On this particular Saturday, both my friend Sticker and I did not have a lot of time to spend on an outing like we usually do, so we decided to get out in the newly fallen snow for a little while anyway and just practice a couple skills and get a few moments of peace and quiet.
We had received about four inches of snow the previous day and the temperatures now were around 12°F as we headed out.
We had a lot of fun following the tracks and trails made in the snow by the deer, rabbits and squirrels and busied ourselves trying to figure out where they were all going and what they were foraging for.
After we got down by the river, we decided to make a quick fire and try using some of the inner bark of a cottonwood tree as a natural tinder to start our fire. But we failed in that attempt as it was still a little moist and we probably should have collected more.
Not to be dissuaded in any way, we fell back to plan "B" and used some jute twine with good success. After the water was heated, cups of hot chocolate were consumed and we sat peacefully and soaked up the quiet and enjoyed the nice weather. I can hardly wait until spring.
So here is the video of our quick little trip and how we used some of our tools to make a split wood fire, start it with flint and steel and use for the first time a wooden spoon I carved with a newly acquired crook knife from Mora Knives.
As always, my friend Sticker and I had a good time and are now really looking forward to getting out for more adventure this spring.
I have been contacted by a very new member of BushcraftUSA, who lives a couple of hours away in Hastings, MN and he has mentioned that he would like to come, with his two sons, and join our little merry band of bushcrafters. So hopefully in a couple weeks, we will be able to introduce some new members and continue and further our adventures in bushcraft.
Until then my friends, get out and enjoy the days and Happy Exploring.
There was nothing special about this particular Saturday, as I headed out for the usual 9AM meet-up at the local park. I decided to change things up a bit and strike out for a new camp location, just to be different.
I was pleasantly surprised at all the bird activity, as the temperature was around 22°F and promised to get a little warmer. There were dozens of chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and cardinals. The cacophony of sounds was a delight to hear.
As there was a slight breeze bringing me a cold chill, I decided to find a spot that would provide a windbreak and a little shelter. I found it in a stand of three very large cottonwood trees standing side by side. It made for a great wall against the wind.
After fashioning a place to sit, and erecting a couple poles to act as camera stands and later support for a tarp or two, I set to work to make a batoning station and to get the split-wood made to make a fire.
I chose to use flint and steel with charred cloth and the fire came easy. Soon it was time to boil some water for tea and I sat and enjoyed the bird calls and the scenery.
Another purpose I had in my outing was to play with using two video cameras instead of one. I had done this on a previous outing, with my friend Sticker. I am still polishing my technique, but I still have a ways to go in figuring the logic behind starting camera A first than a short time later, starting camera B and then reverse the process to turn off camera B first and then camera A.
You see how that can get confusing? Especially when you are cold and clumsy and bundled with gloves and mittens and so many things to guard against the cold?
I did manage to get the video I wanted and even played with a video effect towards the end of the video. I used a "clear circle" matte and reduced the alpha channel of the mask to increase its transparency to create a focus point to draw the viewers eye to the white tail deer in the distance. When you see it, you will know what I mean.
So here is the video of the adventure and I hope you enjoy watching my "not so special" kind of day out.
I am hoping to make a lot more of the two camera kind of videos and to just have fun with what I have on hand. So much to learn, so little time. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
As this is my first post for the month of February, I thought it fitting to share some of the success I've had in learning how to deal with natural tinder, found on site, and their use in extreme cold temperatures.
As posted in my blog of the last adventure we had, my friend Sticker and I wanted to get a fire going with natural tinder, found on site and getting it to ignite to flame using flint and steel. This is a very old method of lighting a fire and with it comes special considerations.
For one, the ember or spark that you get in the charred cloth is very weak. Nothing like the 5500°F you get with a ferrocerium rod or fire steel. (e.g. the Gobspark). And when you are dealing with temperatures near 4°F, as was the case on that outing, it takes a lot of heat to raise the tinder to the ignition point, which is around 400°F or more.
The suggestion was made by my friend Pine Martin, on the BushcraftUSA site, that we try pre-warming the tinder by wrapping it up and storing it in an inside pocket. This has the effect of not only warming the tinder by nearly 100°F, but it also helps to dry it out, as any moisture that is frozen and locked up in the tinder fiber, begins to thaw and evaporate and get absorbed by the layers of wrapping.
