| I hope that this endeavor proves useful to
you. I encourage you to experiment with your local woods and share your
findings. I hear some people are compiling a national database of good
friction fire woods—please feel free to add this data. [Webmaster's Note #1: The following data assume that the samples
tested of each material are of uniform density. In actuality this is probably not the reality. For example, horseweed and
mullein have pithy cores. The critical properties of these when used as a handdrill lie in the hard outer shell, not in
the pithy core. Storm admitted that his data were somewhat flawed because of this, but he had by then moved on to other
investigations. This data is still presented here as an exploration of a concept. Plus those materials that are of
uniform density will have probably given correct results.]
[Webmaster's Note #2: This data has been graphed by Rodney East -
click here to view the graph] |
