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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