Fire hardening wood?

[baraqyal]

I've always heard about making fire hardened wood tips, but never been able to accomplish it. How is it done? Does it require a certain type of wood?
It sounds like a good technique to learn. How hard does the wood get? Does it make the wood brittle?

Every time I mess around with a fire and some form of stick, the wood either turns a little black and stays the same hardness or turns to charcoal.

What form of wood do you recommend? Here in Utah, there are mostly pine and spruce trees, as well as some Aspen, Birch, and Oak. Can the fire hardening be done with the wood from sagebrush?
Thanks!
-- Rob

 

[Ralf]

I too always wondered what that means. My guess is it refers to freshly cut wood, which can be seasoned over the fire. Dry wood seems to be harder than "green" wood, no matter which kind. Burning the wood doesn’t do any good.

 

[Jimbo]

Fire hardening in most cases just means fast seasoning by driving out the water by heat. So if you take a green willow or alder shoot, you can get it seasoned fast to make it stiff enough to hold your hot dog without bending so much - just by heating over a fire. As steam is generated in the wood the shoot can also be straightened or bent to shape. It'll hold that shape when dry.
If you're making a spear or arrow, starting with green wood will allow you to straighten it too. The burning of points is just to facilitate scraping down with a stone blade - in my experience the slower you heat the wood the better.

I don't know whether the wood is actually hardened by heat other than being properly seasoned by driving out all of the moisture. It does appear that some forms of birch become very hard with heat - but again that's probably because the stuff retains so much moisture in normal circumstances.

 

[Yvsa]

:
When you fire harden wood it does need to be green or only slightly cured (dried).
The "trick" is to replace the water or sap with some kind of oil.
My people used animal fats, usually something like bear grease, to do the job. You can use any vegetable oil, I still do.

And the closer you get to getting all the water out the slower you want to go. Just slightly charring the wood is the best hardness.
But Jimbo is partly right about the point. Char it until it can be sharpened to a good point, doesn't have to be "cutting sharp" and when it's where you want it rub some more oil into it and scrap ALL the char OFF.
Then rub some more oil into it and heat it, rubbing in yet more oil, until it just starts turning a nice golden brown.
It won't be as hard as a rock, but it will be much harder than a piece of dried wood charred in a fire.

I use to do my self bows this way and it's the way my people done it for eons.
And is a quick simple way of making a self bow from a piece of green wood fairly quickly.

If you go to fast as well as not keeping it oiled enough the wood will crack ruining it for a self bow.
I had that happen a few times when I was pretty young.

Use a hard wood like Ash, Hickory, Elm or Osage Orange.
Ash was commonly used for spear shafts, Osage Orange for bows, Ash and Hickory when you couldn't get the best stuff.

Other woods like Alder, Birch, and most nut trees will work fairly well, some better than most.
Experiment with what's in your area untill you find the best.

If you can get Osage Orange in your area be careful with the dust from it as it is not good for you. Some people even have trouble when they saw it fresh or dried.
And the thorns on the tree make nasty wounds that hurt and are sometimes hard to heal.

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"VEGETARIAN".............
Indin word for lousy hunter.

[This message has been edited by Yvsa (edited 02-15-2001).]