Survival Skills - Firemaking - The Hand Drill

[modestmoose83]

Nice floating & great video. I could never get that technique down, I just kind of go at it. I am very consistent and reliable, never had a hard time getting a fire. Hand Drill is my favorite method by far because you don't have to have a rock or string, and it's not difficult like the fire plow... It's just very simple and you can fire appropriate wood just about anywhere. For spindles I like seep willow and mullein, fireboards that I like are cottonwood root and yucca. (I'm in So. Utah)

[HikerJohn316]

Excellent ! Thanks for sharing!

[azuresun13]

Cheater, Where in the woods am going to find a drill press to make those fine holes. Might as well use matches if you can find a drill press.

[buttayhahahaahahah]

y do u need more then one hole to make it

[lazernteebbee]

use your shoelaces fuck that drill shite

[johnbleeker]

How come your hands are not moving to the bottom while rotating the spindel.??

[shizzlit1]

my hero!

[chicago6584]

Great vid Cougar! 5/5

[seerbiaa]

damn u r good,that must be hard :S

[ikcti]

In that place lighting a fire is not far from starting a forest fire... Look at the dried leaves!

[r3mote]

it's ok ladies and gentlemen... he's a professional

[SSSavage25]

what if we're in the desert and theres a couple trees with no dead moss laying around?

[chicago6584]

Dude check out "Ray Mears fire in the desert". He does it there too!

[MrVoiceofreason123]

@chicago6584 No the spindle stops momentarily, he was using the traditional technique. I know because I've watched that clip a bagillion times when I was trying to learn this.

[filoIII]

need to show us newbies how to make all the items necessary for starting a fire. maybe you already do have a video for that

[Yeshuamysavior1]

Great video-amazing to see this done,

thanks alot!

[clearlyme2u]

Excellent !

[raynkar]

stunning video.

This is a very hard skill to master. I get worn out using a bow with the drill. To do it with just your hands is brilliant!

[rebelpersev]

This is racist, only magical "Native" Americans and Aboriginal peoples can do this. He MUST be part Indian.

[ballstatesucks]

moron

[rebelpersev]

I bet he is sneaky also. You dirty hippie, since we are name calling now, lol. What you can't take a joke. I bet your mom goes to college.

[quaiboi]

at least his mom got to collage

[randomhuman11]

What he's doing he is basically harder than most people can image. His patience, understanding of hand floating, breathing pattern, and understanding of proper materials make this video absolutely A+

[CougarClan]

Thanks for the kind words...I appreciate it. It took me several months to become proficient at the floating technique. I plan to post a more thorough video on the hand drill in the next few months...

Stay tuned...~Richard

[porpoisefathom]

I tried using mullein stalk..i get great smoke black soot but no coal and goes out after about ten seconds.. and i got bad blisters..is this normal?..what did i do wrong?..the mullein was dry and perfect ...the cedar was also./.any suggestions?

[CougarClan]

It's not an easy skill to learn, It took me the better part of a year to become proficient at it. Mullein is a good stalk, but not my favorite. Try Horseweed (canadian fleabane) or a nice thick goldenrod, if you can find it. If you're getting good black dust that smokes for 10 seconds, it sounds like your technique is good. Learning the floating technique will help the blisters.Cedar and basswood would be my fireboard choices...the same thickness as the diameter of the stalk. Good luck! ~Richard

[HerccoelFalater]

@CougarClan or using a fucking lighter.

[rebelpersev]

Yes what he is doing takes quite a bit of practice. I have seen a guy get a coal going with three passes down the spindle, but it takes me a lot more. I am going to try this floating technique.

[HedgehogLeatherworks]

Great video... and awesome floating... I've been needing to work on that for a while. Anyway, thank you for inspiring and being a voice of passion.

[chubawoodz]

quit putting crappy comments ive learned this

in my home just messing around in my fireplace even if u pre drill the hole and use whatever its hard and time consuming it takes most people more then the first try to do this hes obviously has lots of skill to start it the first time

hey if i was ever stranded ide like to know all the things he does

[chargerSRTHIMI]

I'v tried this many times but I failed :( . could you please tell me what type of wood did you use for starting a fire?

and could it be any dead wood.I mean what is the characteristics that should be available in the wood?

thank you

[HannaPdP]

He will charge you for that information. ;)

[SoundPath]

great video. Can you explain how you were able to keep your hands from moving down the shaft? It looks much more efficient than the method I'm used to.

[ninelivecat]

Fantastic

[rabidmonkeygirl]

It sounds like you have some experience in the woods, but not much beyond scouting, hunters safety, and perhaps basic military survival. This technology has been around for thousands of years and is a part of our collective ancestry. Magnesium strikers are cool, flint and steel, char cloth, batteries and steel wool, all very easy to learn. Not discounting knowing them. Fire by friction, making an ice lense, fire by percussion, these require your skill and what can be found on the landscape.

[CougarClan]

Thanks for the positive comments. You obviously know what you're talking about. The set-up is Horseweed on Basswood.

In Wildness,

~Richard

[rabidmonkeygirl]

Nice dodge, but no substance. Seriously, what skills do you brink to the table. Tactical tracking, wild edibles & medicinals, fire making, stone tools, hunting, trapping, camouflage, awareness, what are your skill sets?

