Western Red Cedar Fire Plow

[kermitttt]

My wife told me to pratice this method :/

[FrontCortex]

I watched this done old school style by a man in a grass skirt in Fiji, and he literally had fire in about 30 seconds, easy! He took much longer strokes, 2-3 times as long as yours. Also, for better stability and much less effort, get on your knees, your body weight would greatly increase the friction quotient. It shouldn't take that much effort. Longer strokes!

[billarakas]

Here in Greece there isn't any cedar or sotol.Can you send me a small piece?

[Replicachile1]

Fire!...Great Men jajaja great!...wath wood are the best? thx

[Arabhacks]

Baidarka, the kayak from the Aleutian?

[Masowai]

Nice job. I've never seen anyone do this. Seems like waaaay too much effort, though. I would rather use a firebow drill. Good vid.

[baidarka7]

@Masowai

Yeah, it's not really practical. Just a "proof of concept". :-) Sotol is much easier and more reliable.

[masivatak]

Swinging probably worked bc your breath is humid.

[pgm98387]

Wow! Very impressive!

[mtgrata]

nicely done... i can see its gonna take me some time getting "plow shape"... where can i get some sotol wood? in in western pa.

[baidarka7]

You won't be able to find any sotol in PA. I have some, and I can send you a piece, if you're willing to pay the shipping.

As you can see, it doesn't have to be sotol, but anything other than sotol requires a lot of effort.

[baidarka7]

@5tonyvvvv I seriously doubt it. Cedar is not particularly strong or flexible. Traditional Korean bows are made of water buffalo horns, backed with sinew. That is the closest thing I can think of, that uses sinew.

[kbinstantkarma]

@baidarka7 Ishi's bow was Sinew backed Cedar... Look him up, there's one good PDF book written from first hand knowledge from someone that knew him.

[MrVoiceofreason123]

@baidarka7 It could possibly work with a flatbow design.

[MrVoiceofreason123]

@mtgrata Sotol only grows in the Sonoran desert of Arizona.

[kingtut1964]

a lil better birds nest with more fluff and it would have not taken so long for it to catch

[BushcraftOnFire]

Nice job Baidarka..

Well done with fine technique and form. Excellent video!

[NickSpadaro]

Baidarka,

Ive done fireplow quite a few times with easier materials such as Sotol and i must say your endurance is great! You must beable to burn through an entire board of sotol. Nice work man.

[baidarka7]

Thanks, Nick. I enjoy all of your friction fire series. They're great. Don't mean to brag...OK, I'm bragging, but sotol is pretty easy now. ;-) Almost 100% success rate with sotol.

[myactionhobbies]

Good job and nice image of the footage. I am wondering what kind of camera you were using while taking this. I am considering of buying one now and am looking for suggestions.

Thanks.

[baidarka7]

I replied a couple of days ago, but it didn't post.  The camera is a Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP. A friend got the same camera, and is happy with it.

[astrobecker]

baidarka7, I watched your red cedar video clip the other night and posted a response but it didnt show up. Good job! I am impressed with the way you hold the plank with your feet in front. I have to kneel on it to hold it steady and need about 3 feet of length for that. It took me 2 months to get my first coal but I didnt have sotal. When I get time next week I will put my e-mail address on my youtube page for a few days. I wouldnt mind talking to you about the sotal in September. Astrobecker

[baidarka7]

Thanks for the props, but what you don't see is that the end of the board is against a wall. ;-) On the lawn, I wouldn't need the wall, because the turf grabs the wood well enough. With sotol, I can just hold with my feet fine. I don't have the flexibility to sit on the wood, like Samoans do.

Strangely enough, I am 0 for 6 on the other side of the board. I'm 4 for 4 on the side in the vid. I can't discern a huge difference between the two sides.

I'll contact you in September re: sotol.