Mullein Torches and Hand Drills

Posted by Violet Snow Nov 26, 2007

The tall, dried mullein flower stalks are conspicuous, since they are often up to ten feet high. Here is a method I have used for making torches:

Collect a few stalks. Melt beeswax or broken candles or crayons in the oven in an aluminum pie plate or old pot. Spoon the liquid wax over the brown pods, leaving an uncoated stub at the top for a wick. As the wax cools and thickens, you can mold some of it around the seed pods.

To use the torch, light the uncoated pods at the top and stick the stem securely in the ground or in a pot of sand. Depending on the wind and the extent of the seed pods, a torch will burn for about fifteen to twenty minutes. Flaming torches in the dark are awe-inspiring and provide a connection to our ancestors in Europe and North America.

Another primitive use of mullein stalks is to make fire using friction, as I witnessed at a primitive fire-making workshop led by Barry Keegan, a former student of Tom Brown the Tracker. The first night of the workshop, more experienced students broke out their hand drills to practice making sparks.

A hand drill has two parts: a fireboard, a piece of flat wood with a small depression carved into it; and a spindle, the straight, narrow stalk of a dried plant whose end fits into the depression on the fireboard. The user rubs the spindle (often made from mullein or Canadian fleabane) rapidly between his or her hands, and the friction of the tip on the fireboard produces smoke and, eventually, a spark. I did not achieve the necessary concentration and coordination to create fire, but the process was spectacular to watch.