Another great article coming to us from John Daleske, who is always providing some great information.
Primitive skills are something I know little to nothing about. I recently started learning about foraging for wild mushrooms by joining a local mushroom club, however we are coming onto winter so there isn’t much to find right now. My wife also recently purchased me the Kamana Naturalist Training Program for my 33 birthday. I hope to bring you a lot of great content about natural skills in the future as I educate myself. Does anyone out there know anything about Kamana? I would love to have your feedback.
By John Daleske
Mal Stephens at the Maine Primitive Skills School illustrates a different friction fire method, the fire thong. No, this isn’t some hot outfit you wear while making fire; it uses flexible, yet sturdy natural materials to give a fast method to get a hot coal.
Friction fires techniques vary, based on available materials. Often two sticks are rubbed together. The most common techniques are:
- fire drill – a straight stick inserted in a depression on a wood base, palms of hands spin the drill
- bow drill – a bow with cordage wrapped around a fire drill
- strap drill – cordage between two thumbs holds top of fire drill, makes spinning easier
- fire thong
- fire plow – forming a channel in one piece of wood with a smaller piece
