One skill and one skill only...
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Hmm - it depends on whether you're wanting to teach someone a skill in a survival sense, or teach them a quality they can take into their non-bushcraft lives.
For the latter, I would probably say fire-starting with a bow-drill. This encompasses knife-use, foraging (for wood etc), and patience, as well as an interesting skill, which often gets people closer to their 'primitive self'
For the former, I guess it would be edible plants - people tend to automatically know to keep warm, drink water, get sleep, build shelter etc (even if not very effectively!) but very few people when presented with a forest floor could identify a few things which would be safe for them to eat - or even know how to eat those ones they could identify.
For the latter, I would probably say fire-starting with a bow-drill. This encompasses knife-use, foraging (for wood etc), and patience, as well as an interesting skill, which often gets people closer to their 'primitive self'
For the former, I guess it would be edible plants - people tend to automatically know to keep warm, drink water, get sleep, build shelter etc (even if not very effectively!) but very few people when presented with a forest floor could identify a few things which would be safe for them to eat - or even know how to eat those ones they could identify.
If we're talking about skills in non-bushcraft life, then it's a very different thing.
I feel this way: the people who likes me, I like too. And those who doesn't like me, I don't even wanna bother with. Simple is that. Perhaps that would be the skills to choose your friends wisely.
I feel this way: the people who likes me, I like too. And those who doesn't like me, I don't even wanna bother with. Simple is that. Perhaps that would be the skills to choose your friends wisely.
I'd teach how to build a shelter with materials appropriate to their environment. I'm thinking about low-effort, low-tool stuff, like debris shelters.
Death by exposure is the thing I remember not having any "common sense" about when I started learning about survival.
Bear
Death by exposure is the thing I remember not having any "common sense" about when I started learning about survival.
Bear
Patience.
Its got to be one of the most important, but sadly mostly lacking, skills any that anyone can have.
Its got to be one of the most important, but sadly mostly lacking, skills any that anyone can have.
Its been touched on and stated in different ways, but what I have in mind has relevance to the currrent world as well as the ancient. In too many people today I see a quick willingness to give up...an eagerness to let somebody else carry the burden...solve the problem. Its the way they have lived their lives since childhood. "Somebody else will deal with this so I dont have to...." "this will take too long ( more than 5 minutes ) and I dont have the patience..."
The thing I would teach is not an individual skill - it is a way of thinking. A mind set that stresses self reliance and creative problem solving. An understanding that "Nobody is going to do this for me..."
Yes, a broad knowledge base makes successes easier, but knowledge alone is of less usefulness without the resolve needed to apply it. A great many people possess a general knowledge of fire by friction, of turning turning clay into utensils and the making of tools to harvest game. But what portion of those are actually willing and able to accomplish the task...
Reminds me of a saying in business. Those who can...do. Those who only know how....consult.
Jeff
The thing I would teach is not an individual skill - it is a way of thinking. A mind set that stresses self reliance and creative problem solving. An understanding that "Nobody is going to do this for me..."
Yes, a broad knowledge base makes successes easier, but knowledge alone is of less usefulness without the resolve needed to apply it. A great many people possess a general knowledge of fire by friction, of turning turning clay into utensils and the making of tools to harvest game. But what portion of those are actually willing and able to accomplish the task...
Reminds me of a saying in business. Those who can...do. Those who only know how....consult.
Jeff
To a degree I can agree with what everyone has said, but if there was one thing that I would like to see more, even though it is not a skill as such, it's common sense being applied. You can have as much resolve as you want, you can even be massively skilled, but without the correct application of thought invariably something will go wrong 
You're ****** hopeful mate! Didn't think that really existed any more. It sure as hell ain't very common...leon-1 said:To a degree I can agree with what everyone has said, but if there was one thing that I would like to see more, even though it is not a skill as such, it's common sense being applied. You can have as much resolve as you want, you can even be massively skilled, but without the correct application of thought invariably something will go wrong
Paganwolf
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
You said it Leon !!! I have had Oxford and Cambridge educated engineers work for me come up with ideas that made me make this face :shock: and do this :?: that is so true im right there with you on that one! :You_Rock_ unfortunatly common sense isnt on the time table in schools.leon-1 said:To a degree I can agree with what everyone has said, but if there was one thing that I would like to see more, even though it is not a skill as such, it's common sense being applied. You can have as much resolve as you want, you can even be massively skilled, but without the correct application of thought invariably something will go wrong
Jeff Wagner said:
I agree Jeff. It reminds me of the most important lesson they taught in the Army (I wasn't there long but still)
'There is no such word as Can't'
If you think, it makes sense. The first thing that people often say in all walks of life is "oh no we can't do that, sorry". Be it in a shop when you ask for something a bit different or at work when you ask someone to help you with a job. You can it might take time and effort or put you out but you CAN do it just depends how.
I try and remind myself every time I have to do something.
Bill
The one skill I would teach is not to go out into the wilderness without a full complement of skills, objectives, and methods. 
