Village and Rock Veddas have used flint and steel to produce fires since the end of the 19th century. My former article about Vedda fire drills explains these two different Vedda types. Village Veddas have used this fire-making procedure since…

Until the end of the 19th century, the Vedda people in Sri Lanka used fire drills as their standard fire-making method. In the literature of that time, Vedda was spelled Veddah, and Sri Lanka was called Ceylon. Current situation of…

A magnifying glass has been used to start fires since ancient times. Greek and Roman writers recorded the use of ‘Burning glasses’ for domestic and war purposes. A concise history of these applications can be found on Wikipedia. Nowadays, fires…

Firesaws are only known as a traditional fire-making method on the Pacific Islands. In Australia, these methods were replaced by friction fire hand drills and later, under Western influences, by bow drills. Nevertheless, fire sawing is an interesting technique, which…

The history of fire is fundamentally the history of humanity itself. Long before our ancestors learned to create a flame, fire was a terrifying natural force—a byproduct of lightning strikes that brought both destruction and opportunity. However, the transition from…

At the Global Bushcraft Symposium 2022 in the UK, Gordon Dedman presented the bow drilling technique he teaches in Australia. Since readers are assumed to know the basics of bow drill friction fire lighting, I will only concentrate on specific…

At the Global Bushcraft Symposium 2022 in the UK, Gordon Dedman presented the hand drill friction fire lighting method he teaches in Australia. As most readers of this topic will know the basic techniques of hand drill friction fire lighting,…

At the Global Bushcraft Symposium 2022 in the UK, Gordon Dedman presented a variety of types of Australian friction-fire wood, which are well suited for friction-fire lighting methods and tinder. The signature friction-fire method, exclusively used for thousands of years…