Wanted to thank you Dave for all your shared wisdom. Great video series! I also wanted to offer a tip that me and my boys discovered today while practicing our bow drill skills. We only had 550 paracord and found that it can slip around the spindle. Field solution? Rub pine sap on the cordage and/or spindle shaft to regain friction so the spindle will rotate.

Dave, I posted a few comments regularly over the last few years to tell you how much I thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge, let alone the time you spend on acquiring these skills. The high quality, bs free, tried and proven database you are building is incredibly valuable and pretty unique. I just hope you know how important your contribution is to the outdoor/survival/hunter community. Thank you, Dave. Sincerely.

This is the best bow drill instruction I've seen on KZfaq. Thanks Dave.

I need to practice using the bow drilling technique to start a fire since I have not done it in many months. This is one thing everyone who camps out need to know and I am glad to know it.

You are an amazing Man, extremely intelligent and very well spoken. Your family is blessed.

I'll be honest. This has what's got me hung up on phase 1. Thank you so much.

Great tutorial on primitive fire both visually and narrative. This three part series one the best i have ever seen for detailed instruction. Well done Dave, Exceptional three part series.

Great video Dave and standing by for #2. Thanks again for sharing with us and stay safe.

If I told my wife I just watched every second of a 22 minute video of a man whittling a stick I think she way have me committed. Off to watch part 2 !!

you could teach a preschool class how to build fire,so much detailed instructions and these videos really help a poor man like myself learn, thank you and keep up the great work

Thanks for the detailed instruction on this topic. Don't worry about the video length, it was fine. As you said, better to prepare the best you can to help insure success, and all those details being addressed help get you farther in that direction.

Love the quote "Everything is a process". I agree Dave - Y=f(x). Mastering the inputs allows us to optimize the output. A quality process delivers quality results. I really like your "under the radar" Lean / 6 Sigma approach.

Really good info Dave. I learned that Tulip Poplar is in the Sycamore family, that the black bark that sticks tight to some Poplar branches is age, and that I like your Leatherman 300... ANXIOUS for the rest of the series... Thanks!

Very nice video Dave 1st class wilderness education thanks for that !

Great video series. Thanks for your sharing all of these skills.

Much better audio, and another great video! Thanks, Dave.

When a bic lighter dies, you can get about 10 extra light's out of it by prying off the metal windscreen that covers the flame. it allows more O2 and gives you a smaller flame, but it is enough to light a tinder bundle. dont throw it out just because you think it's dead.

Thanks Dave! I wanted to find someone to teach me, I've never met anyone personally who could. So I wouldn't have learned if you hadn't made your videos passing on knowledge. God bless!

glad to see you using the Mora Bushcraft black knife as I just got one from the Selfreliance store I think it's a very good knife for the common man, and thank's for teaching us your skill's in self reliance, now I have to find part two of this video.

I love everything about this video and this series. Thanks Dave!

Great consideration for the teaching style. Learning new and praticing tride and true. Love it! Thanks Dave. Take care!

I love the detail.

Very nice brother. Some great detailed information in this. Thank you.

Great instruction/information video Dave. Will be waiting for part 2

thank you for the tip on the leatherman supertool 300 with the saw

Very good video. A lot of the videos you see on this subject are not broken down near enough. Thanks

Nice! Cant wait for 2nd part!

Thank you for sharing the knowledge Dave. You are awesome brother!

Great video! I've found if the spindle is rubbed against the sides of the nose it gets a little of the natural oil in the skin on it and it will spin much more freely in the hand socket.

Just started watching you series here, I am looking forward to learning fire progression.

Thank you. This helps me a bunch.

Right on.. I still can't find Tulip Poplar around me.. I am hoping when the leaves grow in I'll be able to find some. Thanks for the video

No such thing as, learning too much. Thanks for all the knowledge.

I live in the Northwest so my fire kit starts with Diesel and escalates quickly from there.

you have the best instructional videos i've ever seen. this is amazing and detailed. you are a natural dave.

Say Dave your sure burning the midnight oil! LOL. Really enjoyed the great review of the bow drill. Thanks for all the important info that you and your organization share!

Great video Dave. Just got finished watching Dual Survivor on Netflix. I miss watching you. Your awesome! I look forward to watching all your videos here on your channel. Thanks for sharing your knowledge sir. God bless you sir!

thanks Dave this helps alot

nicely done Dave i liked the laid back no rush approach explaining all the elements of the spindle and how to get it right first go saves a lot of frustration later on for a student

Wow nice information well put! Ty

Very Good!