I
Icekool
Guest
"I agree Jeff. It reminds me of the most important lesson they taught in the Army (I wasn't there long but still)
'There is no such word as Can't'
If you think, it makes sense. The first thing that people often say in all walks of life is "oh no we can't do that, sorry". Be it in a shop when you ask for something a bit different or at work when you ask someone to help you with a job. You can it might take time and effort or put you out but you CAN do it just depends how.
I try and remind myself every time I have to do something.
Bill"
Reminds me of this thing I read to do with Buddhism. Basically, some guy visits a Buddhist monk in Japan, and the first thing the Buddhist asks him to do when he enters the room is to lift a marble table for him. So the man tries and struggles to pick the table up and then gives up and says 'I'm sorry, sir, I can't lift it. It's too heavy.' (something along those lines, anyway!) and the monk replies 'The tables weight is its own problem. The fact that you can't lift it is your own.'
Sorry if it doesn't fit in with what you said! I was just reminded of it.
Can't think of what skill I think is the most important. Probably some method of being able to get clean drinking water and food.
'There is no such word as Can't'
If you think, it makes sense. The first thing that people often say in all walks of life is "oh no we can't do that, sorry". Be it in a shop when you ask for something a bit different or at work when you ask someone to help you with a job. You can it might take time and effort or put you out but you CAN do it just depends how.
I try and remind myself every time I have to do something.
Bill"
Reminds me of this thing I read to do with Buddhism. Basically, some guy visits a Buddhist monk in Japan, and the first thing the Buddhist asks him to do when he enters the room is to lift a marble table for him. So the man tries and struggles to pick the table up and then gives up and says 'I'm sorry, sir, I can't lift it. It's too heavy.' (something along those lines, anyway!) and the monk replies 'The tables weight is its own problem. The fact that you can't lift it is your own.'
Sorry if it doesn't fit in with what you said! I was just reminded of it.
Can't think of what skill I think is the most important. Probably some method of being able to get clean drinking water and food.
5
5.10leader
Guest
I would agree with most of what has already been said. However, I would like to add that I feel that one should always try to maintain a respect for the environment and keep bushcraft in perspective.
It is, IMO, important to seperate the bushcraft practiced by most of us from true survival. In the latter case, if it is necessary to cut down a tree simply to carve a spoon, so be it. Very few of us are or will ever be in that situation and it is, therefore, difficult to justify such actions. I would, therefore, ask people to think very carefully about the necessity of an action before carrying it out.
Sorry, on re-reading this post it sounds rather like a moralizing sermon; it's not intended to be.
It is, IMO, important to seperate the bushcraft practiced by most of us from true survival. In the latter case, if it is necessary to cut down a tree simply to carve a spoon, so be it. Very few of us are or will ever be in that situation and it is, therefore, difficult to justify such actions. I would, therefore, ask people to think very carefully about the necessity of an action before carrying it out.
Sorry, on re-reading this post it sounds rather like a moralizing sermon; it's not intended to be.
Hi 5.10 Leader :wave: . I think what you are getting at is that respecting the environment we are in when practising bushcraft is more as if not more important then the skill we are preforming.
I may be totally wrong with the about, but sometimes some people forget this in there enthusiasm to learn. I see this with my scouts as they rush to practise and learn.
James
I may be totally wrong with the about, but sometimes some people forget this in there enthusiasm to learn. I see this with my scouts as they rush to practise and learn.
James
Icekool said:
Eaxctly what I was saying Icekool. It's not that you can't lift it because it's too heavy it's how many people you need to help you to finish the job and lift the table.
Unless the monk has a sense of humor and the table is nailed down
Bill
G
Ginja
Guest
One skill and one skill only? Hmm.... I'm going to have to be a bit 'boring' here and say navigation - ie. reading maps, stars, understanding landscape/landform, etc. In my experience, the lack of confidence and downright fear that can come from not knowing where you are/where to go can have a hugely negative effect on just about everything else you might be trying to do at the time.
Not that I am by any means an expert navigator! But the more I work on this skill, the more I realise just how vital it is ... as a good friend of mine often says: "Without good navigation skills, you ain't going anywhere!" (quite literally).
G
Not that I am by any means an expert navigator! But the more I work on this skill, the more I realise just how vital it is ... as a good friend of mine often says: "Without good navigation skills, you ain't going anywhere!" (quite literally).
G
I have to go with Leon-1 on this common sense is what keep our species alive in the deep dark past, it is what enabled them to develop stone tools and it is what many of us sadly lack today thanks to the way we are brought up, told what to think, educated ect.
But I would also add a sense of humour to common sense for put these two together and you can overcome anything. A sense of humour is something that we Brits used to be renown for, now like common sense, I think it too is sadly lacking.
But I would also add a sense of humour to common sense for put these two together and you can overcome anything. A sense of humour is something that we Brits used to be renown for, now like common sense, I think it too is sadly lacking.
