Many practicioners of stone age technology are interested in
fire-by friction methods which require a minimum amount of knife
work, the reasons being that 10,000 years ago cutting that notch
wasn't as easy as it is today with your fancy Swiss Army knife.
One way to eliminate the chore of cutting a notch in your hearthboard
when starting a friction fire is to make the hearthboard out of
two round sticks tied together. This idea was sketched out in
Mors Kochansky's book "Bushcraft" (ISBN # 0-919433-51-0)
and also described in an article by Gary Zeh in Volume 3, Issue
3 of Wilderness Way magazine.
I tried this out with a bow drill. There's nothing to it!
E-mail your comments to "Richard A. Baugh" at richardbaugh@att.net
E-mail questions answered
about fire-by-friction.
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