Here's a picture of my firebow kit. Let me explain what it is composed of. First, if you look at the picture, you'll see my firebow (bottom right). The bow has a hide cord, doubled over and twisted around and around. Second: Just on top of the bow, you'll see my "bearing stone". This particular bearing stone is made of natural soap stone, which is perfect for use in bearing stones because it's "baby butt" smooth and so reduces friction when the drill is twirling around in it. Third: Just under the bearing stone is a slice of dry birch bark. It's there so that when I get my fire started, I've got some great tinder to keep it going with. Fourth: Just under the birch bark (that black spot) is a bit of char. In this case it's a bit of home made, cotton char cloth. I intend to use char cattail down with my fire bow in the future, but I haven't tried it yet. Fifth: That long boardlike thingy on top of the birch bark and char is the fireboard itself. It is made from a board of super dry, softwood. In this case the board is cut from cottonwood sent to me by my buddy Doc Martin of the "Boone and Crockett Muzzleloading Club". "Doc" is from Grand Forks, North Dakota. Sixth, laying across the top of the fireboard is the "drill". The drill, in his case, is also made of cottonwood. Your drill must be VERY straight, as for use in making arrow shafts. Last: Is an old tin of Mac Baren's Plum Cake Tobacco I smoked up twenty years ago or more. It contains extra char. I might also have included a small hunk of beeswax in this picture for use in rubbing up and down the bowstring. I couldn't make a fire with my bow and drill for beans until it occurred to me that I needed to get that string more "tackyed" and when this idea occurred to me, I tackey my hide string up with beeswax and had a fire going in no time.

So what do I do with this stuff in order to make a fire? Well, first I sit around and wonder if it's going to work. I do this because making fire with a bow & drill is hard as all hell and while there may have been many experts at doing this in days gone by, there are few, if any, today, and if there are some today, I'm not one of them. But I've done it, BY GOD, and as such, I can pass what I was finally able to teach myself on to you. If you do what I tell you to do here, you will make fire with a bow & drill, but don't expect it to be easy. Satisfying? Definitely! Easy? Definitely not!

Here's what you're going to do. First, you're going to cut a shallow, round, hole near the edge of your fireboard. I've cut an unused one in this board to show you how that hole should be started. I guess you'll need a knife for this. That's what I used, anyway. Next, you're going to slit a thin slit along the edge of the board, from the middle of the round hole you've cut right down to the bottom of the edge of the board. This slit will have to be just thick enough for the "charred powder" the drill and bow will create as it twirls to fall through. It should fall through the slit and land on your char.

Next, you'll wrap your bowstring once around your drill. Once so wrapped, you'll set one end of your drill in your hole in your fireboard and the top end in the round hole cut into the middle of your bearing stone. When you've got that setup set, you begin to drill. Apply pressure to your drill by pushing down on your bearing stone but not so much pressure as to make the job difficult. Begin drilling by pulling your bow back and forth and back and forth while bearing down on your drill with your bearing stone. Obviously if your're a "righty", your bearing stone will be in your left hand and your bow in your right.

If a "stroke" is a movement first forward and then back, you should be getting smoke within 20 or 25 "strokes". Keep going. You'll need to be in some kind of shape to pull this off, anyway. When you see smoke, don't get excited. Just keep drilling. You'll see charred powder beginning to form in the round hole in your fireboard. Soon you'll notice that charred powder beginning to fall down that slit you cut and onto your char. If you're pushing too hard the powder might build up so high that should an ember form, it'll fall onto the powder rather that onto the char. Just blow that powder away gently, keeping the bit of char free.

When an ember finally forms and falls onto your char, that's it! Use it. Blow your char to flame as you would if you were making your fire with flint and steel.

Folks? This method of fire starting isn't easy. I worked my tail off to get this done the first time I did it and that was with a bow and drill kit that I knew was in perfect shape. If I were in the woods and my life depended upon my making a fire with a bow & drill kit I put together there, I would undoubtedly die. Do not think, for a second, that because you have read this you know how to do this thing. Once you have actually done this yourself, you will realize only that you are far from being able to do it easily.

It bears mention here that another, even more difficult variation of this method of fire starting was used by primitives. I'm not sure I believe anyone can do it today. This method does not require a bow. Instead, the bearing stone is either held in one's mouth and the drill is drilled between the palms of one's hands. Often a second person took over when the first person's hands had worked their way down to the bottom of the drill. Good luck with this, even if you can find a second person crazy enough to do it with you. Better to teach the method to a monkey so you'll have less explaining to do and so that you won't have to get to know anyone so nuts as to want to get involved in this with you.

There it is, folks. If you are so inclined, give it a shot. If you're anything like me at all, you will simply refuse to give up until this thing is done, so you'll do it. Best of luck to you and those of yours who will have to watch you. Me? When I finally got my first firboard fire going and screamed for an audience, my wife didn't so much as look up from her novel. This is a thing one does for oneself.

Ah, me!