Very nice.

A great series. Can't wait for #2. Really appeiciate how in depth you go and your relaxed style of teaching. :-)

finally, a good vid since he started the subscription channel! thank you Dave! I thought you abandoned teaching those who didn't subscribe. God bless good sir!

you do a good job on all your videos Dave keep up the good work

A sage brush spindle and fire board are the easiest and best. I've started and watched thousands of fires started with hard sage brush wood. Soap stone works best for a palm rock.

For the record, there isn't really a "poplar" as I understand it. Poplar is a common name applied to a bunch of different trees in the Populus genus. It's worthwhile to point out that Populus is in the Salicaceae, or willow family, and as such has a bunch of excellent friction fire woods. If you can spot the characteristics unique to that family, you don't need to know the species to know it's probably a good bow drill wood.

good vid man thanks for the lesson bro

good vid this is what i want to see. gonna be practicing this a lot this year and making charcloth

Hello Dave You're right, you have to slowly make it right! I look forward to the second part, is great. Very nice spindle, but this spindle is not that a bit too thick? The thinner the spindle is, the more heat is produced or not? Thank you LG Remo

Dave, at one time you posted a video of you failing at a bow drill fire. It was one of my favorites. I can't find it. Did you take it down? If so, that's a shame. Failure is part of the learning process, and that video demonstrated that no one is infallible. Obviously you have honed your skills and mastered this skill. There is no shame in a previous failure. If I'm just missing it, please post a link. If you did delete it, please repost. I'm sure it would give others the inspiration to persevere. Thanks from a long time fan.

Dave, get in touch with the Pain Killer Already crew on youtube and go on thier tri with them... I would love to see that.

It's great video Dave! You doing an amazing job and I should know, I believe I was with you when you started your channel!:) God bless!

Love your videos. Ive learned a lot so far. Hope to learn more and as much as i can. Maybe come to some classes in the future.

Tier 1 of woodscraft

oops should have waited for the whole video. You answered it at the end.

It's a great tutorial with a lot of good details. I do however, have a question - I've been trying this method a lot times (and have succeeded a few times), but mostly I only get some smolder, which looks like small pieces of string (maybe 2-3mm of length). But no ember. Any advice on what I'm doing wrong? I'm using birch for both spindle and board.

i always had trouble doing the bow drill there had to be the right wood, the wood had to be dry and you had to have the pressure on the bearing block right

Ticonderoga #2 hahah great video man

Yeah Dave miss you on dual survival . New show on TV ?

I found what after watching this video is a tulip poplur I was working it down with a draw knife and had long shavings so I decided to put them in a tinder bundle the flames were 6 to 12 inches high it went up so fast I sat there bumb founded for a minute. Is this a careistristic of tulip poplur ?

Hey Dave, I noticed you have something else around your neck besides the ferro rod cross. It looks like a bow drill divot, but what exactly is it?

What kind of knife do you recommend for carving on your wood?

Damn 5hour energy commercial, screw ads.

I remember using those big fat pencils.

So your spindle is the span of thumb tip to pinky. . . what is that in inches? I am a woman with small hands. If I used thumb tip to pinky it might not be big enough.

Dave, at the end, you didn't say "Thank you for supporting my family" like you always do. I like that part. Hope everything is ok. Stay cool brother.

hay Dave does basswood work for a bow drill set

In central Florida we have mostly hickory, oak and pine. Would any of those be good for making a bow drill set?

Is this spindal something you keep with you? Seems like a lot of trouble for a one time use.

I wonder if flint and steel will ignite bowdrill char

This has absoltely nothing to do with this, but I have a question for you, Mr. Canterbury. Pretty much every survivalist and such say that cayenne pepper is anti-hemoragic and anti-septic, but on this site I found when researching medicinal spices to write in my journal (health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/natural-medicine/herbal-remedies/cayenne-pepper-herbal-remedies1.htm) it says "Avoid getting cayenne into the eyes or open wounds". I get the eyes thing, but... How safe is it to put in a wound?

Does ceder work?

I have a Bear Grylls knife that can't cut through paper without ripping it. I have asked for a mora, but my parents won't let me. Any persuasive advice?

Liked!

if its that important , style and function gotta be covered ...

The bow drill or hand drill are the hardest of all to do let alone master. Mechanically a bow is a Horrible design. Why not re-create the bow drill to have more mechanical advantage to turn the spindle with much less work? I think it can be done with gears and pulley's you make in the woods.

20 minutes to make fire spindle? ummm... ok. lol