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2006. Making Fire

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2006. Making Fire Stephen Blake and David M. Welch AN ESSENTIAL SURVIVAL GUIDE tephen Blake demonstrates S four ways of making fire, rubbing two sticks together using the hand drill, bow drill, fire saw and fire plough methods. David Welch discusses fire making amongst indigenous , people of the world, from ancient times, and in particular amongst Australia's Aborigines. Making fire is a basic survival skill, a way of attracting attention if one is lost alone in remote bushland. Shown here without using modern tools, it is possible to use crude pieces of rock to fashion fire sticks and from these, to make fire. ISBN 0-9775035-1-8 9 780977 503513 ~s itten co~~-- Introduction . 1 Terminology and Technology 3 ;. Chapter 1 Ancient Fire Making s Chapter ~ Australian Aboriginal Fire Making 17 Chapter j The Hand Drill 33 Chapter 4 The Bow Drill 59 ..,_ Chapter 5 The Fire Saw , ;:, Chapter ~ The Fire Plough 83 Chapter 7 Making a camp fire - Steve's method 89 References, acknowledgments and photo credits 98 Wtl;wlvdlrr/l--- his book combines two aspects of making fire from two T authors. Stephen Blake gives practical advice on how to achieve the ancient craft of lighting a fire by rubbing two sticks together. Four methods, the hand drill, the bow drill, the fire saw and the fire plough are described in detail and demonstrated by him (Chapters three to six). David Welch offers an account of fire making throughout mankind's history, describing the methods used by indigenous people around the world and illustrating the various methods used by Australia's Aborigines (Chapters one and two). Above: Aboriginal men using a hand drill to make fire. Kimberley region, Australia. Early 1900s. H. R. Balfour. Left: Ceremonial fire making. This man is decorated for a ceremony wearing body paint, shell blade in his headband and engraved pearl shell attached to his wa ist belt. A ceremonial pole with thread-cross string decoration lies at his side. He grips the drill sti ck in position, rather than spinning it, and his feet are not securing the base stick fo r this posed photograph. Sunday Island, Western Australia. 1916. H. Basedow. 1 The authors have been friends for many years and live in the rural area south of Darwin, in Australia's orthern Territory. David has an 1 interest in Aboriginal culture and Steve has focussed his studies on fire making as practised by Australian Aborigines and other ancient people. Starting with the methods employed by local Aborigines, Steve has continually experimented with different timbers, lengths lS : of stick and techniques, until he perfected the art. He explains the pn pitfalls and technical aspects of the four methods in a way that a\ will allow the reader to achieve fire making, provided they have do the fitness. Tr ter With the information provided, the reader will be able to fashion bu a set of fire sticks using only the crudest stones as tools. Once the by techniques are mastered fire can be made within a few minutes. an We hope you enjoy our book. 1g1 Stephen Blake and David Welch. pr Darwin. 2006. ha he te1 ha be a J or Split sti ck fi re saw, 56cm (22 in ches) long. Length of wooden saw: 25 .5cm (10 inches) . North Western Australia. 1950. Worms. I II~.,;_q·~~., ,~(I:' 1/4· I 1/ /, I ~ ;..C.+.'1;~· . "~ll"~ ~ ,·./'" " 4" ~IJtY:A OJ•f J:" ,., ... ---- Australian Aboriginal Fire Making ~str~lian Abori?ines used different fire making. methods Am different regions, as seen on the accompanying map. The hand drill and the fire saw are undoubtedly indigenous, with the fire plough a recent introduction. It is not known if the percussion method was indigenous or introduced by early Europeans. 17 THE HAND DRILL 5 Final preparation of ftre sticks 1. The drill stick is prepared by slightly sharpening the lower end on a piece of stone. 2. An initial hole is gouged into the base stick. 3. This hole is deepened by working the drill stick with the same action as when fire making. The hands are worked from the top of the stick. 4. Maintain the vertical position of the stick and concentrate more on the spinning rather than the r pushing down. t ) .
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