I think this is update 5 ? I have been going a little stir crazy after three months and have been looking for projects that I can do within a 200 meter walk or should I say hobble.
In the last 6 months Ive had a heart problem they now believe may have been an allergy to ginger. Cancer removed from my throat, cancer removed from my right shoulder twice. Both caught early enough that I didn’t require Kemo. A nice 80mm scar to add to the ever growing collection.
Severed my left quad tendon and had it reattached. They firstly said two months in a brace then three now Im in a brace until I can support the knee and looking at a year of rehab before Im back to 100 %. Another 200mm scar, haha. Its taken me a week but I can now light my leg three inches for a couple of seconds.
Also had my third scan on my pancreas from a lump they found four years ago.Lucked out there too, no growth. one more scan in two years due to my previous history with immune suppression. Its been a busy few months.
So every little job Ive put off Im now trying to get done. Watching way too much you-tube and doing as many online training courses as I can afford on disability.
Im now hassling smokers for old Bic lighters I can smash and fix. Catching up on all my text books on wilderness medicine and plant study, mushroom ID etc.
Getting a lot of writing and research done at least. Between the rehab exercises and off all the morphine and endone, so I can concentrate a little more. Still getting pain but managing it better.
Its going to take at least six months of intense training before I can go back to in person training courses, Ive lost 10 kilo in muscle.
I wanted to say thank you to my friends for helping me out over the past few months.
Another Pathfinder School mystery solved. Ive been thinking about this one on and off for a few weeks. In the Pathfinder basic kit list has a 5×7 survival blanket.”No bigger no smaller.so that two of them can be joined together in a partner exercise.” Which means the seam would have to be at the ridge-line to fit two people into an emergency shelter.
So how do you attach two survival blankets together without them leaking. Blanket stitch them with paracord and feed a ridge-line through the stitching? Straight stitch them? Use toggles?
I almost had it. I got as far as using a piece of timber as the ridge brace but left it at that. Then came across the below video. Use two braces! Awesome. This one uses a poncho but same concept. I want to try and make an A-frame log shelter using the same method in order to have a chimney.
Ive seen a few ways to use a broken lighter from scraping the flint in reverse to collect shavings, to removing the safety ring and just using as normal on very fine tinder . However I thought the following was the best that Ive seen so far.
Im going to have to hassle every smoker i know for old Bics to try this out.
This is a work in progress. Ive been researching this concept for a while, trying to make use of what I have on hand.I’m trying to make up two separate kits. One to have in my backpack that is more advanced than my boo boo kit. Although I carry an IFAK along with my AMK boo boo kit. Ill be basing this kit on an AMK 0.9 pro. Larger storage bag and splint.
The second kit which this article is more about. I was going through my Remote First Responder kit listed at bottom of the page and making something to complement it.By this i mean there is nothing in the remote kit to address advanced airway and bleeding control.No tourniquets or pressure bandages and no BVM and no diagnostic tools.
So I’m making up the following kit to use in conjunction with the remote kit as a supplemental kit. I’m repurposing my 511 Tactical Rush 24 from my GHB. The material used in construction and all the pouches are too heavy to use for that purpose but I think great for this project.
This kit is more to address several scenarios. Vehicle accidents in the bush, chainsaw cuts,most of the training courses Ive been on had no pressure bandages. What got me thinking about this kit to begin with was when I was an active member of a pistol club. They had a basic workplace first aid kit nothing to address severe gun shot wounds, no designated first aider and half the kit was emptied. I always had my IFAK on hand but i really wanted something to treat multiple injuries or multiple patients, to be able to stabilize and evac. An absolute shitshow waiting to happen.
Which brings me to micro or pocket BVM,s.( Bag Valve Mask). The last time i completed my CPR recertification, I managed 3 minutes in order to pass and then almost passed out. I have 65% lung capacity. funnily enough most people werent that much further behind me. In a remote or wilderness setting how many people can in reality perform CPR for over 30 minutes. A pocket or collapsible BVM extends how long i can provide assistance or other members of a group can over an extended period.
