Bow Drill Fire Tutorial | Common Mistakes, Small Details & Troubleshooting for Success

Recorded during a Bushcraft Sunday meetup in December 2025, this video breaks down the bow drill friction fire in a way most tutorials don’t.

Instead of editing out mistakes, we intentionally left one in.

Why? Because small details matter—especially when you’re learning this skill for the first time.

In this tutorial, we:

Walk through the critical small details of bow drill setup

Show a real mistake that causes the spindle to drift out of the notch

Explain how a notch and divot cut too close to the edge leads to failure

Break down why no coal was produced

Rebuild the hearth board correctly from the beginning

Demonstrate a successful ember and coal, finishing with ignition of the tinder bundle

This is a realistic, field-based lesson filmed during our Bushcraft Sunday training with DVI Bushcraft & Survival LLC, focused on teaching skills the way they actually happen—mistakes included.

If you’ve ever struggled to get a coal, this video is for you.

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