C'mon baby light my fire

[Tartar Horde]

Here's a little tip when using the Bowdrill method. The most common method when using a bowdrill is to make a "coal" of glowing tinder and then transfer it to your tinder bundle to "blow" into flame. This works perfectly fine in good weather conditions, but the time it takes to transfer that coal to your bundle can cause problems if the weather is not good. The answer is to rest your fire board on top of a bundle of tinder and as the coal builds up it will be resting directly on the tinder. You need something like a piece of bark etc to rest the tinder on so it doesn't pick up moisture from the ground, then put your fire board on top of that. Your fire board and spindle are very sensitive to moisture and must at all costs be kept dry or you will never make fire. Another tip is to use a lubricant on the end of your spindle that fits into the "bearing" block, this will stop the spindle "chattering" as it rotates. You can use anything from Fat to crushed up nettles, leaves and grass etc as long as they are "green" and have moisture to provide the lubricant.