Mentoring Scheme – String

Bow Drill Fire

This last weekend saw the Instructor Mentoring Scheme making String and rope out of a wide variety of materials and put them to a number of uses. Simple ties were made from Elm bark and quality string was made from Nettle, Lime, Reedmace, Horseradish and Palm fibers. It is interesting working with natural materials as the process for each is different. Some can then be used straight away where as others such as nettle benefit from being fairly dry. After making various lengths of cord and rope etc we applied several onto a bow in order to create fire. The most practical one for this was the nettle and each person made an ember individually as well as together with this. One of the pleasant surprises was the horseradish fibers which also worked successfully. As is often the case with natural cordage on a bow drill set the most effective way seems to be to wrap it around the drill two to three times. This distributes the wear on the cordage and increases the grip. Well done to everyone on such a successful couple of days