So on this outing, with temperatures about -2°F, I decided to gather my tinder early and wrap it up in my bandana and put it in an inside pocket for safe keeping.
When it came time to light the fire, I carefully prepared all of my kindling and when the time was right, I took out my tinder and worked quickly to get the ember from my charred cloth to ignite the fibers.
With special care, and a little help by blowing some air continually into the bundle, I was able to get my fire going. The tinder caught the shavings and the shavings caught the split-wood kindling.
Here is the video of that outing and my success with flint and steel and natural tinder found on-site and with very cold temperatures.
I hope you enjoyed the video and that you get a chance to try for the cold challenge of using only flint and steel and charred cloth to get a fire going in the very cold temperatures of winter. It is something I will continue to practice. Until then, Happy Exploring.
It had been more then a month, since I saw my friend Sticker. Not since the middle of December 2012, had we had some time to get out for some good ole "dirt time." But on this particular Saturday he showed up and I was glad to seem him. We both needed some good dirt time and a chance to play in the cold and snow.
We decided to try for lighting the fire using good old flint and steel and natural tinder gathered on site. On our way out to the camp, we didn't even bother to try and harvest any good cedar bark or cottonwood bark or try to find any cattail or thistle or the like. We just kept hiking, until we got to where we wanted to be and than we started looking. It was really part of the experiment I guess. To use natural tinder, found on site, and use it to get fire going with flint and steel.
But as we were looking, we really came up short. There were only dried grasses. Even the cottonwood inner bark we did find, was "frosty" and when thawed, felt moist to the touch. I even tried the dried grass with a firesteel and it would light, flame for only a short time and then go out. Nothing sustainable. We were up against the 4°F temps and the little bit of moisture that was frozen and locked up in the tinder we tried.
After much exploring for good tinder and without much success, Sticker gave it a try a few times, until we succumb to using the firesteel and some jute twine and the grasses.
Here is the video of our great outing and when it was all said and done, we really did have a good time. It was good to see my friend Sticker again and to share the adventure. We are determined to figure out this winter firecraft with flint and steel, as it is a fun puzzle to solve.
After we got the fire going, the hot cocoa went down good and we replenished our depleted charred cloth reserves to be ready for the next time. It was a great learning experience. I hope you my friends get a chance to get out and enjoy the challenges of winter. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
As it was the last Saturday of the year, I decided to take advantage of it and get out for some dirt... or ah rather, make that snow time. As I arrived at the park, snow started to come down in beautiful and sparkling flakes. The freshly fallen snow and still morning air made for a surreal quiet that set the mood for what would be a great solo trip. I didn't feel the best when I first started out, so I was not going to push it. That's why I at first decided on a simple twig fire. But as usual, once I got out and about, things started to improve and I started to feel better. I have discovered that most of my outings usually involve some sort of firecraft practice and some other bushcraft skill practice or lesson. And once the fire is going, I usually will boil some water for a meal or a hot beverage. I like to experiment with different fire methods and today it was to make fire with a flint and steel, charred cloth and natural tinder gathered on site. The cedar bark was just a little on the moist side and I thought with packing it in my bandana and warming it up inside my jacket, I might be able to coax it into flame. It took some time to get it warmed up and dried enough, but in the end I prevailed. I also got a chance to make a mallet using a christmas gift that I gifted myself and that was a 1" scotch eyed auger that I ordered from a seller on ebay who was based in Great Britain. It took a few days to arrive, but I am very pleased with the 1" auger and look forward to using it on many more outings.
So here is the video of my last solo day trip for the year 2012. It has been a good year for me bushcraft-wise and I am very pleased with the number of posts I have been able to share with you my friends here at Minnesota Bushcraft, and I look forward to sharing many more adventures in 2013.
I had a lot of fun today, making this video and I am still working on my style. I am excited about discovering more of what I can create with my video equipment and will hopefully soon be able to work with multiple cameras. Thanks for watching and until next time, Happy Exploring.
This last Saturday started out as usual, as I headed out to meet any
Minnesota BushcraftUSA members that might arrive for our regular
Saturday morning meet-up at 9 o'clock.
I arrived at the park, and waited the usual half hour until 9:30am,
and when it looked like I was going to be the only one, I decided to
head out for a solo day trip.
It had snowed the night before, so the freshly fallen snow was
perfect for seeing all the deer, fox, coyote and rabbit tracks and many
others too numerous to identify.
