make by just finding another rock
and you start and drilling into it and
that’s gonna take you some time keep
twisting it until you have a divot
that’s just the right size to fit with
the piece of your stick as you can see
I’ve already assembled the supplies but
this is probably my favorite thing that
I carry with me when I go backpacking
this knife has a nice fine edge along
with a saw blade so as long as I had
this knife and some bootlaces I could
probably start a bow drill fire in most
areas in this region so you can already
see that I’ve cut the notches in this
bow we’ve got one on this side one on
the other and that just keeps the
paracord from slipping out of place the
most important thing to remember about a
friction fire is that resinous wood is
not gonna work neither is any sort of
wet wood this needs to be as dry as dry
can get and it’s all trial and error
you’re usually not gonna get a fire on
your first second or even third try but
you will get that alright so for the
very last thing that you’re gonna need
this is juniper bark now juniper is very
common in the desert around this
region now this is incredibly dry you
can see how it’s just flaking off as I
hold it there’s literally like dark dust
falling off of it right now that is
exactly what you want now I formed as
best I can and nest it’s very very loose
because we need air flow to get through
but we’re gonna need even finer bark
dust inside it
that’s what’s gonna catch the Ember and
really get it to spark so Nate let me
show you how to do this so as you can
see very very loose here and I’ve got
quite a bit more so what you’re gonna
want to do almost as if you were trying
to form a rope and then you’re gonna
twist it around see if you can form that
into a nest it’s gonna just fall apart
in your hands now something you might
want to note is juniper bark is useful
as it is just so many splinters so just
a very loose nest air can get through it
to make it kind of nest shaped I just
wrapped it around in a circle and now
I’m kind of holding it in on itself so
here’s a couple of differences that I
was saying this piece of sage root was
cut using power tools
this one will split a little bit more
naturally we’ve taken a knife to it
we’ve cut a notch and then we’ve taken a
stone and split it in half and as you
can see we’ve had lots of successful
fires with it so your easiest not
honestly on one side and normally the
straighter side you’re gonna go ahead
and put just a regular old square knot
so on the strange side of your bow if
you happen to have one just tie a knot
it doesn’t really matter what’s gonna
matter is the other side if you happen
to have a bow like mine where one side
curves a little bit more that’s gonna be
the side that you want a clove hitch
knot the reason that that’s so important
is that that way we can actually adjust
the tension as we go so that we can make
sure that we don’t drop our spindle all
right so it’s a little bit loose with
that’s now we go hunting with her right
first thing that we’re gonna do while we
do have a usable section here for the
fire board nate is really excited to use
my knife so we’re gonna let him go ahead
and cut a new notch into the board
itself now what you want to remember is
that you’re gonna actually have your
foot placed on one side of this to hold
it in place so you’re gonna want to try
and keep it as close to this other hole
here as possible
near the edge few different ways that
you can do this there’s a pizza cut
there’s a regular notch but what you’re
gonna do is you’re gonna cut a fine line
from here all the way through to the
other side from the bottom you can
choose a rectangle you can choose a
pizza cut at this point it’s really just
preference but the important thing is
that notch that we cut will actually go
all the way down into the middle of this
divot when we’re using our bow drill the
Ember will form in this divot right here
and we need the notch so it can actually
fall out onto whatever surface is below
it not just fall out you need that for
air flow the ember will not form without
that so now are you gonna want to do
you’re gonna drill a very small divot so
the friction of the spindle is actually
going to make the hole much much larger
we start with it pretty little the
reason why you just don’t want this to
slip out of place now everyone has
preferences you can see that this
spindle is a little bit rounder it’s
been used a little bit more than this
one now if you have more of a round edge
here where it goes into the fire board
you’re gonna get more friction more
chance of a fire but this is gonna start
smoking a lot faster so now we’ve got
our fire board ready we’ve got our
spindle are both set up now the last
thing that we’re gonna need with all of
this is we need something to catch our
ember now if you’re out in the
wilderness and you don’t know I’m gonna
have just a piece of leather you can
actually use just a leaf or another
board what you’re gonna do is you’ll
place this underneath your fire board
it’ll catch the Ember so that once the
ember is formed you can drop it into
your juniper nest I’m taking a little
bit of this juniper bark and I’m just
