Tuesday 12 August 2008

Pump-drill experiment

While out the other day I decided to try and make a pump-drill with items I could find in the wood and then make fire. Firstly I collected some pieces of dead hazel by breaking them from coppice stools.

Using a piece of flint I cut them to the required lengths


I found a plastic bread bag and filled with soil to use as the weight for the pump-drill and lashed at the top and bottom to secure it in place.


I used Wych Elm bark to lash the parts of the drill together.

Here is the completed pump-drill.

Unfortunately when I started to use the pump-drill to try and make fire, the spinning momentum of the drill shaft split the plastic bag open and the soil fell onto the coal that was starting to form!.....oh well, maybe next time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you make your "flywheel" from 4 shorter cross-picecs with one stone lashed into the ends?

Fenlander said...

I have seen that done before Chris, but unfortunately I could not find any stones where I was. cheers Kevin

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean. There are NEVER rocks when you need them...

Robin Fawcett said...

Nice try . . .
The Pump Drill seems interesting but not actually very effective.
Did you see my blog about the old one I bought in an antique shop ? It's for sale if anyone wants it!

Fenlander said...

This one I made from bits out of a skip http://fenlaners.blogspot.com/2008/05/pump-drill.html works really well and I can make fire quite quickly.