The other thing I noticed that on every remote or wilderness course they teach to use a BP cuff and take pulse. Ive never seen a BP cuff in a kit. So I wanted some where i could carry my diagnosis kit for checking vital signs.
One inch tubular I may have to do an article on this by itself. I have 50 meters folded in half, tied with a reinforced water knot and daisy chained with a crab (carabiner). This can be used as a drag system when you cant lift a person and they have to be removed from a dangerous situation in a hurry, harness, pulley system,lowering device. Awesome stuff to carry Ron Hood put me onto this years ago.
Which brings me to evacs. A lot of places Ive been an ambulance can get to within 500 meters and there’s no chance of getting their wheeled beds in much further so a fold-able litter such as a NAR Quiklitter lite can be indespensible.
This kit is designed to have a bleeder, burns, breaks and sprains, bites and stings, airway ,hypothermia management treatment sections for rapid deployment.. Based around Joshua Enyarts design.
Several things to mention. I’m not carrying this kit vary far from a vehicle or it would be lighter and I have more items in there for multiple causalities.
Diagnosis Kit
Pupil light
BP cuff
Stethoscope
BSL monitor
Pulse oxymeter
Raptor Trauma Shears
Casualty cards
Wallet reference cards –
DRS ABCDE / IMIST
METHANE / Triage Sieve
MARCHE / IMIST
GCS / Vital Signs
PPE kit
Gloves nitrile multiple
sharpies x 2
Face masks multiple
Hand sanitizer
Evac kit
Tube tape and carabiner
Litter
Bleed kit
CAT tourniquet x1
Swat tourniquet x2
2x chest seals
Quick clot
Israeli bandages 2×6 inch and 2×4 inch
S rolled gauze x 2
Breaks and Sprains kit
Sam splints 2×36 1×18 1×9 finger splints x 6
2x 3 inch 2x 6 inch elastic bandages
Airway kit
Guedel airway kit
Nasopharyngeal airways x 2 (7mm)
Pocket BVM
Ventolin
Burns kit
Irrigation syringe
Crevates x 6 dry dressing
Burntec 4×4 inch wet dressing x 2
Everything else
Tape
Saline eye rinse
4×4 gauze (with this and tape you can make dressings eg bandaids)
Several of the regular you-tube channels I watch are from the instructors at the Pathfinder School. Its turned into a game with myself trying to figure out why they use certain pieces of equipment on the basic gear list and the purposes of use.
One thing I have yet to figure out is why you can only take carbon steel knives. My guess is they use the spine to strike off flint. My choice for taking on that course would have been the TOPS BOB Field Craft however I prefer the CPM154 steel version.
The other item I had trouble working out till this week were the plastic tent pegs. On their other videos they always use titanium pegs in their kits.
The answer was tent pegs scraped into shavings can be used as an alternative fire starting material the same as gorilla tape. Which is also another reason for having a 90 degree spine. Not only to use on striking fires off a ferro rod but also for scraping tinder material.
One inch tubular webbing, I started an article on wilderness medical kits and decided to do a stand alone section on this product that not many people have ever heard about.
I have 50 meters folded in half, tied with a re-enforced water knot and daisy chained with a crab (carabiner). This can be used as a drag system when you cant lift a person and they have to be removed from a dangerous situation in a hurry, harnesses, pulley system, lowering device, ladder, stretcher. There are ten you-tube links below on how to make and use. Awesome stuff to carry Ron Hood put me onto this years ago.
Its taken me close to two years of learning and research but think I finally have the knots required for everything bushcraft related. Along with variations and applications. I’m not putting down how to use them and where, as Id like to eventually teach this as a subject. There are a lot of previous posts on uses.
My idea is to teach privates on individual subjects and not a full bushcraft course. More a day on blades, a day on knots, a day on shelters (tarps), bug out bags, tool selection etc. More an informal day of getting stuck into areas that people would like to improve on. Bring in a little extra cash and give me something to do, where I can work around my health.
