My good friend and brother in bushcraft, Shonuffisthemaster, continues to have some success in getting a regular attendance at his Saturday morning meet-ups at the Hyland Lake Park Reserve in Bloomington, MN.
A few Saturdays ago, I decided to leave my usual Saturday 9AM meet up at the Minneopa State Park, and head up to the twin cities to see just what kind of activity my friend had going on up there.
I met four very nice people on that day. Well, actually closer to 3.5. Let me explain.
In the morning, I met Appleshoe and her husband and their baby, Edric. (I think I got that right.) Anyway, we had a great time, with Shonuff' and I showing them the wonders of friction firecraft. After which, we all went out for a hike, looking for wild edibles and medicinal plants, before the afternoon session would get started at 1pm.
I really look forward to meeting them again. We all shared a great enthusiasm for the outdoors and learning and practicing primitive ways. As a family, they were very much involved in self reliance and sustainability and will bring much to our little group.
You can read a comment from Appleshoe posted in my previous blog article about "Backyard Bushcrafting."
Then in the afternoon, I met Donnie. Donnie demonstrated some very good skill with friction fire and cooking and other things. I hope he is able to meet more of the others, including some of the BushcraftUSA members, who have said they plan on coming out on some Saturday.
As Donnie and Sho' prepared for lunch, I decided to see just how long it would take to craft a wooden spoon out of some basswood that I had harvested while we were out on our hike. My goal was to finish it in the time it took to prep the fire, start the fire, prep the food and cook the food and then serve it up. I hoped it would be done by then.
I got to work on it and after a bit, with only my SAK Farmer and my Mora spoon knives to work with, I had this rough image of a spoon...
Within a few minutes after finishing the spoon, lunch was served and the spoon performed perfectly...
I was really glad to have my Mora spoon knife in my kit and I have decided that it will become part of my essential gear, for with it I can forge containers and those are hard to come by in the wilderness.
Flash forward a couple more weekends, and it is now Labor day. I had the privilege of getting out on a Saturday morning as usual and meeting with my friend and fellow bushcrafter, Sticker from BushcraftUSA. He and his family were spending a weekend in the same state park where we hold our meet-ups. So naturally I had to visit.
While I was there, I stumbled on a great piece of basswood that was just begging to be made into a spoon. I decided that I would try for something a little larger, maybe a soup spoon or a ladle and really try to sand and finish it up nice. Here is what the roughed out version looks for now.
This is still a work in progress and as of right now, I am slowly finishing the outside and am beginning to shape the bowl for just he thickness to allow good soup eating or ladeling.
I have to say, making a spoon is a great bushcraft project and it sharpens your knifecraft skills to allow you even more control when it comes to making other things.
I guess next I need to tackle the chicken stick. More on that later of course. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
