King of the Wilderness

With the most critical drill bit in hand, he immediately began to craft the other components of the bow drill.

First was the bow; he found a willow branch about a meter long from the pile of firewood and carved shallow string grooves at both ends with his Hunting Knife.

Then, he bent down and untied one of the laces from his high-top hiking boots.

Facing the camera, he presented the sturdy nylon lace: ”In the wild, every item on you is a potential tool. This lace is strong and incredibly tough, making it the perfect material for a bowstring.”

Lin Yu’an tied one end of the lace into the willow branch’s string groove, then bent the stick with force and tied the other end tightly as well, completing a simple yet sturdy bow drill.

Next was the handle, more specifically, the hand drill cap.

He found a palm-sized, hard stone to hold the end of the drill rod and reduce friction.

Finally, the most crucial piece—the drill rod.

Lin Yu’an explained to the camera: ”If it’s a wooden arrow shaft, it can fully serve as the drill rod for the bow drill.”

”But if it’s a Carbon Fiber Arrow Shaft, that’s a very wrong choice! Its strength lies in resisting bending, but its fatal weakness is its brittleness and susceptibility to twisting.”

”The bow drill’s massive torque would instantly twist this Carbon Fiber Arrow Shaft into pieces! So I can’t use this Carbon Fiber Arrow Shaft itself as the drill rod.”

He found a birch stick, smoothing it down to become the main body of the drill rod.

Then, at one end of the stick, he carefully dug a shallow groove with the knife tip, tightly embedding the threaded end of the metal arrowhead, and bound the arrowhead and stick firmly together with a tripwire in a crisscross manner.

He pulled it extremely tight to ensure that the arrowhead would not wobble at all during high-speed rotation.

Now, he had a complete set of tools specifically designed for precision drilling!

Following his explanation, Lin Yu’an first picked up the fully formed H-shaped spool, securing it firmly to the ground with his foot and knee.

He wrapped the bow drill’s lace bowstring once around the drill rod, held the stone grip with his left hand, pressing tightly against the top of the drill rod.

Then, he aligned the metal arrowhead at the bottom of the drill rod precisely at the center of the H-shaped spool, held the bow handle with his right hand, and began to pull back and forth steadily.

”Squeak—Creak—Squeak—Creak—”

The lace drove the drill rod, instantly starting a high-speed reciprocal rotation! The hard metal arrowhead and the dry birch produced a remarkably piercing sound of friction.

Whirls of wood shavings like shavings continually emerged from the hole, accompanied by a burnt odor! The efficiency was more than ten times greater than any manual rotation!

Soon, a smooth, straight axle hole was perfectly drilled.

He used the same method to drill two more holes for securing the axle on the platform at the back end of the handle. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Finally, he shaved a hardwood stick slightly thinner than the axle hole as the axle and a small handle easy to grip.

When he threaded the axle through the handle, mounted the spool, and then threaded it out through the other side of the handle, attaching the handle at last, a perfect winding wheel was integrated with the handle.

He gently turned the small handle, and the spool emitted a slight ”squeak” as it rotated smoothly.

The final step was the most crucial ”grafting” procedure.

He needed to drill a hole at the front end of the handle that could perfectly accommodate the Carbon Fiber Arrow Shaft.

When it was time to drill the hole for the rod, he once more picked up the trusted and proven tool—the bow drill and the arrowhead drill rod.

Once again, he picked up the bow drill; given the arrowhead drill bit’s perfect match in diameter with the arrow shaft, drilling the hole became exceptionally straightforward.

He only needed to create one more drill rod with a diameter smaller than the arrowhead’s, then use the bow drill to drill an appropriately deep hole at the front of the wooden handle, ensuring a perfect fit.

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After half an hour, a hole with just the right depth and a diameter perfectly snug with the Carbon Fiber Arrow Shaft appeared precisely at the front end of the wooden handle.

Once the hole was completed, he held the precious Carbon Fiber Arrow Shaft in his hand, preparing for the final adhesion.

He didn’t proceed immediately but instead addressed the camera, offering a critical clarification that encapsulated the core essence of the entire design.

”I know, many might be confused,” he lightly tapped the arrow shaft with his finger, producing a crisp sound.

”Why can’t this arrow shaft be used as a drill rod but can be used for a flexible fishing rod?”

”The answer lies in the type of force it endures.”

”When used as a fishing rod, it mainly bears the pull of a fish, which is a bending force. The structure of carbon fiber makes it exceptionally strong against bending, allowing it to flex like a spring and rebound quickly.”

”However, when used as a drill rod, it must withstand enormous ’torsional forces.’ The carbon fiber structure is exceedingly fragile when it comes to resisting torsion, just as you can’t twist a glass rod.”

”Once the drill bit gets stuck, this force will instantly rip it apart from the inside, causing it to explode like a twisted pretzel. That’s its ’brittleness.’

”Thus, I leverage its strength and avoid its brittleness; this is the understanding of materials and the true meaning of tool-making in the wilderness.”

Having said this, he then retrieved a small piece of pine resin, hardened to an amber color, from the bark box in the corner of the shelter.

