An easy trick to remember. Using the 90 degree spine on the back of your blade, scrape slithers from the peg into tinder and strike with a ferro rod or even a Bic lighter in wet weather for that matter . I had this small amount of plastic burning for close to 3 minutes.
A quick project to fill in some time with a short loop of paracord.
Well at-least I started. Will be spending some of the day resharpening my tools.
Tutorials
Why
How
Marking Out
Carving Tools Hill Billy Forge
https://www.facebook.com/hillbillyforge/
Cariboo Blades Crook Knife
https://www.caribooblades.com/crooked-knives
The Frost River Tool Roll arrived today. I’m going to place a couple of paracord ties in the corner eyelets so I can hang it from a branch to keep it out of the way when cooking. I tried a few other items into it while I was at it.
I may have to purchase two more rolls. One for my Auger set and another for my Flint Knapping tools. Still having a play around with it at the moment. I’m about to contact Bob Gilmour to order a Rose Alder spatula to finish off the kit but wanted to make sure I had the correct sizing for him and to give Bob a chance to catch up on Christmas orders.
Spatula
https://www.gilmourdesign.shop/bev-traditional-spatula/
Utensil Roll Frost River
https://www.survivalsuppliesaustralia.com.au/Frost-River-Utensil-Roll?b7=z1
May have to make that another three tool rolls. When I first designed my carving tool roll in oilskin I didn’t think of storing sharpening tools or pencils.
I guess there’s always a reason for something happening. I had started my tracking course and all the required reading books I was finding very difficult to locate or shops that would post to my location. Still looks like a 20 day wait on many of them to arrive. I cant go much further with the course until I can read a few chapters into several of the books. Many of the books were written by Jon Young. I ended up coming across a Australian website on Mentoring that was selling Coyotes Guide to Connecting with Nature run by Miles Holmes whom also runs Rewild Fridays in Bellingen NSW.
The four week sessions cover: Bird language, Holistic tracking, Sensory awareness, The quiet mind, Village building process, Nature games, Wandering, Simple ceremony, Cordage, Local Indigenous excursions, Silent movement and stalking, Stone tool making, Fire by friction, Weaving, Primitive pottery, Primitive footwear, Hide tanning, Primitive cooking, Shelter building, Camouflage, Trapping and snares, Wild foods, Light, torches and candles.
It looks like Ive already started making a list of courses to do when Im back on my feet and can travel again. If there’s anyone out there that can put me onto a copy of Seeing Through Native Eyes also by Jon Young that is located within Australia, it would be much appreciated.
https://sites.google.com/view/rewild-fridays-bello/home
Always maintain composure
Stay clear on objective
Dont punish yourself
Dont put yourself down
Just accept it
Acknowledge it
Move on and continue
Take a mental note to improve
Always focus on success
Forget failure
Failures are not failures
They are just lessons
From the kali Center
This has been a question I have been asked several times in the past six months for various reasons and has been one of the most difficult for me to answer. So I opted the other day to phone a mate for a second opinion. His reply “It was a non question, it depended on perspective”.
So this is probably going to be the longest Non Answer in history. It will come down to what your background is and what you expect to get out of bushcraft. A Fisherman will be expecting a different 5 knots to someone with a Search and Rescue background for example. Does your bushcraft involve using tarps or tents, do you go bush to abseil? Are you an instructor and want to build from basic knots that arent difficult to learn and make the experience enjoyable and not over whelming, so the student wants to come back and learn more knots?
Climbing knots (disclaimer: examples my rope work ticket expired)
Belaying,securing yourself to a carabiner, anchor or harness , joining webbing , Rappelling, handholds or foot holds, for friction or sliding
Prusic, double figure 8, water knot reinforced, triple fisherman’s, alpine butterfly, clove hitch, barrel knot.
Tarp knots; siberian hitch, truckers hitch, taut tarp hitch, prusic, sheet bend.
Fishing knots; Surgeons knot, Trilene knot, Palomar knot, Snelling
Lashings for building; Square lashing, Diagonal lashing, Shear lashing, Round lashing, Tripod Lashing.Timber hitch to start lashings, half hitch to finish them.
4WD Recovery; soft shackles, figure 8s (if all you have is an old rope in the back of a ute and not proper recovery snatch straps and braided kinetic rope).
Join two ropes together; (same diameter) fisherman’s, double fisherman’s, (uneven diameter)double sheet bend.
Teaching someone the basics; marlins spike hitch, half hitch, double overhand stop knot, reef knot, sheet bend, larks head, clove hitch.
What Id choose for basic all round knots (sorry I couldn’t do 5):
1) Bowline fudge anything with this knot
2) Canadian Jam knot for building
3) Figure 8 for hauling
4) prusik for safety
5) fisherman’s knot joining two lengths of equal size
6) Truckers hitch for tensioning
I hope this answer confuses the hell out of those people that have had my mind working over time for the past six months trying to figure this out HAHA.
I started reading Bushcraft Essentials by Dave Canterbury and it reminded me of something I have always wanted to try. Starting a fire by using the magnifying glass on a compass. I didn’t think this would work mainly due to the size of the glass being used however I tried both the Silva Expedition with a slightly larger glass and the Suunto MC2. The Silva started a little easier and faster, however I was mostly interested in the Suunto because this is the compass I now use more often. It was a little more fiddly and had a smaller area of focal concentration but they both worked admirably.
The bushcraft Essentials Field Guide by Dave Canterbury. The postman was busy today. Ill be trying to read this over the next few weeks to do a review.
Update 24th Dec
Sick in bed for two days. So today was a good opportunity to take a break and recuperate and begin reading The Essential Field Guide. Well laid out, a good explanation of how the Pathfinder School instructs using the 5C’s relating to all aspects of training and adding another 5 levels from basic to intermediate.
The only two typo’s I found were pages 169 the illustration of the bucksaw was a production boreal saw and not a handmade timber take-down and two on page 170 the picture of the A frame roycroft pack frame was in fact a ladder style frame.
Broken into 9 chapters, such as (1) survival priorities covering, 5 priorities, 5 Cs of survivability, 5cs of sustainability. (3) 5ws of campsite selection, shelter necessities, shelter configurations, 5 components of a shelter kit, eg; (quick deployment ridge-line).(7) Bind-craft 5 basic knots and hitches, 5 additional knots, 5 lashings and cordage management.
“Lays out the basic system of teaching from introductory through to intermediate (5×5 system).”
Its not going to show the finer points of how to do something but it will show the methodology program used by the pathfinder school. The book gave me ideas to build on and ways to show how to teach by building levels through different areas.Nothing I hadn’t learnt before in terms of skills but its difficult for me to find a book now that will do that. However what this book does do is organize teachings into a very managmented way of looking at learning bushcraft.
So far Ive enjoyed this book the most out of the others written by Dave.
I picked up a Tasmanian Sassafras spoon blank from the Vintage Tool Shop. It will make a good project to do over the holidays. If spoon carving is something you’ve never tried its worth looking into, almost like meditation at times.
Spoon Blanks (Tasmanian Blackheart Sassafras)
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