It looked like it was going to be a fun day, and the temperature was
just right for a crisp mornings hike. Another thing that made it nice,
was that there was little to no wind. It was completely calm and it was
easy to hear all the birds and other animal sounds. I even heard and
saw a few deer wondering the woodland, but were too fleeting to get any
video.
It turned into a good day to practice skills, so I thought I would
try for Mr. Black's "Student Practice To Build and Use A Fire Reflector"
elective that is part of the BushclassUSA forum.
I had only very briefly read the requirements and after I got back
home, I discovered that I failed to notice the shelter requirement. So
since I missed that part, I will have to go with this elective once
again, at a location where I have a more permanent camp with the
lean-to I am building.
I decided to make a split wood fire, as it was the easiest way to find
dry wood. Then I used flint and steel with charred cloth to ignite it.
Then I put some water on to boil for hot chocolate and when that was done,
sat for a relaxing time listening to all the sounds of the woodland.
Then it was time to head back. It was a great time and going solo always has its advantages and adventure.
So here is the video of my adventure. My video style, when doing any solo trips, is heavily influenced by Les Stroud, of Survivorman fame. His visual cut-aways, long distance shots of himself, special speed up effects and general environmental perspective shots work to give a sense of what he is experiencing and draws the audience into his story. I can only hope to one day, get as good as he is and to improve on it with my own style and means.
I hope you enjoy it.
I am sure to make a lot more solo trips in the future, so I know there will be a lot more videos like this. But this blog site is dedicated to sharing bushcraft adventures, and not just about me and my adventures, but about having the adventure with others. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
It is hard to believe that November is nearly over. We have yet to receive any significant snowfall here in south central Minnesota. Yet, the wind and the colder temperatures feel like the promise of snow. I have busied myself with getting my warmer bushcraft clothing out of storage and started to improve on some of my options. This year, there is a lot more wool in the mix.
I have managed to score a couple pair of wool pants off of evil-bay, one is an army issue (olive drab of course) and the second pair are some vintage Woolrich heavy wool hunting pants. They can be used with or without suspenders, but I chose the suspender route, so that I can get a good exchange of air and moisture from the heat generated by the major muscles in my legs. It is also important not to restrict blood flow thru to your femoral arteries, as this is the major source of warming blood that arrives at your feet. A tight fitting belt to keep your pants up can restrict this blood flow, thus the suspenders.
I have also gotten an army issue wool shirt in an 80% wool 20% nylon blend. That shirt is a great piece of gear and makes an excellent second layer over my base layer of moisture wicking "Under Armor." Topping this all off, I have a 100% wool pull over Woolrich sweater, that has a good thick weave and will be great for those days when it is just around freezing and I am by the fire.
Thanksgiving day, turned out to be a great day for getting out for some adventure and my girlfriend and I headed out for a good hike after turkey dinner. We visited a new campsite area that I hope to feature in an up coming blog post. I am pretty excited about the opportunity to use this piece of woodland. Stay tune for more on this latest development.
On the Saturday following Thanksgiving, I had even more bushcraft adventure as I was able to meet up with a good group of Minnesota BushcraftUSA members for our usual Saturday morning meetup and daytrip. We worked on BushclassUSA lessons and looked at some alcohol stoves and gear and had a great time getting to know each other.
Here is a video of that great meetup and all that we did. It is a little long, around 25 minutes, but I think it is entertaining and shows a lot of the activity a group of friends can have when it comes to sharing bushcraft.
As you can see, we braved the cold, enjoyed the weather and did it all with Minnesotan enthusiasm. We do enjoy our great Minnesota outdoors, no matter what the time of year. It is all in how you prepare.
I hope to cover more of how I prepare for winter and to let you know what gear is working for me and for others. For now, all I can say is that wool has become my friend. Happy Exploring.
It was the regular Saturday morning meet-up and my friend Sticker and I waited the usual thirty odd minutes for any other members to show up. But to no avail, no one else did. We decided to head down to the river and we were already thinking about the next Bushclass lesson that he was going to work on. That was the "Student Practice for Making a Pot Hook" lesson. This was going to be fun.
The weather was nearly perfect and we were both joking about how, as we walked thru the woods, we were looking for resources. Soon he had a good piece of birch bark from an old dead fall, which in the end we never did use. He told me how it is with him now, when he comes out of the woods, his pockets are full of natural tinders and things to try for fire starting. I could not help but smile. I do the same thing.
