I'm a fire starter, wooden fire starter
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
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Bow drill invented much earlier in Egypt, but not used here. Hmm.
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2026/02/ancientegyptiandrillbit/
The youtuber Primitive Technologies often start fires with like this. For awhile he would use a bow drill to start fires but once he got the knack of it he ditched the bow and favoured using just a stick on a piece of wood because it's a lot handier. I'd imagine it's a similar case here.
Ah yes, John Plant. Bless him.
Yeah, I was thinking something along those lines, but wasn't sure. Thanks for explaining. I could definitely see a hand drill sometimes being handier than a bow drill and vice-versa, all down to the case usage.
"Invented in egypt" is likely overinterpretting the evidence.
Especially for objects made from organic materials, earliest surviving doesn't mean original. Egypt has good preservation conditions, and that drill bit is copper. It's almost certain that wooden bow drills were around for some time before that.
Not what I said, nor intended to imply.
Bow drill invented much earlier in Egypt
I'm saying that in Egypt the bow drill was evidently invented much earlier. Not that Egypt was the original and oldest place the bow drill was invented across human history. I imagine it's vastly older than that, altho who knows when that might have been.
Shout out to whoever accused Primitive Technology of using a lighter, ensuring he shows every single time how quickly he can start a fire with two pieces of wood.
why am I hearing prodigy in the back of my mind while reading it