Quest for Fire: Redefining "Primitive"
This video of me building a fire shows the so-called "primitive" skill of hand-drilling, in which a long straight spindle is spun between the hands while simultaneously pressed downward into a horizontal fireboard with a notch cut into it. The friction produced between spindle and fireboard generates smoke and blackened powder, called punk, which gathers in the notch. When the temperature rises to roughly 800 degrees, the punk coalesces into a smoking ember. This smolders on its own until it can be placed into a tinder bundle, usually some kind of dry bark, and gently blown into flames.
Compare that to flicking a lighter with your thumb.
One of these two techniques is considered primitive.
The only part of that distinction I disagree with is the connotation that primitiveness is a step backwards, and modernity is movement forward.
I moved myself forward in life much more by hand-drilling than I have by using lighters. It took me over a year of frustration and hard work before I could reliably hand-drill a fire. The selection, harvesting, and preparation of the materials was a long process of trial and error. The development of the physical skill took a lot of fumbling and broken spindles and disappointments. The endurance of pain and the building up of calluses on my hands required patience and pacing. The most valuable developments of all were mental and emotional. Learning to forgive myself if I failed, to keep trying when it seemed I was going nowhere, to pace myself and to put in hard work up front, to respect the difficulty of the task instead of to blowing it off. Humility.
If I had to sum up the contrast between the lighter and the hand-drill, I would say that the lighter requires little change in me as a person, but a large change in the environment; while the hand-drill requires little change in the environment, and large change within.
The lighter requires oil-drilling both for the plastics and the fuel, metallurgy, that takes mining and the application of heat and labor and chemistry, and it is packaged, shipped, shelved, marketed and ultimately bought using money earned at a job. All of these steps tear up the earth in some way.
Now the hand-drill is composed of sticks-already dead and dry when harvested. And I use a steel knife with a rubber grip, which is not disposable, and that I use for many other things as well. I sharpen it and keep track of it. One tool. Though this skill could be practiced using sharp stones.
I will probably still use a lighter and matches in my life, but I just want to challenge the thought that they are "better" than the alternatives that were developed thousands of years prior.
In my second book, which is not yet completed, but will be some time soon, called The Height of Pillar: Book 2 of The Great Cities, our hero Deagan Wingrat, former knight of Darkwell, who has always felt called into the wild, must heed that call and survive, forced to change himself when his environment refuses to yield. I'm really enjoying writing it, and I hope soon some folks can enjoy reading it.
Thoughts and comments are highly appreciated!
Compare that to flicking a lighter with your thumb.
One of these two techniques is considered primitive.
The only part of that distinction I disagree with is the connotation that primitiveness is a step backwards, and modernity is movement forward.
I moved myself forward in life much more by hand-drilling than I have by using lighters. It took me over a year of frustration and hard work before I could reliably hand-drill a fire. The selection, harvesting, and preparation of the materials was a long process of trial and error. The development of the physical skill took a lot of fumbling and broken spindles and disappointments. The endurance of pain and the building up of calluses on my hands required patience and pacing. The most valuable developments of all were mental and emotional. Learning to forgive myself if I failed, to keep trying when it seemed I was going nowhere, to pace myself and to put in hard work up front, to respect the difficulty of the task instead of to blowing it off. Humility.
If I had to sum up the contrast between the lighter and the hand-drill, I would say that the lighter requires little change in me as a person, but a large change in the environment; while the hand-drill requires little change in the environment, and large change within.
The lighter requires oil-drilling both for the plastics and the fuel, metallurgy, that takes mining and the application of heat and labor and chemistry, and it is packaged, shipped, shelved, marketed and ultimately bought using money earned at a job. All of these steps tear up the earth in some way.
Now the hand-drill is composed of sticks-already dead and dry when harvested. And I use a steel knife with a rubber grip, which is not disposable, and that I use for many other things as well. I sharpen it and keep track of it. One tool. Though this skill could be practiced using sharp stones.
I will probably still use a lighter and matches in my life, but I just want to challenge the thought that they are "better" than the alternatives that were developed thousands of years prior.
In my second book, which is not yet completed, but will be some time soon, called The Height of Pillar: Book 2 of The Great Cities, our hero Deagan Wingrat, former knight of Darkwell, who has always felt called into the wild, must heed that call and survive, forced to change himself when his environment refuses to yield. I'm really enjoying writing it, and I hope soon some folks can enjoy reading it.
Thoughts and comments are highly appreciated!
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