Although this is not your usual bushcraft idea for starting a fire, it does involve at first creating a hearth board with a good sized divot and a suitable sized hand drill that will roll easily between your hands and produce a little friction.
By adding to this fire making solution a little modern chemistry, you can get fire relatively easily.
Potassium Permanganate is the prime ingredient added to the hand drill and hearth board combination, along with some common sugar that might be part of any bushcraft or survival kit.
Potassium Permanganate is a controlled substance in some countries, I believe that Canada is one of them, but here in the United States it can be purchased in bulk at any Lowes, Home Depot or Menards store in the section where water treatment supplies are stored.
It is commonly used in the treatment of water as a de-ironing agent and for treating water in hot tubs, aquariums and pools and backyard ponds. It is used to combat algae growth and bacterial growth.
It is commonly found in larger first aid kits and when mixed in the right ratios can act as a wound wash, although there is a lot of information out now that says this should no longer be used and to seek alternatives.
Some people will have a small amount of potassium permanganate in their survival bag or kit, to use as a water purifier, wound wash and trace maker (if mixed in high enough concentrations it will write a message in the snow in purple).
Although there are several risks with any chemical, having an awareness of the possibilities of its use in the event of an emergency, can give you just one more thing to try, if you need to make fire.
So here is a video of my little experiment in mixing a little bushcraft with a little modern chemistry.
I do not always carry potassium permanganate in my kit, but having used it a few times over the years, it does give a good emergency option. I hope you enjoyed the video and thank you for watching. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
I have always been intrigued with ways of finding direction and the means to navigate. I simply like maps. I love looking at all kinds of maps. I enjoy making maps and possess a lot of different types of compasses to use with maps. Maps speak to me sometimes of unexplored territory, or undiscovered resources and even far away lands that I will probably never see but can only imagine.
The world of maps and cartography is so vast that you can get lost in all the pictures and drawings and historic content that has been recorded in the volumes of maps that have been created since the dawn of recorded history.
We humans like to record where we have been. We want other humans to follow us, to know that we existed, there and in that place. Maps are a way of leaving our mark, of giving ourselves a measure of significance, if only for a short time. We want others to know we were there and maps record our passage thru time and space.
So if I have waxed a bit poetic, it is because maps and navigation and pictures and the stories we tell of how we got out there and made it back, all of this speaks to the heart of bushcraft. Maps, whether in our heads or on paper, or on bark, or on a rock and whatever, they are our way of finding the connection and kinship with the landscape the helps us find our place in the world of bushcraft.
It is no wonder I have a small love affair with maps and finding direction and knowing where I am. It helps me feel at home, it brings on the familiar, it brings a level of comfort knowing that I can always find home because I am there already.
So this is why I like playing with methods of finding direction. It helps me to feel at home and it brings comfort in the knowledge that all of natures resources are within my grasp if I know where I am and know where those things are.
I took the time on a recent Sunday outing to explore how to make an analog clock face, to be able to translate the time on my digital watch to it, so that I could align the hour hand with the sun and get a bearing for north and south.
Here is a short video of my experiment in learning to draw a precise circle with an improvised "compass" and to divide that circle into a clock face, that would be re-usable and transportable.
It was a great little project, and a lot of fun and in the end gave me even more ideas about how to create accurate circles and angles and compass roses and other thoughts on geometry and well, I guess now we are back to maps and map making again. We've come full circle and that's what it's all about. Finding our way home. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
When it comes down to eating, there is nothing I like more than free food. Well, almost nothing more, except maybe finding free and wild food, specifically wild edible plants.
On this particular day, July 4th, I decided to go on a hike out to one of my favorite spots. Along the way, I gathered some cattail pollen stalks that had not yet begun to shed any pollen.
After cutting them to length to fit into my canteen cup, I boiled them for about 10 minutes with my Trangia alcohol burner and Canteenshop grill top stove.
By the way, this was the first time I had the chance to try out my new Canteenshop stainless steel canteen and it's nesting stainless steel cup and grill top stove. It is a great combination and the perfect piece of kit for summer time use.
The canteen holds a whopping 39.5 oz which is nearly 8 oz more then my regular USGI stainless steel canteen. During the summer, it is great to have the extra water along. The wide mouth of the canteen is also a great benefit and makes for easy cleaning or for packing it with snow in the winter for thawing and boiling.
The cup has an internal measurement marking scale for easy mixing and cooking and is a very sturdy cup indeed.
The grill top stove works like a charm and accommodated my Trangia alcohol burner with no problem.
When all is said and done, this combination made for the making of a great little meal along with some lemonade mix and jerky.
It was a lot of fun and a great way to past the time. The rest of the hike was spent on more edible plant ID and medicinal plant ID along the trail. Here is the video of that short, but fun, adventure.
I have always enjoyed the spring and summer months for all the goodness that comes with foraging for wild edibles. The cattail is a good source year around, but the pollen stalks have to be found and used early as that stage of plant development does not last for very long. About this time of year, in this area, that time is nearly past.
