How To Bow Drill Hardwoods, There's A Sweet Spot

The key lies in finding the ‘sweet spot’ for the amount of downward pressure that you need to apply. Too little pressure leads to GLAZING, which you can identify when the spindle tip and divot start squeaking and/or stop producing smoke. To counteract glazing, you just need to apply more downward pressure.
On the other hand, too much pressure results in "USED UP" dust. It looks ignitable but won’t catch fire, even with a BIC. The sweet spot is going to be that delicate balance between these two extremes.
I think the reason that it took me 4 tries to get the Black Cherry bow drill ember is because I was anticipating glazing and was applying too much downward pressure. Lol. On the 4th try I greatly let up on the pressure and got the ember easily. Granted, it was a very slow starting ember, but one that grew strong and sent the wood shavings tinder bundle to flames with just the wind blowing on it.
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