Many of the knots below are redundant, however you need to learn them before the variations.For example I no longer use a sheet bend only a double sheet bend. Clove hitches I now prefer a picket line hitch to stop any slipping. Finally an Anchor hitch is preferred over a round turn and two half hitches.
The other way Id like to go is to have pre-cut timbers for making projects. Such as a bushcraft chair to learn lashings. Tarps or ponchos to learn the four knots associated with putting them up. Adjustable tripods etc.
Lashings (Pole to Pole)
Square lashing
Diagonal lashing
Shear lashing
Round lashing
Tripod Lashing
Hitches (Cordage to Pole)
Half hitch
Truckers Hitch (Improved)
Clove hitch variation with stop knot lock, with half hitch lock on side, spar hitch, picket line or ground line hitch, constrictor with slip ends
Post hitch
Evank or Siberian hitch
Timber hitch
Marlin spike hitch
Round turn and two half hitches variation anchor hitch
Friction hitches –
Taut Tarp hitch,
Prusic, variation larks head
Knots (cordage to Cordage)
Overhand knot, variation double overhand knot
Fishermans variation double fishermans
Bowline
Sheet bend variation double sheet bend
Slip knot
Square knot
Whipping knot
Arbour knot or Canadian jam
Figure 8 standard or trace, inline, on a bight
Tarp corners
Panic knot
Alpine butterfly
Soft shackles
Fishing knots
Surgeons knot
Trilene knot
Palomar knot
Snelling
Mechanical Advantage
Flip Flop Winch
Paring ladder
An example of a project. Making a bushcraft table with lashings and knots.
Ammendment –
Buntline hitch – I was introduced to this knot or should I say hitch on a course for tying onto tarp eyelets. Its essentially a clove hitch tied onto the main line. The hitch is more secure than a round turn and two half hitches but difficult to remember and will not take a load and under load liable to jam I think the anchor hitch does the same job but better and is a modified round turn and two half hitches far easier to remember. So Im removing the buntline from the rotation.
The Esse junglas 2 is one of my favorite knives. If I was going on Alone this would be the blade I took with me. Dan from Ochoco Bushcraft gave me the idea of customizing it, by stripping off the powder coating and using feric oxide to give the bare metal a patina. Im also putting a 90 degree spine on the blade. Although I tend to use a tool steel scraper on my ferro rods, this blade Im intending for a stand alone piece to use with minimal equipment.
I wont be changing the grip scales although the new canvas micarta ones look good from the blade connection. The main problem is the shipping from the US to Australia. I like the standard grip panels, however I will be soaking them in Inox to stop them from marking and sealing the micarta with brass lacquer and wiping over the grips before the varnish sets.
junglas 1 at top compared to junglas 2 below
Ill also be modifying the sheath by covering the kydex with leather to give it a more bushcrafty look and doing a leather braid up the edge to finish off the sheath edge.
Finished pictures forthcoming.
I get a lot of good ideas from Dans channel, check out the dingle stick link below this is the only place I have seen this idea demonstrated.
I’m currently still stuck inside, inclement weather and possibly another two weeks before the leg brace comes off and was looking for a project I can do. I’m sitting here watching one of my favorite You-tube channels and came across PET Balls. I made these when I was younger before going on to fancier fire starting methods with beeswax but have had a few friends ask about learning some skills and thought this would be a perfect way to teach them basic fire lighting.
cotton balls
The courses Ive been doing for the past few years would frown upon using any artificial fire starter but I thought when first teaching someone with absolutely no experience. You have the choice of either making it hard for them and searching around for natural tinder sources or to make it a fun and enjoyable experience to start with and build up their confidence and then layer their skill level by using natural materials for tinder . Still need to find Petroleum Jelly (PET).
Found the following clip showing the use of wax crayons as an extender. Im going to try the same thing however Ill be using beeswax and a grater.
