Uploaded October 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I thought it might be fun to try making a bow drill fire using materials that I could find within about twenty yards of an arbitrary point (where I was sitting when I had the idea). I was up on a hilltop covered with cedars, so I went with a cedar branch for the set and cedar roots for the cordage.
The only dry punkwood I could find in that small area was black cottonwood, which smolders well but doesn't flame up the way coniferous punkwood does. I got a pile of it smoldering and transferred it into some moss to blow it into flames
Questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome.
I thought it might be fun to try making a bow drill fire using materials that I could find within about twenty yards of an arbitrary point (where I was sitting when I had the idea). I was up on a hilltop covered with cedars, so I went with a cedar branch for the set and cedar roots for the cordage.
The only dry punkwood I could find in that small area was black cottonwood, which smolders well but doesn't flame up the way coniferous punkwood does. I got a pile of it smoldering and transferred it into some moss to blow it into flames
Questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome.
