Great Balls of Fire!

If you've been following the blog along lately, you'll know that G has been learning the craft of primitive fire making, largely by trial and error. Well, tonight we dropped in on the Tararua Tramping Club to see a presentation and demonstration on the bow technique for fire making - G's method of choice.

After showing us a short video of himself doing this at home in daylight, our instructor Steve took the crowd outside so he could try to replicate his success live. He also had extra sets of materials handy, so some of the onlookers could also give it a try. The materials consist of a bow (slightly flexible stick and nylon cord), base (mahoe), spindle (kaikomako), and top grip (green hardwood).
He began by drilling into a slight depression in the base until it began to smoke, then cut a groove in the side to let the hot dust gather. Once it was smoking a lot, he gave it 30 or 40 strokes at high speed until there was an ember to dump out.
He used his hand to fan the ember for a minute or two before transferring it to a sort of basket made of sturdy grasses, and containing dry tinder. The idea is to swing the basket around so that air is forced through, helping the ember to light the tinder.
Eventually... well, you saw the photo at the top. Fire! We didn't take it any further because we were not in a particularly fire-friendly location. But at least one of the other people who tried it afterwards also got a flame. So at least we've seen for ourselves that it can be done!