[gambino1877]

Uh to many characters but I do no how to make a fire without fabricated items I brought with me from the dowrod with the hollow point to the fabricated piece of wood with holes drilled in it by a mechanical machine!

[rabidmonkeygirl]

Rich appears to be using a mullien (Verbascum thapsus) hand drill stalk with a cedar fire board, though it might be bass wood or willow. The holes are from previous fires. You start with a dent that can be made with a rock or knife depending on ability level. Spinning the stalk between the hands burns the depression. After the depression is deep enough, a notch is carved in toward the center to catch the dust, which forms the coal. Maine Primitive Skills School offers another perspective.

[CougarClan]

Dude...I teach this for a living. None of the holes were drilled with power tools...don't insult me. This is what our ancestors did, and the reason you're even here at all...

BTW, lighters don't work when they get wet or it gets too cold...whatcha you gonna do then gamby?

[McYdys]

i think gamby was joking dude

[MrVoiceofreason123]

@CougarClan

Are you serious? You completely misunderstood him. He was not insulting you, he was saying that HE has trouble making fire without the help of modern tools. Seriously, have more class, you're an instructor, have the wisdom and guidance of one.

[rabidmonkeygirl]

Hmmm..too much anger. A spindle like that is easy to obtain. Evening Primrose, Mullien, Horseweed, even a wild lettuce, are all common bi-annuals that grow straight enough to harvest and process with a rock. T It's more humidity and skill than materials. Practicing this desert skill is useful and rewarding. We hand drill to start our wood stove in winter when the air is dry. Check out hand drill vids by maine primitive skills school as well. Rich & Nick compliment each other.

[gambino1877]

Wtf were you on shrooms or something hippie when you made that reply It had no relevace put down the bong shave your pits and stop worshiping an overweight macgyver look alike who's fire making skills are not practical in real world survival!!!

[rabidmonkeygirl]

Respect, not worship. He's a good man. Did you have a run in with him?  He's a fellow former Marine. His staff goes on full survival trips for weeks at a time with no knives and live comfortably. I was an invited guest on one and it was an easy seven days, everything from the landscape. Again, why so much anger? How are your skills?

[gkbhai]

Thank you for this sharing! Beautiful video.

Blessings

[gambino1877]

Some one should tell him a Bic lighter would fit in his pocket better than that jigsaw piece of wood!

[johnjayrambo11111]

brilliant 5/5 great video

[franckdanielknives]

realy good job 5 stars

[mwillblade]

You make it look so easy,did you shoot the video in real time ?

[CougarClan]

It was all done in real time. My buddy just got a new camera and we were trying it out. He's the guy in the bow drill video, which we shot second. Thanks for your interest...~Richard

[ObserveIt]

Also do you know any survival teachers in canada>?

[CougarClan]

What part of Canada?

[ObserveIt]

I was thinking BC.. But i dont know yet.. Where is the best place to get lost and survive 4 seasons? Or more to the point, where is the best place to learn about most edible plant specices throughout canada?

[ObserveIt]

Nice, does the end of the drill (point of contact end) need to be any special shape? or just plane flat?

[CougarClan]

Most plant stalks have an inner pith so they stay flat. I score around the stalk and snap them off when I first make them. The heat generated from the stalk just keeps melting the pith as you go. Solid wood shafts may be more pointed, but try to keep them reasonably flat, as they're more efficient that way. Hope this helps..~Richard

[knuckleballer187]

The drill that is used is something you have to find and shape yourself. This is much harder than it looks. cool video. Bet he was a scout

[CougarClan]

There are several good plant stalks for this method. Horseweed, Goldenrod, Mullein and Yucca are some of the better ones. And nope!! I've NEVER met a scout that could do this. Most Eagle scouts, I've met, have never even done a Bowdrill Fire sucessfully...No BS!

In Wildness, ~Richard

[vue084783]

are those regular sticks or are special ones. would it work if you put dry grass under it and than do it

[CougarClan]

The stalk is Canadian Fleabane (AKA horseweed)it's very common. The fireboard is Basswood, though cedar or willow would work just as well. Dried grass really doesn't make good tinder for friction fires. Having finer plant fibers helps the coal spread better.

In Wildness, ~Richard

[dleccord]

im pretty sure he slipped a match in there

[CougarClan]

Nope no matches...

[timpa666]

No0b

[elkandeer]

I have tried to do this and is a lot harder than it looks

[lilrog0909]

interesting video but I have question I live on the Eastern part of North Carolina is the wood different compared to Western North Carolina because on the East we got a lot of wetlands that produce different tree origins

[dukcaboose]

how do you make tht wood piece?

[leigh8959]

his technique allows him to keep his hands at the same level... I can't remember what it's called though... "over the hands" or something like that.

[leigh8959]

sorry... I mean "floating the hands"

[GreenManalichi]

Still searching for a link to tell me actual ways to make these tools

[dickenine]

Fascinating comment!

[GreenManalichi]

I know it sounds stupid, but I dont have a clue as to which woods to gather the next time in the woods. And the bow string, whats it made from..just normal twine? And what if I dont have any dead moss just lying around...

[esl21]

Then you find some nearby. Its the freaking woods.

You could also use whats known as Old Man's Beard. Its a stringy, dry stuff that is found on trees near the branches.

[ghostraper]

interesting..