Videos

One of the hardest yet rewarding methods of making fire from scratch is the hand-drill.

In this tutorial I will show how to make a fire-by-friction with the Hand-Drill The hand-drill is simpler to construct than the Bow-Drill. There are only 2 components: the hearth or fire-board, hand-hold, and the spindle. The Bow-Drill uses 5 components (cordage, bow, spindle, hand-hold, fire board). The hand-drill is the hardest to master, and at times painful from the blisters you'll get practicing--but once you finally get a coal..the feeling of accomplishment is well worth it!

Here, I show how to harvest and construct these components. I also stress the importance of having your tinder-bundle and fire-lay all set up, ready and dry especially under wet conditions, as well as the extreme importance of always sheathing or making-safe your knife or cutting tools after use.

I will be using a mullien (Verbascum thapsus) stalk. They are abundant in my area and make really good hand-drills for this method of fire-making. However, it is important to practice with many types of wood or plant stalks.

The hand-drill although being simpler to construct, takes practice, and there is a chance you will develop blisters until you build up enough calluses while learning this method.