Friction fire starting, wet conditions fire starting, and “one match” fires
We spent quite a bit of time on fire lighting. We started out with something incredibly simple. “One match fires”
Tim taught us to use a technique that works regardless of whether the ground is covered in snow or not....and that is to gather your tinder bundle with material that is NOT found on the ground. We gathered the dead twigs found still attached to the base of most of the trees in the north woods.
The idea was to have enough thin twigs in the bundle so that one match would light it easily. All of the material is combustible and we all knew it would light, but the exercise was about making the bundle as perfect as possible...in order to prepare for the day when all you’ve got is that one match. For that reason, it really was a great exercise.
We then did fire starting in wet conditions. In order to do that, we had to process wet wood and light it on fire. It was dry that day, but we went through all of the following steps anyway.
We each had to find some standing dead tree. One that wasn’t too thick. The closer to vertical, the less moisture would be absorbed. We felled the tree, sectioned it, and focused on the upper section. We took that upper section, split it, exposed the wood inside, and made feather sticks with the pieces. We then had to do a “one match” fire with these. This was a bit time consuming, but it worked out great.
The friction fire stuff was the hardest and most interesting.
Tim successfully demonstrated the use of a hand drill, but he focused on the bow drill for us. More material to make, but better biomechanics for the user.
Not every student participated in this process......but those that did found the raw materials to make the bow drill.
Tim told us that the spindle and the hearth (or the base) were the key components. “Non dense, non resinous material”....that was important.
Tim used the bow drill successfully and then had us give it a try.
Out of the five of us who tried, only two succeeded. I was not one of them! It’s a great technique, but I got too tired. One of the two successful students was a 19 year old guy. He never quit. Broken hearth? He made another. Spindle flies away? He started over. 90 minutes later, he had a coal. It was amazing to watch. The picture in the OP is of the other guy who got a coal. It took him about 45 minutes.
All done with stuff pulled out of the woods. (With the notable exception of the twine we used for the bow)
We did learn to make rope out of grass, but we didn’t make any other cordage.