Firebow Yucca on Baccharis

Friction fire. This video shows use of the firebow on a Baccharis fireboard with a Yucca spindle. The cord used was a small engine pull cord and the tension cord method was used. The firebow was a Sand Pine branch and the socket was a section of Scrub Oak limb and lubed with Palafoxia leaves. Coal catch was a section of Palmetto frond and a Palmetto frond was used as a base for the set. The tinder bundle was just a dead Palmetto frond with stem shavings inside the center.

Conditions were very dry and windy so fire safety and precautions were very important. The area chosen was in the lee of the wind with brush around so as to block the wind and the area was cleared away of any material that could be used as fuel should the flames be blown. This firebow combination is one that works best when dry and in dry conditions. I have found out it will not work with even a small amount of moisture. As stated the set was a proven set used the Thursday before. It was an unproven set last Thursday until I got a coal with it. Usually I use unproven sets that I make on the spot with what materials happen to be available to me. The problems I had were the spindle kicking out of the burn hole so I had to do a quick recovery by resetting the spindle and angling it back toward the fireboard to finish and hopefully still get a coal. The Sand Pine punkwood I had was not the best or spongiest and it was not able to stay lit from the coal. I nearly lost the coal in the shavings bundle in the center of the frond because the frond I picked did not have a deep enough center to hold the bundle properly. My intent for this video was also a thank you to Scott Taylor and all the hiker guys that have recently subscribed to my channel. Congratulations Scott on your first coal! Any support is always appreciated from all of my subscribers. Thank you all.

So as not to mislead anyone, failures do happen. Even though a lot can be learned from the failures, the goal is the coal so that is what I show rather than including a lot of extra footage and reducing retention time. Some folks might want to stroke their ego but that is not me and that is not why I exclude the failures. Friction fire is a humbling experience and I always want to be honest about that whether I exclude failures or not. Friction fire is not easy and fire is never guaranteed.

Helpful links.
Adam's Needle (Yucca filamentosa) spindle
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=YUFI

Baccharis (probably Eastern) fireboard
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=BAHA