I hope you will be able to enjoy a little wild edible foraging this summer and be able to take advantage of nature's bounty. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
Well, it wasn't suppose to happen this way, but I decided to put in a very late request for some vacation time, that is for the Friday after the 4th of July on Thursday. I wasn't expecting to get the time off, but the manager said on Wednesday, around 3:30pm, "Get out of here, we'll see you Monday."
Woo Hoo! I had a four day weekend ahead of me. Now, what to do, what to do?? To the woods!!
Wednesday after work, I pretty much vegged, thinking about how I could sleep in on the 4th. It was too late to get a campsite at the local park, besides I have more fun during the daytime hours anyway, sleeping in a tent is sometimes just a nuisance.
I would rather be awake and out and about and when you live that close to the woods, well it just seems to be a no brainer. Sleep good, and play hard the rest of the day out in the woods where you can put in some day long dirt time.
So after sleeping in on the 4th, I headed out on the trail and that afternoon did some playing with the new canteenshop grill top stove and canteen and cup. You can see that adventure earlier in this blog.
On Friday, the 5th, I headed out to the local stomping grounds for just some good alone time and a good long hike that would eventually end up being a great work out, with a few surprises and I learned the tale of a tragic event for the state park.
It seems some campers were using illegal fireworks, and they succeeded in setting several acres of prairie and grassland on fire. The DNR officers I spoke with, said the culprit was lead away in handcuffs and fined heavily for his actions. They said he was ignorant to the point that he did not even think of reporting it at first and just sat and watched it burn for quite awhile. He admitted setting the fire "accidentally" but did not feel any urgency in notifying anyone of the park officials.
Everyone was very sad, but we all know that the prairie will recover and life within it will go on.
I finished my Friday hike and started again to look forward to Saturday and my regular meeting with some Minnesota members of BushcraftUSA.
I met up with my friend Shonuff' at 10AM and it was already about 75°F by that time. We worked on some knot tying practice and then went out on a long hike to visit the fire scared prairie and to work on some edible and medicinal plant ID.
We ate some wild black raspberries and gooseberries and watched for other edibles.
Here is a list of most of the things we played with during our dirt time:
• Practiced knot tying including:
square knot, sheet bent, double sheet bent, directional figure 8 loop,
alpine butterfly knot, siberian hitch, canadian jam knot, two half
hitches, tautline hitch, prusik knot, klemheist knot, bowline, bowline
on a bight, figure 8, double fisherman's, and finally the one handed
bowline.
• Worked on Wild edibles ID: black raspberries, gooseberries, burdock,
greater plantain, cattail (pollen stalk), lambsquarters, smooth solomon
seal, salisfy (goats beard), canadian thistle
• Also worked on non-edibles ID: bush honeysuckle, false solomon seal
• Practiced on medicinal plant ID: jewelweed, white yarrow, greater plantain
• Practiced on utility plant ID: mullein (both 1st and 2nd year plants), wood nettle, stinging nettle
• Worked on Tree ID: found ash for making bowdrill spindle
• Demonstration of practical sling by Shonuff: as a primitive weapon, possible food procurement tool
• Worked on firecraft: split wood for kindling, scrappings for tinder, bowdrill with ash on basswood, some hand drill practice
• Prepared full meal: kabobs with chicken, veggies and a rice dish on the side cooked with improvised pot hook
Here is a video of most of our activity and adventure and I hope that you like it.
It was a great time as usual and we finished up around 5pm. A good long day of skills practice and good camaraderie has had. I only wish we could convince more members to stop by and join us, but I think that day is coming.
Sunday brought yet another bushcraft project day, but I am going to tell that story in yet another blog post, as I work to catch you all up on my latest adventures. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
On June 30th, I once again made my way north to the Twin Cities and the Hyland Lake Park Reserve to meet with my friend Shonuff' for his regular 10AM meetup and skills practice.
The weather was perfect to begin with, but I could tell it was going to be a warm day eventually and we would be thankful to be in the shade and in the picnic area on the hill, where the wind would keep us cool.
As we hiked the trails, we worked on edible and medicinal plant ID, tree ID, some navigation and also some direction finding techniques.
We eventually arrived at the Nature Center where we explored some debris shelters and their construction.
Here is a list of most of the days activities in a nutshell:
•Land Nav- used park maps
•Direction Finding- used daytime moon to find "South"
•Worked on Medicinal Plant ID- white yarrow, greater plantain
•Worked on Edible PLant ID- wild strawberries, cattail, basswood leaves
•Observed wildlife- wild turkeys, osprey, various chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits
•Visited debris shelters and studied construction and visited 2 year old winter shelter
•Worked on Tree ID- Basswood, Willow, Red and White Oaks, Elm, Ash, Box Elder, Maples, Birch
•Practiced Friction Fire- bowdrill: basswood on basswood, 2 stick hearth
board, natural and man-made tinders, false tinder fungus
•Practiced Fire by Magnification- sun to false tinder fungus to cedar bark tinder to flame
Towards the end of the day, we were able to give several demonstrations of firecraft to a group of kids that were attending a birthday party celebration in the picnic area adjacent to ours. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time trying out the bowdrill and using flint and steel. Three of the boys worked together to get an ember with a bowdrill which Sho' was happy to help bring to flame for them.
Here is the video of that days great adventure.
As I did not have permission to be taking video of the kids, I was not able to capture their surprise and amazement on camera, but all around they were smiling and having a good time with learning about bushcraft. We shared the contents of our kits and talked also about the essentials and important skills to practice and also about the "rule of threes" and the sacred order.
I have to call that outing and adventure a complete success and I look forward to going up there again. Hopefully we will begin to have some regular attendance and get to meet a few more Minnesota BushcraftUSA members so that we can begin to plan a multi-day event in the future.
Thank you my friends for following along on my adventures and I hope you enjoyed the video. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
On June 9th, I had made my way up to the Hyland Lake Park Reserve, in Edina to meet with my new friend and fellow bushcraft enthusiast, Shonuffisthemaster. You can read about that trip in a previous blog going back about 2 weeks ago. Sho and I hiked around the reserve and had a great time hunting resources and just getting to know each other. He was a great host, and I liked the area he had chosen for having future outings and meet and greets.
On June 22nd, it was my turn to host a meetup and Sho came down from the cities to see where we have our regular meetings. We had a great day of it, and hiked about 4.5 miles, with temps in the low 80's by midday. We drank lots of water and worked on several skill sets along the way.
I started by introducing him to processing and using nettle for natural cordage. Once he had some in hand, he processed an 18" piece in no time at all. Natural cordage is always fun to work with during the summer months, as there are so many choices.
We worked at identifying some edible and medicinal plants and doing a little tree ID as well.
At one point we stopped and I walked Sho thru the process of setting up a "shadow stick" so that he could see how to find direction using the sun. We also worked on some land navigation and practiced taking compass bearings and finding our position by using triangulation.
We worked at getting a fire going with flint and steel, which was a challenge in the high humidity.
He also gave me a lesson in knife sharpening that eventually had me shaving hair off of my arm with my BK14. He has quite the mad knife sharpening skills and I greatly respect him for that.
We finished our day with kabobs on the grill and they were delicious.
All in all, a very fine day and I think in the end, the stories and the photos and the video of our adventure will encourage others to join our group. It is our hope that it can become the great community of bushcrafters in Minnesota, that it can be.
Here is the video of our adventure and I hope you enjoy it.
It was a lot of fun to just get out and get in some dirt time. We could just be kids again and see things with wide eyes and amazement. I hope that more can join our respective groups and that they too will see that getting out and getting dirty is what brings life to their worlds of bushcraft. Until next time, Happy Exploring.
Once in a great while, I get a vacation. It's great to get away from the usual grind and the week that followed this past Memorial Day, 2013 was a good time for that.
The plan was to travel to Cheyenne,Wy and to visit my father there and to spend some time with my brother, who would also meet me there in Cheyenne.
It turned into a great week, spending some time with my mentor, my dad, and helping him to organize his wood working shop and making things a little easier for him to get around in. At 82 years of age, things start to get a little more challenging, but it was sure great to see him in his element. He is a craftsman, and a jack of all trades and when we gifted him a new tool box to organize his tools, he was so excited to find some old "friends" and to put them to work. I know he is going to have a great time in the shop once again.
After a few days of working together as family, my brother and I got a chance to slip away and do some hiking and exploring in the Curt Gowdy State Park, about 30 miles west of Cheyenne on the way towards Laramie.
As kids, I remember always being at odds with my brother. He was the athlete and involved in all the school sports and as for me, I just liked being alone in the woods. Most times, we tolerated each other and he had his set of friends and I had the woods.
Flash forward to our adulthood years and now we are the best of friends. I am not sure when I came to realize how much I appreciate my brother, but I now really enjoy spending time with him.
So when we got the chance, we headed out for an afternoon of exploration and finding our way around the wilds of Wyoming.
Here is a short video of our afternoon adventure. I have to apologize for the heavy amount of wind in the audio track most times, as we were experiencing 50 to 60 mph gusts with averages in the 30-40 mph range. Our altitude was around 7500 feet above sea level, so that might explain a little of what we were getting for winds.
To the west of us, near Laramie on that day, they experienced a blizzard and received several inches of snow. Where we were, we got lucky.
As I started out with the title, our trip was more about the friendship and just being brothers and even kids again, rather than doing to much that was "bushcrafty." Although we did find some pine pitch and some bone fragments that might have come in handy. It was a good trip and I will remember it with fondness.
As always, thank you for watching and following along in my adventures.
Until next time, Happy Exploring.