Today, his partner in life, member "Callmekris", had decided to sleep in or at least to take it easy and get some more rest after working a late shift and I could not help but start to wonder how we could now make her jealous of our trip and leave her wishing she had come along. Sticker said she likes "playing with fire" and that was the perfect queue for me to suggest that he get the fire going with my flint and steel and some of the charred cloth from our last adventure. I also mentioned that I would get it on video, so he could show her later. I think we had hatched the perfect plan. Smiles all around.
So here is the the video of our latest adventure and it covers our fire prep, his flint and steel work and the pot hook lesson. I also tried an experiment with charring some natural tinder. You can see how that turned out. I hope you enjoy watching.
We definitely had a great time and in the end, Sticker had a good piece of video to submit for his lesson and we were able to make Callmekris quite jealous. He told me later that she said she was "definitely going to go next time" I guess that means mission accomplished.
I am hoping to that given enough time, even more members will begin to wish that they too had joined in on the adventure. There really is so much to do and so many things to learn together, no matter what the situation is like. The BushclassUSA lessons make it easy to share the experience.
I am hoping one day to have a video of several members all working on various lessons and skills, to essentially showcase what we are accomplishing here in Minnesota and that the members here are getting out and doing it. Until next time, 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.
Wow, it has been two weeks already into the month of May and I have yet to share any of my recent adventures in Bushcraft. But I have not been slacking, no way. This is prime time in this part of Minnesota to get out and enjoy the weather and the wilderness. Maybe I have just been to busy to write anything or maybe just having too much fun. Whatever the excuse, it has all been worth it. The adventures continue.
As I have shared in previous posts, I have given a standing invitation to some new BushcraftUSA members to join me every Saturday morning at 9AM, rain or shine, to go out for 3 or 4 hours and practice bushcraft skills and for them to work on BushclassUSA Basic lessons. I have been leading them thru the various lessons that require some outdoor activity and so far we have been having a really great time of it.
On this past Saturday's adventure, I was joined by my young bush buddy Christian, member Little Jon (who is a teacher at the college where we work) and a friend of his from school, actually a college student of Jon's who also happens to be named Jon (spelled the same he says) and NewJon's son Taylor, who happens to be seven years old and a good companion for my eight year old bush buddy. Got all the players straight?
Anyway, we started out meeting in a parking lot near the wilderness we were going to explore and I decided while I was waiting on Little Jon to finish a phone call, that I would practice some firecraft of my own and got out my hand drill, hearth board and finger loops and knife. Shortly, they were all gathered around as I was working diligently to get an ember out of the mullein hand drill and the box-elder hearth board. Soon I had a coal, which rested on my knife and I was able to gently transfer it to some tinder (shredded cottonwood inner bark) and blow that to a flame. I was amazed as usual.
But the expression on Little Jon and New Jon's faces was worth even more, as they both said that they had never even seen that done before, except in the movies. I know at this point you might be thinking, "no pictures, so it didn't happen" but if I had not been actually doing it, I might have been taking pictures so you will just have to ask Little Jon on this one, or trust me, either way I was pretty excited to show them this way of making fire.
A little while later, we were all headed out to our usual campsite to practice some more firecraft. Little Jon was going to try for his "Student Practice for Feather Sticks and Shavings" and maybe get in another lesson. New Jon and his son Taylor busied themselves by watching me go thru various fire starting methods with Little Jon.
It was at that point, I decided to demonstrate yet another fire making method by using my flint and steel and some charred cloth. Soon the cedar bark tinder was burning and we had yet another method for making fire.
After demonstrating to Little Jon how to make feather sticks and shavings, I had a pile of shavings which were just ripe for a spark from my firesteel. So, you guessed it, I touched off that little fire with shavings alone and was able to demonstrate yet a third method of starting fire.
Now these guys are really excited and NewJon was seriously looking into joining BushcraftUSA and getting started on the Bushclass lessons. Big smiles all around.
It was finally time for Little Jon to do his lesson and so I set to the task of trying to capture it with photos and video. He has got to start doing some of this for himself, and I know he will, but here is a video of Little Jon's adventure in bushcraft doing his lesson "Student Practice for Feather Sticks and Shavings." I hope you enjoy it.
We had a great time at all of this and Little Jon was able to complete yet another Bushclass lesson after doing his firecraft lesson, but I am going to share that little adventure in my next blog post.
Until the 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.
