To: andrew price
Subject: Re: Thanks for a great day yesterday
Andrew,
he's some words:
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The three things that characterised the day we have with Andrew were relaxation, education and fun.
The site was easy to find and, after a short drive up the road, we found a nice area of woodland to build the fire and spend the day.
Andrew gave us some sensible safety advice on how to use the knives he'd handed out without losing fingers or puncturing our femoral arteries !?
With the basics covered, we went gathering firewood of different sizes to get the fire going.
Andrew demonstrated the fire bow technique, getting the bundle of tinder flaming in just a few minutes from start to finish! We were fairly gob-smacked after DVDs and TV programmes we had seen with people spending hours trying to get it working. Andrew stressed the importance of preparation - do it right and the bowing bit is like clockwork, cut corners in preparation and be ready for lots of work!
After Andrew got the fire building up (to boil the water for a brew), I was first up for the fire bow :-) Using the same drill and hearth Andrew had, I gave it a good bit of bowing and (to my amazement) I produced a glowing pile of wood dust, tipped it nervously into the bundle of dried grass and gently blew on it. The smoke started curling out gently.
I gave it long, gentle blows and the smoke got stronger and thicker. One last big blow and I had flames!! :-) Whoo Hoo!
Andrew spent the whole day giving us interesting and useful facts and advice. He's a natural teacher, talking about things he knows because he's tried them rather than just read them from a book. The
difference is easy to spot. "What sort of wood works best?" might
get the answer: "I prefer ivy with a hazel drill but lime works well too. Best thing is to try them out and if the dust is too brown that means the drill is too hard, etc etc" - always practical and useful answers that encourage you to get out and learn more by trying it yourself.
We also had a go with steel and flint - using char cloth to get the hay-ball burning. We tried some dried tinder fungus which worked well too. The one method that failed miserably was the most modern :-) with potassium permanganate and anti-freeze; we waited for a while but nothing happened at all! Not enough hard work involved to be rewarded with flames I suppose!
We cooked sausages on sticks and ate them in baguettes. We drank tea boiled up over the fire. We went foraging for bits of useful wood to practice with at home after the day's course. Everybody had a good go with the different techniques and most of the group got flames.
Some of the wood we tried wasn't quite dry enough and brought disappointment after lots of exhausting bowing, but that's part of the learning process.
All in all it was a great value day that we all really enjoyed. It made a great change of pace from work and I'd love to spend much more time learning other things from Andrew and practising my fire making.
Get a group together and go to the Gower for a day - you'll have a great time.
John Davies
Technical Director (RPL Electronics Ltd)
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