shredding it and pinching it and turning
it into just the tiniest smallest dust
fibers that we can and that’s what we’re
gonna try and get the ember to really
ignite first
so Nate’s got our nest I’m gonna go
ahead and get everything prepped here so
I’ve got my piece to catch the Ember
I’ve got my fire board have my spindle
and I palm rock now I’m taking off my
gloves because as nice as they are it’s
really not gonna help when I’m trying to
hold this bow so what you’re gonna want
to do is you’re gonna have your dominant
hand with your knee on the ground your
other foots gonna hold your fire board
I’m gonna take your your boat I’m gonna
take your spindle now this will take if
you try sometimes I’m probably gonna
fling this across the yard but what
you’re gonna do is you can see I’ve got
this kind of loose here and I can
tighten it as me be with my clove hitch
knot
I’m gonna take my spindle and I’m going
to twist it into my paracord watch out
Nate perfect okay so this is a really
really good tension because it’s tight
still mobile though so what we’ll do now
I’ll hold this I’m gonna take my left
arm because I’m right-handed embrace it
against my left leg
get that spindle into that little notch
that Nate’s made take my palm rock goes
on to the edge of the spindle and now
believe it or not this is all been the
easy part this is the part that takes a
little bit of practice you’re gonna pull
it you’re gonna pull it back and forth
pretty darn slow until you see smoke
once you see smoke you want to keep a
really even pace now this pace needs to
last for about 30 strokes so you can
kind of count the ABCs in your head it’s
about the amount of time it’s gonna take
and as you do that the downward pressure
so all that took was really about 15
seconds you can already see but they’ve
got some friction and we’ve already
darkened the wood we’ve already have a
little bit of smoke so we’re gonna keep
going if at any point you’re feeling
like your VOC stirring just isn’t
staying tight enough it’s pretty darn
easy to take your leftover paracord here
wrap it around that clove hitch knot and
this is why you want to use the more
curved edge where your hand is because
you can actually tighten the string as
you go
at this point you can see that Cali has
smoke coming off of the spindle what
you’re really looking for in an ember is
when you stop using the bow in the
spindle you should see a thin stream of
smoke coming up if you have a successful
ember it will continue smoking after you
stop using the bow still smoking still
smoking okay
nope that one died alright that’s okay
getting it on your first try doesn’t
normally happen but you could see the
smoke rising off of it and you can see
this has been a sharpened point before
we work that way oh very out of breath
we’ve worked that down to almost a flat
edge now so that’s what it looks like
through just a few passes all right Nate
I’m tired I’m give it a shot nice
okay now hold it up don’t breathe on it
hold it up there you go see that this is
what we want he’s got one okay now stand
up and just sort of pass it through the
air back and forth gently and don’t do
this over anything flammable he’s got a
Wow I made fire he’s advanced to the
level of caveman now obviously we
weren’t looking to create a bonfire here
today but if you’d had a pile of
kindling ready to go some nice dry wood
and tinder this would have caught you
would have been good to go so it’s been
a couple of days since Nate and I showed
you how to make a bow-drill fire now
grant wants to try what can I say I like
just smoking stop smoking from smoking
just walking good okay cool he’s got one
didn’t say I was the best but I do like
taking the fire alright very carefully
it is just a little baby fire way didn’t
happen you got to cradle it be gentle
ah there we go you finally warm up burn
these goosebumps away Thank You Kelly it
works so just some thoughts after having
done that the ember that I got to
actually start and catch on to that it
was little there was quite a bit of
burned wood material you probably saw
that it looked like it was about that
the area of a dime and stacked up maybe
quarter of an inch tall so like there
was a lot of stuff that looked like it
might have worked but the actual Ember
the one that was still burning that was
about just this tiny little glowing
orange spot and that’s what we got to
catch and grow into all of the bark and
the shredded dust that we made out of it
and what you want to remember there is
there’s one point where Nate even
thought it wasn’t there anymore the red
glow doesn’t stay you’ve got to remember
that it’s still surviving so long as you
can see smoke chances are you still
probably have a viable ember you still
just need to transfer it over and let it
sit for a second and it should be okay
that’s all you need guys that’s all we
have for you today but the fun doesn’t
end here if you click that box to the
top that will take you to our latest
video the box the bottom will take you
to a YouTube thinks you should be
watching next and this bomb in the
middle will let you subscribe don’t
forget to ring that Bell and we’ll see
you in the next one talk to you then [Music]
Please follow and like us: