It is not very often that I get the chance to blog about a project that really adds to the utilitarian nature of my kit, but recently I put together a knife sheath based on a design presented by IA Woodsman on the BushcraftUSA forum site. Here is a link to that post and the video of his DIY-SAK-Farmer-Pouch-Sheath .
I had acquired a long piece of a seat belt as a discard from a vehicular extraction training exercise that was held during our Fire School training weekend at the college where I work. So this project was a perfect way to use that webbing. It just seemed like I had all the right pieces, so I set to work on it.
Before sharing the photos of my finished project, I have to share that of all the knives I own, I seem to get the most our of my SAK Farmer. It is about the most used tool I have in my kit when I am out and about in the wilderness.
I am not saying this by any means as an outright endorsement or knife review per se, but simply stating that it is hard to go wrong if you choose a SAK Farmer for your bushcraft kit. I use the knife blade for all kinds of fire prep and carving needs and the saw blade for harvesting all manner of woods for various projects, and the awl is near perfect for drilling holes and using with my fire steel to get sparks and an ember going in my tinder bundle.
The SAK Farmer has been a long time friend for me in bushcrafting and for that reason it holds a special place in my kit. So it only seemed fitting to make a sheath for it to make it easier to get to and to add even more function combining it with a lanyard and fire steel for fire making.
I used the seat belt webbing for the main body of the sheath, one of the seven core strands of an eight foot piece of paracord for the whipping and stitching and a three sided sail cloth needle to push thru the three layers of material. Also the metal "D" ring was welded up and made by a friend of mine who used some O1 tool steel, because he was out of stainless, so now with the right piece of flint it throws a few sparks. The "D" ring will work perfect to hold the lanyard for my fire steel that will go in my pocket, while the knife sheath goes on my belt. What a nice addition to the mix.
Here are a few photos of how the project turned out.
The finished sheath...
The knife length for comparison...
Tucked away and a view of the belt loop...
The belt loop is just wide enough to accommodate a wider pack frame waist belt if needed or even a USGI canteen belt.
I think it turned out pretty good and as I understand it, this little project may be one of the next electives offered for the BushclassUSA classes. I guess that means I have the elective done now, I hope. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
This past Saturday started out warm, with the temperature around 34°F, and there was even a warm breeze, so it felt good to get out. Although the forecast said it was going to be getting colder, it was not expected until the afternoon.
The previous Saturday saw the temperature and wind chills around -8°F. Minnesota is so weird when it comes to weather. Go figure.
I went to the local state park for a regular meetup of Minnesota BushcraftUSA members and after waiting a half hour or so, I headed out to enjoy some well deserved bush time. It felt so good to get out and to get away from it all. I was determined to try a few fun things.
I wanted to complete the bucksaw portion of the Intermediate BushclassUSA
lesson "Student Practice to Improvise A Bowsaw & Bucksaw". After
reviewing the instructor Croatoan's fine video on making the bucksaw on my smart phone,
I thought I had it figured out. But it wasn't until I got home, that I
found out I also had to split wood with it as well, to complete that
part of the lesson for the buck saw.
Oh well, it was still fun and I will do it again, (and again and again and again).
After getting the bucksaw improvised, and using it for awhile, I felt inspired to try a couple of projects.
The first one was to make a flat surface for the cutting station at the camp. I really needed a more stable platform for batoning wood and using the Cold Steel Trail Hawk. That was an easy task with the newly improvised buck saw.
The second project was inspired by a post on the BushcraftUSA forum site by member Bushtramp, entitled "Bushcrafty Christmas Prank." This was a very interesting project that he undertook to put several bushcrafted fake "deer" out in a field beside his fathers country property. It was very funny and I have dubbed the fake deer "Cervus Bushtrampus" in honor of this famous stunt.
I decided to fieldcraft a fake deer, just like the ones in Bushtramp's herd.
I have found that having a few pieces of kit that can be used to improvise tools with, has put a little more "craft" in my bushraft.
So here is the video of this last Saturday's adventure. It is a little long, because it shows three projects involving a lot of field work, but I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to skip ahead.
The day out and all the dirt time was a lot of fun. It was also nice to not deal with any firecraft or meal prep. As the day grew longer and it started to get colder. The wind chill by 3pm was approaching 0°F.
I decided to call it a day and head home.
But I will be returning to make even more "deer" and "woods chairs" and "mallots" and many other things. I hope you can get familiar with a few good improvised tools and put a little more "craft" into your bushcraft. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
As it is the last day of the year, I thought it fitting to look back at a few of this years bushcraft adventures by sharing some of the highlights with some chosen videos.
It has been for me a phenomenal year with so many adventures in bushcraft. It has also been a great year for personal growth and learning and for making a lot of good friends, many of whom I can now call brother or sister and feel the camaraderie that comes with sharing our love and passion for bushcraft.
The start of 2012 saw me trying vigorously to finishing all of my lessons for BushclassUSA Basic certification and I finally finished that with the completion of my Outing #5 on February 18th. Here is the video of that outing, although it is a bit lengthy, it is one of my favorite adventures.
My goal was to have the Bushclass Basic course completed before attending the Second Annual Hardwoodsman's Meet 2012 in the state of Missouri in April. It turned out to be the experience of a lifetime and I made some great friends and look forward now to many more meetups and adventures with them. It was fun to finally put some faces to some of the user names I had come to know and respect. Here it is again, a musical highlight video of that great gathering of brothers.
With April, came my commitment to meeting up with some friends who were interested in learning bushcraft. On April 2nd, we would begin meeting every Saturday at 9AM in a local state park. Little did I know that even 9 months later, I would still be going to the park every Saturday, rain or shine and meeting someone or anyone who would care to come and share the adventure.
I have met many BushcraftUSA members now, all from Minnesota, who have found my little piece of wilderness and they have come and enjoyed meeting up and sharing the time and practicing and learning the ways of bushcraft. We just get together and have fun and share the dirt time. Here is a video of one of the larger gatherings we had on a Saturday morning.
I have also found a great companion and friend and fellow bushcrafter in my nine year-old bush buddy, my son Christian. He and I have actually spent the last two years together on various adventures and expeditions and he has grown with every turn. He will one day, make a very fine bushcrafter in his own right. He helps to remind me how to be a kid again and to keep the sense of wonder and imagination. Here is a video of one of his latest accomplisments, of which I am very proud of him. He made fire with his fire steel, using natural tinder, that was in itself a little moist, and he did it without my coaching. He figured it out on his own.
With the hot summer months of July and August, I was able to play with many more new things. I continued to polish my firecraft skills, including many bow drill fires and working on one stick and split wood fires. I have also come to appreciate and enjoy my flint and steel kit a whole lot more than I ever did in the past and choose to use it more often then any other method, and especially trying to always use natural tinders. Here is a short video of using the power of the sun to ignite some false tinder fungus. This method has now become an elective for BushclassUSA and I will have to do it again real soon to submit a fresh video entry for the elective credit.
I have found a good friend in a BushcraftUSA member who goes by the user name "Sticker" although I now know him as Terry. I met him and his wife, "CallmeKris", as a result of my commitment to the Saturday morning 9AM MeetUps. He and I are about the same age and share the same love for bushcraft. I think he gets out about as often as I do, and we have met now several times and most of those times, it is just the two of us, having fun with him working on completing a Bushclass lesson or two and with me just playing and practicing and having fun showing him stuff he can try. Here is a video of one of my favorite outings with Terry. I thought it was at first going to be just me, heading out for a solo trip, in the rain. But as I got out in the bush a little ways, I slowed to take some video and low and behold, Terry caught up to me and we had a great time, in the rain, just doing bushcraft.
Which, as you can see by the snow in the last video, brings me to the last couple months of the year 2012.
I know that I have grown, and I have found deeper meaning for myself in the art of bushcraft. I know that I have been able to improve on my story telling about my adventures both alone and with others and recently I have been refining my video style and adding music and getting more creative about the way I see things and the ways that I want to tell it.
So here finally is a video of a solo trip that I am very proud of, with a lot of effort given to trying to emulate my bushcraft story telling hero, Les Stroud. I like his style and will continue to study his videos and then work to refine my own brand of story telling.
Of course, there is the last and final bushcraft trip of the year and I went out with a new christmas toy I gifted myself, a 1" Scotch-eye Auger. It was fun to be able to use a tool to make another tool.
The year 2012 has been a great one for Bushcraft and looking forward to 2013 it looks like it will be even better, with even more adventures in store. I look forward to sharing it all with you and look forward to hearing from many of you as you follow along or maybe perhaps even join us here in south central Minnesota. So until next year, Happy Exploring.
So on Saturday, November 3rd, at the beginning of firearms deer hunting opener here in Minnesota, I met up with my new bushcrafting friend, Sticker, for a few hours of skills practice and some plain old fun just getting out there and exploring. He was wearing his blaze orange cap and I was well, regretting I had forgotten my blaze orange vest. Anyway, Sticker wanted to get another BushclassUSA lesson out of the way and I thought that tackling the "Student Practice for Five Man Made Tinders" would be a good one to try.
When we first met up at 9 o'clock, he found me working at trying to get a bow drill fire out of some grapevine wood I had harvested for a hearth board. I tried using at first an oak spindle, but found that it was just to hard and drilled thru the grapevine with lots of "shredded" and "stringy" dust. No matter how I tried to finesse it, I could not sustain a ember.
I then swapped for yet another spindle made of basswood, but still could not get a sustained ember. I so wanted to keep trying different woods, but it was time to get out on our hike and get on to other things.
Here is a video of our day trip, with Sticker getting his Five Man Made Tinders lit and both of us heating some water and making some charred cloth and charred punk wood.
On our way back to the vehicles, we searched the Minneopa Creek bed for pieces of chert to use with an improvised steel. Sticker and I tested a few, but found nothing really large enough. I gave him a piece of an old file I had started on, so he has something to use when he gets the chance to search on his own.
It was a very good bushcraft adventure and he told me that his wife is working on building her bushcraft kit and looking forward to getting back out there and trying a few more things. I know she is going to love it.
I hope you enjoyed the video my friends and until next time, Happy Exploring.
Recently, I was once again able to meet up with some friends who are interested in learning bushcraft. We are now regularly meeting Fridays at 4pm and on Saturday mornings at 9am, for 2 to 3 hours, in a local state park to study and practice bushcraft skills.
On this particular friday afternoon, fellow BushcraftUSA member "Emorgs" and her boyfriend joined me and my eight year old bush buddy, Christian, to practice firecraft skills. I started out by introducing them to friction fire methods and they had a chance to attempt getting a coal with a bowdrill and spindle. Then I demonstrated how flint and steel works with char cloth and finally I had Christian demonstrate the lighting of five man made tinders. He is very proficient at it for an eight year old, and gave a very good demonstration that Emorgs would then try to duplicate for her BushclassUSA lesson "Student Practice for Five Man Made Tinders". Here is the video I captured for her lesson. I hope you enjoy it.
As I started out with the title to this blog entry as "Bushcraft Is Not Just For Boys Part II" because it was Emorgs and her bushclass lesson "Student Practice for A Twig Fire" that was featured in Part I. Young women are interested in bushcraft, and she is very committed to learning all she can and graduating Basic BushclassUSA.
I hope even more young people will discover the fun of getting in some dirt time and learning bushcraft skills. The good news is, now her boyfriend is interested. I hope they keep coming to the friday meetups. The adventure will continue. Til next time, Happy Exploring.
Another good element or tool to put in your firecraft kit is the combination of flint and steel. This is one of the most primitive means of starting fire, and dates back to the beginnings of the iron age, around 1200 BC. Although the flint is not the important part, any hard and non-porous rock with a sharp edge will do. It is used to chip off very small pieces of carbon steel off the striker and as the fine particles break off, they oxidize and ignite immediately in the air with a yellow to white spark. The trick is to catch these sparks on a medium that is almost on the verge of igniting itself. This is where the char cloth comes in.
Char cloth is made, usually from cotton cloth, by heating it in an enclosed container to limit the amount of oxygen that is around the material. The cloth "bakes" without air around it and gets toasted to black "char" and is ready to take a spark that will grow to an ember that can be used to ignite a dry tinder.
This past weekend, I completed the BushclassUSA elective, "Student Practice for Flint and Steel with Charred Cloth." It was a great lesson in first making charred cloth, then cooling it down and using the freshly made char cloth to start a tinder bundle on fire. Here is the video submission I made for this lesson and it was a great adventure and fun to do. I hope you enjoy watching.
Please check into learning this great fire starting skill and consider putting together a fire tinder kit that includes a steel and a good piece of flint or chert. Even a piece of quartz can work. This will really add to your adventures in the wild and that my friends is what it is all about. Happy Exploring.
