Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Let's Commit To Something Else

After another tiresome evening of work, Mike and I have come to the conclusion that the fire bow is an unfeasible method of making fire. After making and then breaking several more bows, we decided to try to prove the concept of our efforts. We found a bit of wood that was the same type as our spindle stick. After a brief bit of work I was able to fit it into a 3/8" electric drill and smooth it out. We tried using two different base boards - neither produced a serviceable coal.

We did yield our first invention in the process though - we have grown relatively proficient at making rope out of plant stuff. We have a lot of projects upcoming that require the use of twine. We will be using commercially made sisal as a substitute to our home-made goods.

Our next course of action is to build a fire piston. This is a traditional fire-building tool used by Pacific islanders. More on that project as we get there.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Fire HARD!

Once again we attempted fire. Inventing fire is hard. Really hard.

It's not that I expected it to be easy, hundreds of former military guys make lots of money telling accountants, and weekend warriors how to make fire from twigs, sticks, and magnifying glass lenses in outdoorsy experience camps and survival seminars. Even their demonstrations don't work out well sometimes, and they have the luxury of modern fire starting equipment.

Still, I had thought that two resourceful guys with plenty of internets behind them would surely sort out a fire bow or some kind of flint spark by now. If Unk'nuk could figure it out thousands of years ago just by messing around with sticks, you'd think two fairly handy people who already know what to do could execute such a seemingly simple task. Right now our only major accomplishment is the creation of Gross-Rope: the rope that's covered in gross.

We did get much closer. Mark fashioned a much more solid and smooth stick using some stone tools, we put way more curve in our bow and just started producing smoke when our old dried bark string let go. The rest of our time was spent making a new string and trying various other bows. The challenge now seems to be in getting the proportions right for keeping the string in good tension without compromising the bow. I have high hopes that we will see some success soon, but if we don't were going to have to hit the store and get us some flint I think. Until we make fire there isn't much we can do.

Until then we are just following in the shambling footsteps of Unk'nuk.