Bow Drill Guide: How to Start a Fire With a Bow Drill

A bow drill is a bushcraft tool for fire-making. A fire bow features an arched bow with a string that wraps around a spindle attached to a flat piece of wood, also known as a fireboard or hearth plate. The spindle drills into the fireboard, creating enough heat to start a small friction fire. Firemakers can use the coal from the small fire to start a campfire.

There are various ways to make fire bow drill kits, but the essential components and materials include:

1. 1. Bow: The bow is the device that transforms your arm's lateral, back-and-forth motion into a rapid spinning motion and generates the heat to ignite the coal. Look for a stick about as long as your arm, somewhat curved, about half an inch to one inch thick. Fasten a length of cordage to each end of the bow allowing for some slack. Strong synthetic cordage is best for beginners; paracord will work but is too flexible to be ideal. In the wilderness, you can use yucca fiber as a bowstring.
2. 2. Spindle: The spindle should be a round piece of straight, sturdy, dry wood, five to eight inches long. One end should be carved to a point, while the other should be rounded, like the top of a broom handle, and as smooth as possible.
3. 3. Hearth plate: The hearth board, hearth plate, or fireboard is a flat piece of wood where the rounded end of the spindle drills into the wood, creating heat through friction. It should be one half to three quarters of an inch thick, hard, and thoroughly dry. A foot-long fireboard will be enough wood to start several fires; each will require its own drilled friction hole.
4. 4. Handhold: Place the handhold or bearing block at the top end of the spindle when drilling. Make a recessed indentation where the pointed top of the spindle will sit, allowing it to rotate while you place pressure on the spindle as it turns.
5. 5. Tinder: This is the material you will use to start your fire, and keeping some in your bow drill kit will make fire starting easier. Use a soft, fibrous, dry material: cattail fluff, wood shavings, inner bark fiber, or an old bird’s nest.

A softer hardwood works best for the bow, spindle, and hearth plate of a fire bow drill. Softer hardwood comes from deciduous trees, such as basswood, aspen, willow, poplar, or cottonwood. Cedar, although technically a softwood, will also work if you can find it in your area.

To minimize friction between the spindle and handhold, it’s best to use hardwood for the bearing block. Oak and maple are both good hardwoods to work with. The right combination of wood hardness and dryness can go a long way in making your fire-starting a satisfying project.

A bow drill is one of the most reliable ways to start a fire, but success requires proper technique.

1. 1. Prepare your fireboard. Using the point of a knife or a sharp rock, create a small divot in the fireboard. Start near one end of the board; you will move along the length of the board, making several holes as you start more fires. The divot should be about an inch or so from the edge, depending on the width of your spindle.
2. 2. Prepare the bow. Place the spindle against the string and then twist it to form a loop that wraps once against the spindle. The loop will grasp the spindle and allow the bow to drive.
3. 3. Assume the position. With the fireboard flat on the ground, place your left foot near the hole with your right knee resting on the ground. Place the pointed tip of the spindle into the divot in the fireboard. With your left arm tightly crossing your left leg, grasp the handhold with your left hand while grasping the bow with your right hand. (If your left hand is dominant, reverse the hands and feet).
4. 4. Generate friction. Keeping the bow parallel to the ground and using the whole length of the cord, work the bow back and forth, steadily and with vigor. Apply steady downward pressure to the handhold.
5. 5. Begin to drill into the fireboard. The friction of the spindle in the divot will create a round, shallow hole where the spindle will rotate. You can add a small amount of grease in the handhold hole to prevent friction on top of the device.
6. 6. Cut a notch. Using a knife, cut a narrow wedge in the fireboard, starting on the side of the fireboard and coming close, but not quite touching, the hole's center point. This notch will allow oxygen in to where the coal will form.
7. 7. Make the coal. Now that you have a deep enough hole to allow swift drilling, you can generate the burning coal to start your fire. Push the bow back and forth in a sawing motion, keeping pressure and speed steady. You’ll begin to see the dark, powdery mixture of sawdust and carbon and eventually smell smoke.
8. 8. Remove the coal. When you begin to see wisps of smoke rise and smell burning wood, you have the beginnings of usable coal. Take your spindle out of the drill hole, and use a knife or a small stick to push the tiny ember out of the hole through the notch. You can place your fireboard on a thin piece of wood, like a strip of bark, to collect the coal.
9. 9. Add the tinder to kindling wood. Blowing on the small, smoking ember will help it stay lit, and it may even begin to glow. Get your tinder bundle and scoop up the coal. Now, elevate the tinder and blow, using long, steady breaths. If your tinder is dry and your coal is strong, it will eventually light, and you can place it in the prepared kindling in your fire area.

Certain outdoor activities carry an elevated risk of serious injury. Wilderness scenarios require extensive survival gear, including but not limited to food, water, maps, protective clothing, and first aid, along with mental and physical fortitude. This article is for educational and informational purposes, and is not a substitute for hard skills and expertise.

Prepare for any outdoor journey by grabbing a MasterClass Annual Membership and committing Jessie Krebs’s wilderness survival course to memory. As a former United States Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape instructor, Jessie can teach you everything you need to know about packing for a trip (neon is the new black), purifying water, foraging (crickets: the other white meat), starting a fire, and signaling for help (forget SOS).