He placed the pine resin on a stone slab, merely setting it near the warmth of the fireplace to use the radiant heat, allowing it to melt slowly and gently into a viscous liquid, rather than directly roasting over flames.

He explained to the camera: ”There’s a key point here, we can’t use too high a temperature. Although the arrow shaft is made of carbon fiber, it is cured with epoxy resin. Excessive heat can damage the resin and compromise the strength of the arrow shaft.”

”The melting point of pine resin is very low. We just need it to become sticky enough to be used as an adhesive.”

Instead of directly heating the arrow shaft, he slightly toasted the pre-drilled holes on the wooden handle, warming and drying the wood.

Then he swiftly used a small wooden stick to evenly spread the warm and viscous pine resin on the inner wall of the hole and the tail of the arrow shaft. Without hesitation, he spun the carbon fiber arrow shaft and inserted it into the hole on the wooden handle!

”Szz——”

With a soft sound, the excess resin was squeezed out, emitting a puff of smoke.

After cooling, the carbon fiber arrow shaft and the wooden handle became as if naturally one, forming an unbreakable, perfect union!

Next is to install the rod rings on this masterpiece that combines modern and primitive techniques.

He extracted the fishing line from a wooden reel and carefully cut several sections from a roll of professional steel tripwire.

Then, he needed to form these rigid steel wires into smooth circular guide rings.

”Bending by hand is not only laborious but also can’t ensure that each guide ring is perfectly identical in size.”

Lin Yu’an picked a birch branch from the firewood and sharpened it into a smooth small stick with a diameter of about one centimeter using a Hunting Knife.

This unassuming little stick was his precision ”mandrel” for making rod rings.

He tightly wound the steel wire around the mandrel, ensuring each loop fit closely. After winding two loops, he pressed them firmly with the back of the Hunting Knife, twisted the excess steel wire at both ends into a braid-like ”foot,” and cut it with the blade.

The first perfect miniature rod ring with fixed feet was born.

Using the same method, he made four more rod rings of exactly the same size.

He then carefully extracted a PE braided line from his fishing set and placed the largest rod ring on the rod near the handle.

Using an ultra-fine fiber line, he began to bind, tightly winding it around the ”feet” of the rod ring, securely fixing it to the carbon fiber rod.

As he wrapped to the end, he pressed a folded segment of line below, continued wrapping a few loops, then pulled the main line through the loop, cleverly and seamlessly hiding the line end beneath the tight coils.

Finally, with the tip of a small wooden stick, he dipped into a bit of freshly melted warm pine resin and, like adding a finishing touch, carefully applied it over the entire bound coil.

The resin quickly seeped into the fiber gaps and, upon cooling, formed a hard, transparent protective layer, sealing everything perfectly.

In descending order of size, he used the same exquisite technique to securely fix the remaining four rod rings onto the rod, forming a graceful curve!

Finally, it’s time to give this ice fishing rod its soul — installing the rod tip.

The rod tip is the most sensitive part of an ice fishing rod, its core function is to convert the faintest underwater fish signals into clear visual indications.

He carefully examined the wings and tail of the harvested Thunderbird, plucking the most complete and black tail feather.

”During ice fishing, the fish bite action is usually very subtle, almost imperceptible to touch, so we need a visual indicator.”

”Against the white ice and snow backdrop, this black feather is extremely conspicuous, any slight movement can be easily captured, which greatly reduces the visual fatigue from staring at the rod for long periods.”

”At the same time, its elasticity allows it to quickly return to its original position once the signal fades, without causing excessive shaking.”

”It’s a simple lever principle; a small vibration at the rod tip is amplified along the feather’s length, eventually producing a visible displacement at the feather’s end.”

After explaining, he continued the meticulous creation.

He did not directly bind it, as that would be unstable; he needed to create a more stable connection structure.

First, with the sharp tip of the Hunting Knife, he carefully cut a shallow slit about one centimeter long along the centerline of the thickest root of the feather shaft.

This action required high control; a slight mistake would split the feather shaft in two.

After completing this step, the cut feather shaft formed an openable, clip-like structure.

Like capping a pen, he accurately ”straddled” the split feather shaft onto the very tip of the carbon fiber rod.

The feather shaft clamped the rod tip from above and below, greatly increasing the contact area, fundamentally preventing the feather from sliding sideways or rotating on the rod tip.

Then, using PE braided line, he tightly bound the entire root of the feather shaft to the carbon fiber rod tip, starting from the tip and moving backward.

Throughout the process, he ensured every loop of line was tightly aligned without any gaps, guaranteeing immense radial pressure firmly pressed the feather shaft onto the rod tip.

The final step was sealing. With the tip of a small wooden stick, he dipped into some pine resin that had long melted into liquid by the fireplace, carefully applying it over the entire bound line coil.

Warm pine resin quickly penetrated every tiny gap between the fiber lines, cooling to form a hard, transparent, and completely waterproof protective layer.

This layer of resin thoroughly bonded the fiber line, feather shaft, and rod tip into a solid whole, completely shielding them from potential erosion by melting ice and snow.

When he completed all this, a sensitive and sturdy rod tip perfectly integrated with the entire fishing rod!

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(Double update! Today’s really the last day, if there are any monthly tickets left, please throw them all at Han Sui!!!)