Wilderness Survival Training

Wilderness Survival Training Adult and Teen Oregon

  • Survival Skills Training
    • First Circle Camp
    • Advanced Survival Training
    • THE EDGE
    • Student Testimonials
  • Oregon Survival School
    • Survival Skills Weekend
    • Government
  • Teen Camps
    • Teen 14 Day – Wilderness Adventure OR. – 14-17
    • Father Son Survival Camp
  • FAQ
    • Registration Policies
    • More Services – Gear, Rentals, etc.
  • Calendar
  • Contact Us
    • About
    • Media & Press
  • BLOG
    • The Philosophy
    • Outdoor Survival School
    • Teen Adventure Camps
    • Plants
    • Survival Gear
    • Tracking

Jan 25 2021

Fire Plow Wood Types

Fire plow wood types from the warm beaches of Hawaii to the misty coastal forests of Oregon. And you ask; which ones work best for the fire plow method of starting a fire?

Fire plow wood types. Graham Strong and Mark Wienert Man Vs Wild
Director Graham Strong with Mark Wienert on Man Vs Wild. Graham trying his hand with the Fire Plow.

Fire plow wood types

The fire plow is a Polynesian fire making technique. This primitive fire skill developed in part, due to the native woods available on the islands of Oceania. Wood such as Hau traditionally used in Hawaii are not found as a native plant on the US mainland. However, there are still many local woods that have similar qualities that can be used in Haus place.

Best Fire Plow woods for Hawaii

Hau, (Hibiscus tiliaceus) is the native Hawaiian species used for the base stick or base board. Hau is lighter in weight more similar to Balsa wood when compared too our native woods such as Cottonwood growing on the mainland.

The Maoris use Kaikomako

In New Zealand the Maoris peopled used Kaikomako, (Pennantia corymbosaa), a small deciduous forest tree as the stick or plow.  I understand that Kaikaomako can be used for both the stick and the board. Though having not used these two woods together myself and I am unable to verify it. If you have used Kaikomako for your whole kit, please tell us about your experience in the comment section below.

 fire plow wood

Cottonwood or (Populus species), have enough in common with Hau to make Cottonwood an reasonable alternative wood for Hau. But not the best option as you'll find out.

What is the fire plow method?

The fire plow in my personal experience is the simplest and most basic way to make a fire by friction. It's an exciting way to make fire because of its true simplicity.

The fire plow is the primitive Polynesian technique of fire making. And though peoples of Oceania, specifically a Samoan King I know, make it look easy. Believe me when I say, it is not. Unless you grew up getting strong the Maori Way.

Here is useful information on the Maori fire plow and wood used.

How the fire plow works

The plows simplicity comes from the fact that you only need two pieces for your fire kit. Unlike the bow drill, which is a bit more complicated, yet also a highly effective system has more parts and pieces.

The two pieces of wood required for your kit is the plow itself. And the fireboard. The fireboard used is made of softwood to be successful. In the traditional Hawaiian method, the plough or blade itself is made from a harder wood than Hau. Called Olema.

The harder plow/blade wood, (Olema) is pushed (In short strokes), beginning at about the boards middle and pushed towards the end of the fireboard away from you. A V-groove of sorts is created by this process in the fireboard by the shape of the plow head.

Push the plow one direction

You don't push the plough in both directions. Only one direction. And that is away from you, on the fireboard. Friction through pressure creates heat by using upper body strength rapidly pushing the plow.

This friction will create a powder or tinder dust. The tinder dust is pushed into a pile with each forward push of the plow at the end of the groove on the fireboard.

This motion is repeated in faster-faster and shorter strokes until the tinder dust begins smoking and has formed a coal. Once you have a smoking ember tap the fire board a couple of times to consolidate the dust around the ember. Then tip your hot ember into your tinder bundle and blow it into a flame.

Difficult woods at best for the fire plow method

  • Basswood
  • Cedar
  • Cottonwood
  • Poplars
  • Redwood
  • Willow

As I mentioned before Cottonwood or any Populous species will work as an alternative fire plow wood. The similar structural qualities of Hau and Cottonwood make Cottonwood an excellent choice.

Before I made fire with Hau I learned using our Oregon Red Cedar for both the plow and the hearth board. So, you might ask; can you do that? Absolutely. At the time all I had to work with was what was in my bow drill stash at home. I did some research and discovered that Cedar would work in place of Hau.

fire plow cottonwood fireboard with red cedar plow

The best alternative woods for the Fire Plow

I reached out to my good friend Joe Lau, Phyre Master, and primitive fire skills instructor par excellence. And asked what local woods he used for his demonstrations of the Fire Plow. And lucky us, Joe shared some awesome Phyre Dojo wisdom.

Fire Plow Base Woods

  • Yucca
  • Sotol
  • Hickory
  • Bamboo

Although Yuccas aren't "local", they are EVERYWHERE in NJ due to landscaping choices. For demos and teaching I will only use Yuccas and Sotol. Sotol can be bought on ETSY, but you have to tell the guy exactly what you're looking for: 2ft long cylinders that are as large/wide diameters as possible.

