Spent 4 hours out today enjoying the warm November weather practicing the hand drill. Tried making sure the hole was deep enough in the center so the pith in the center of the spindle bottom would not start to concave. This did help, allowing me to get smoke easier with as much force. I used a damp burdock and surprisingly got good smoke but no ember after about 3 attempts. Tried a small mullein and got smoke easily as well but still no ember. Used 2 different poplar hearths that were somewhat damp but no worse than the burdock. Just too much humidity here it seems. Even in the middle of summer on a sunny day I cannot get the hand drill to work. I couldn’t even get birch bark scrapping to light off my ferro Rod. The lighter did it though. Maybe I should try mullein on a burdock hearth again since both smoked so nicely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHqGiXvDtvU