I learned Bow Drill about 8 years ago. I thought that the fireboard needed to be held tightly with spring clamps or pinned to the table with my knife. The strong twisting torque that I had to resist came from my spindle's tip rubbing against the inside walls of the fireboard's divot. The deeper I drilled the more the fireboard would try to twist. I eventually took my mentor's advice, "All friction needs to be applied to the very bottom of the divot. Any friction against the inside walls of the divot from the outside walls of the spindle's tip was a waste of your energy." So, whenever I noticed any rubbing, I started scraping the outside walls of the spindle's tip to make it's diameter smaller which stopped "the rub". After all these years later, it's just now occurring to me that without all that twisting torque, I no longer need to use strong holding devices. 90% of the time I don't need to hold the fireboard at all. I LOVE THAT! Please follow the LINKs below and SUBSCRIBE. Thank You! Hand Drill Playlist Stanley 10-049 Pocketknife Playlist