Locally, in NJ, I have been successful with large Cattails and Velvetleaf plant stalks as Blades and Catalpa and Pawpaw woods as bases. I have also been successful with a Hickory base with a Cattail stalk. Surprisingly, I got some old BAMBOO on BAMBOO to go. I also don't experiment enough with this method... Joe Lau

Fire Plow plant stalks for blades

  • Cattail
  • Velvet Leaf

Lastly

In my article The Best Bow Drill Woods I laid out the best softwoods to use. Many of our local woods can be used successfully for the fire plow method. You're only limited by the width, depth, and length of the wood. To be successful be sure to use a recommended softwood species and that both the hearth board and plow are completely dry.

  • Fire-Craft
  • The Amazing Blue Elderberry
  • Adult Camps
  • Government Courses

Written by Mark Wienert · Categorized: Outdoor Survival School

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Social Media

Sign up for our Newsletter

Recent Posts

  • Wild Plants Coastal Oregon
  • I Slid Off The Road
  • Best Survival Knife
  • How to Collect Stinging Nettle Stalks
  • Sharpening the Tracker Knife
  • Debris Hut Survival
  • Summertime Berries
  • Survival Bush Craft
  • The Amazing Blue Elderberry
  • How to Brain Tan a Squirrel

Categories

  • Outdoor Survival School (16)
  • Plants (9)
  • Survival Gear (5)
  • Teen Adventure Camps (6)
  • The Philosophy (3)
  • Tracking (10)

Recommended Sites

  • Earth School
  • EarthWalk Northwest
  • Hollow Top
  • Jack Mountain Bushcraft School
  • Karamat Wilderness Ways
  • Paul Kirtley Bushcraft
  • The Way of Tracking
  • Weekend Survival School

Lifesong Wilderness Adventures

The Standard in Wilderness Survival Training

Privacy Policy · Media & Press

Contact Us

PO Box 149
Blue River, OR 97413
530-859-0539
Monday-Friday: 9 AM – 5 PM PST

Sitemap

Sign up for our Newsletter

Copyright © 1994-2023 · Lifesong Wilderness Adventures · All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
====== OX DEBUG ======
hooking into plugin wp_rocket
Settings
	 ox_unused_css_compact true
	 ox_amphtml_disable false
	 ox_unused_css_page_home true
	 ox_unused_css_page_blog true
	 ox_unused_css_page_page true
	 ox_unused_css_page_author false
	 ox_unused_css_page_category false
	 ox_unused_css_page_product_category false
	 ox_unused_css_page_custom_posttype false
	 ox_jquery_migrate_disable true


post_type post_type::post
page blog
page_id url::/2021/01/fire-plow-wood-types/


Stylesheets
	 [altitude-pro-theme]
		 https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/style.css
	 [classic-theme-styles]
		 /wp-includes/css/classic-themes.min.css
	 [global-styles]
		 
	 [siteorigin-panels-front]
		 https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/plugins/siteorigin-panels/css/front-flex.min.css
	 [sow-social-media-buttons-atom-258d97dc48cb]
		 https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/siteorigin-widgets/sow-social-media-buttons-atom-258d97dc48cb.css
	 [cmplz-general]
		 https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/plugins/complianz-gdpr/assets/css/cookieblocker.min.css
	 [dashicons]
		 /wp-includes/css/dashicons.min.css
	 [tablepress-default]
		 https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/plugins/tablepress/css/build/default.css
	 [rocket-lazyload]
		 


Scripts
	[rocket-browser-checker]
	
	[rocket-preload-links]
	
	[altitude-global]
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/js/global.js
	[gforms_recaptcha_recaptcha]
	https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?render=6LfDaA8eAAAAAIiy-vz8Z9Oxtxq7UqSW2fBi7dY0
	[heartbeat]
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-rocket/assets/js/heartbeat.js
	[cmplz-cookiebanner]
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/plugins/complianz-gdpr/cookiebanner/js/complianz.min.js


buffer start...
action ox_dom
link nodes
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/style.css?ver=1675454256
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-includes/css/classic-themes.min.css?ver=1
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/plugins/siteorigin-panels/css/front-flex.min.css?ver=2.20.4
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/uploads/siteorigin-widgets/sow-social-media-buttons-atom-258d97dc48cb.css?ver=1675454256
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/plugins/complianz-gdpr/assets/css/cookieblocker.min.css?ver=6.4.0
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-includes/css/dashicons.min.css?ver=1675454256
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/plugins/tablepress/css/build/default.css?ver=1675454256
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/uploads/siteorigin-widgets/sow-social-media-buttons-atom-24dc1e52da9e.css?ver=1675454271
	https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/plugins/so-widgets-bundle/icons/fontawesome/style.css?ver=1675454271
master_file https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/style.css?ver=1675454256
used_css NOT_DETERMIN
can_do_unused true
ERROR: NO USED CSS
Preloading Files
preloading https://www.lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/fonts/mukta-extra-light.woff2
	 https://www.lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/fonts/mukta-extra-light.woff2
preloading https://www.lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/fonts/mukta-extra-bold.woff2
	 https://www.lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/fonts/mukta-extra-bold.woff2
preloading https://www.lifesongadventures.com/wp-includes/fonts/dashicons.woff?99ac726223c749443b642ce33df8b800
	 https://www.lifesongadventures.com/wp-includes/fonts/dashicons.woff?99ac726223c749443b642ce33df8b800
Preloading Master File https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/style.css?ver=1675454256
preloading https://lifesongadventures.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/themes/altitude-pro/style.css?ver=1675454256