>>1698997>Spinning by hand sssuuuuccccckkkkkksssssss.Agreed totally.
Do not use your shoe laces or clothing. If you are in such a survival situation where you must be making a fire without modern firemaking tools, do not ruin the tools (clothing) you have to make it. Shoes are extremely important and breaking the laces is very easy to do when using them for a bow drill or other type of firemaking device that uses cordage.
Using the soles of your footwear and wearing the shoes over your hands like gloves to do the spinning won't harm you or the gloves. Unfortunately, most people wear footwear that has the type of tread on the bottom that isn't good for this. Even flop-flops are better for that than most thing. Simply wearing gloves will also help greatly.
>making cordageI'll have you know that making cordage is ultra easy. It will depend on the types of plants in your area and to some extent the current season. There is normally a laundry list of plants that you can make cordage from in just about every location that has plants. Some are just way better than others of course. Some need special processing (soaking in hot water mixed with ashes from your wood fire...irony there), butt most just require some knowledge and work on your part.
This webm shows the easiest cordage you can make. It is easy to practice making just about anywhere in the world. You can also make rather thin cordage using this once you have some practice under your belt. You don't waste much time or energy doing this. If you use this method and create thicker cordage with it, just scale up the thickness of your bow drill's spindle. You'll only need to taper the ends of the spindle to get it to work normally.
I practice grass rope making while catfishing mostly. Cordage making is also a very good method of keeping your hands busy while you develop your S.T.O.P. (Stop, Think, Observe, & Plan; "from Ray Mears").
