Hello all,
I hope you’re having a great week! This week’s edition of our Bushcraft Fundamentals how-to series is all about friction fire-lighting, with a focus on bow drills. There’s a lot to cover, so we’ve split it into two parts:
One of the skills most closely associated with bushcraft is friction fire-lighting—rubbing sticks together to create an ember. The most familiar method is the bow drill technique, where a spindle is wrapped in a bowstring and spun with a sawing motion to drill into a baseboard.
Like all skills, it may look simple at first, but a few key points will greatly improve your early success. These techniques were practiced for millennia, passed down through generations—so achieving flame on the very first try is a tall order.
In this series, we’ll break down the components, explain the process, and share troubleshooting tips to get you practising. We’ll also include further reading at the end.
We often get hung up on species, but with good technique you can succeed with many woods. To make learning smoother, choose wood that’s soft enough to mark with a thumbnail—the simple thumbnail test saves you from ID guesswork.
Make the board flat on the bottom so it doesn’t rock and roughly thumb-knuckle thick (~2 cm). Twice as wide as it is thick adds stability. Old pallet boards make excellent practice stock.
Length is your call, but allow room for your foot beside the spindle—~30 cm is a good start. From the wild, prefer dead (ideally dead-standing) wood. Great beginner species include alder, willow, lime, sycamore, and poplar.
You can split a larger log and make both hearth and spindle—10–15 cm diameter stock yields a full kit—but straight, uniform branches are easier. Favourites: hazel and willow.
Rule of thumb: a branch about as thick as your thumb and roughly the distance from pinky tip to thumb tip (🤙).
Think of a pencil—pointed top, duller bottom—with a few nuances. We want to reduce friction on top and maximise it at the base.
The top point should be no wider than your thumb and slightly rounded to reduce friction. The bottom point should be a defined peak so it locks into the hearth—too rounded and it’ll skate out.
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Spindle length: roughly pinky-to-thumb span (🤙). |
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Bottom: a small sharp peak locks into the hearth without skating. |
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Top: rounded and no wider than your thumb to reduce friction. |
Comfort is king. If you’re thinking about your grip, you’re not focused on the drill. A rounded green hardwood (hornbeam, oak, ash) that fills your palm is ideal. Carve a small divot just deep enough for the spindle tip; lube with a bit of green leaf if using dry wood.
Any smooth, concave surface works—stone, antler, bone, limpet shell. I’ve even used skateboard wheels (bearings = ultra-low friction). Thin materials can heat up—gloves help.
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Bearing blocks made from wood, stone, antler, and shell. |
Counter-intuitively, less bend is better. Think more “)” than “D”. A stiffer stick keeps string tension; wide bows feel unwieldy.
Forked sticks make tensioning easy: tie the non-forked end (slippery hitch/jam knot/drilled and knotted), pull the other end tight and lock off on the fork in a figure-8. Adjust by re-doing the figure-8 or use a clove hitch if there’s no fork.
Twist the drill into the cord and check for slip. If it doesn’t slide along the cord, tension is good; if it does, tighten. Use strong, tough, low-stretch cord (paracord; blind pull-cords with protective sheaths also work).
Sometimes we practise just to achieve an ember, but if you want flame you need a prepared tinder bundle—preparation is everything. Materials vary by region.
My go-to: cleavers / goosegrass / sticky weed (Galium aparine). It grows in quantity along fences/hedges and air-dries off the ground. Make a softball-sized bundle with a divot in the centre; rub/process to create fines for the centre; compress so you can’t see through it to trap heat. Dried bracken, grasses and bark fibres also work—finest in the centre.
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Dead, dry cleavers (Galium aparine) — my reliable friction-fire tinder. |
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Living Galium aparine: spot it and you’ll often find usable dead material nearby. |
With the set prepared, “marry” the parts—this is burning in.
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Place the drill so the front edge aligns with the board’s front edge; where the back edge sits is where you’ll carve a small divot for the spindle’s blunt top. |
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Carving a shallow divot: resting point for the spindle’s pointed end. |
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Set the drill on the outside of the string (not inside) for a longer stroke—especially helpful with straighter bows. The sharper end points up. |
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Right-handed setup: left foot on hearth by the divot; wrist locked against shin. Apply enough down pressure for free spin without ejection—tricky at first; keep at it. |
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When you see a wisp of smoke, let some dust build and check that drill and hearth are “matched.” |
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Once burned in, carve a straight-sided V-notch to the socket (~45°). Keep edges clean so dust drops through. |
Prepare your tinder bundle and place something under the notch to catch dust (an Artisan Fire Mat or a large green leaf).
As smoke grows, the dust consolidates into a glowing ember. It’s fragile—don’t blow yet. Waft gently with your hand to feed it.
Transfer the coal to the tinder’s centre. Close the bundle and raise it so smoke/heat rise away. Blow toward the ember like birthday candles; when smoke streams, increase your breath until it ignites. Place the flaming bundle upside-down in your fireplace.
Fire by friction is achievable for most—put in the dirt time, build muscle memory, and don’t let early hiccups put you off. Few feelings beat flame you’ve earned with your own hands.
