Bow drill how to make: bow drill material, wood type, fire drill

In this tutorial I show how to make a bow drill fire starter set. It includes the materials and how to process them into a complete bow drill tool.

I have no basswood, what wood type can I use?
I use basswood, but you can use different types of wood for your bow drill. Wood types include harder softwood such as basswood, aspen, willow, poplar, or cottonwood. In any case the wood must be as dry as possible.

I find the drilling technique hard to succeed with, how can I solve that?
First, the right position is important. Your left hand that holds the bearing block should be fixed to your left knee for a stable position. The spindle must be straight and the bow drill string tensioned right. This takes some trial and error regardless of how well this is demonstrated.

The bow drill set produces black dust but it doesnt smoke. What do I do wrong?
Keep drilling as long as you are physically able to, the bigger ember pile the better and the greater chance of creating that glowing ember. You should be exhausted after a drill - its tough work. If it doesnt smoke, try again, this time with adjustments in the groove cut in the fire board and the position of the drill in relation to the groove. The tip of the groove in the fire board should reach to the center of the drilled "hole" to allow enough hot dust to fall into the groove.

00:00-01:32 materials
01:32-07:12 drill/spindle
07:12-09:35 fire board
09:35-10:03 birds nest
10:03-11:39 bearing block
11:39-12:50 bow
12:50-13:56 the groove/notch
13:56-15:20 drilling
15:20-16:00 ember
16:00-17:26 blowing
17:26-18:09 outro