Presenting my first knife skills class

[Lyope]

Just because I'm rather proud of it and I just saw the photos that my friend took of the class, I thought I'd post to show you guys what I got up to at the weekend. My friend Nikki (maker of things and organizer of events) arranged what she described as a 'skills sharing jamboree' last Saturday. She asked me to come along and to bring something bushcrafty to show people.

The idea was that classes shouldn't last longer then ninety minutes, so spoon carving was right out. The event was held at The Public in Birmingham, so fire lighting or shelter building would have been similarly challenging. Also, I'm not a bushcraft instructor - just a person with some rudimentary skills and I didn't want to hold myself out as being any kind of expert. That wasn't what the day was about, anyway.

So I settled on the theme of how to make sharp things sharper and then how to use them on green wood without cutting yourself. I did a written summary of what I was going to present and we did the proper risk assessments and made sure that we had the right first aid facilities in place.

Here's me, explaining what a knife blade looks like:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

Demonstrating sharpening using abrasive paper and float glass:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

...or even cheaper methods:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

and then using wetstones:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

Once we'd done sharpening steel, we went on to how to sharpen green sticks:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

Everyone had a go:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr


Including this young chap (under very careful parental supervision!):


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

I answered some questions about spoon carving:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

...and got to do a little show and tell with some of my latest ones:


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

Some of the people who took part, told me that they'd never had any formal instruction about how to use a knife and some even said that they'd never in their whole lives even tried sharpening a stick! Wow - can you imagine never having done that?

Then we cleared up the fabulous mess we'd made (don't you love that floor?)


Knife skills by Many & Varied, on Flickr

After we'd finished, I got to go and try some new skills myself. My absolute favourite was lock picking. Within the space of an hour, the guy teaching the class had got me opening five-pin Yale door locks with nothing more than a tension wrench made from a car windscreen wiper insert and a pick made from a pound store hacksaw blade.


lockpicking by Many & Varied, on Flickr


lockpicking by Many & Varied, on Flickr

When the day was over, all the people who'd given a class stayed behind to eat curry and watch an episode of MacGyver:


Cury whilst MacGyver gets on with saving the world by Many & Varied, on Flickr

So I suppose what I want to say with this post is that if anyone ever asks you 'what can you teach?' - you might not be a bushcraft instructor, but there are people out there who genuinely have no idea why and how a knife cuts something. They might not know how to look after one, make it sharp and use it safely. Despite not having a formal qualification, you can probably show them most of this yourself.

So if you ever get half the chance, definitely get out there and spread the skills, because not much beats the look on someone's face when they start making shavings off a stave of green wood with a properly sharp knife for the first time!

 

[swright81076]

Thanks for sharing, looks like everyone enjoyed it and went away with confidence around knives, not fearing them.

touched by nature

 

[Barn Owl]

Great post, thanks.
So very true what you say.

 

[Mesquite]

Looks like you had a great day and made some converts about a knife being a tool

As for lock picking... I would have loved to have done that as well

 

[Macaroon]

That seems to me to be a great use of a day; nice one!............and plus one for the lock picking, I've always wanted to give that a go.....thanks for posting this, atb mac

 

[Niels]

Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing. Lock picking looks like a fun and interesting thing to try.

 

[Albus Culter]

Very nice and thanks for sharing. +1 on the lock picking, love to try that.

 

[Tony]

You should be coming to the moot and sharing some skills http://www.bushmoot.com

 

[Lyope]

My partner and I have only just decided that we'll coming, Tony. But I'm not convinced that there would be much I could teach anyone round here!

 

[Gray]

My partner and I have only just decided that we'll coming, Tony. But I'm not convinced that there would be much I could teach anyone round here!

i wouldn't bet on it. Great post, really enjoyed it.

 

[ammo]

Really good post.

 

[redandshane]

Good post The skill sharing jamboree concept sounds really interesting

 

[Whit Spurzon]

Very cool. Looks like a fun and informative class.

 

[Goatboy]

I enjoyed that thank you, as has been said, good getting folk over their apprehension of knives. They're a good tool and not some demonic entity. Though the amount of times I have to resort t my pocket knife when cooking at folks houses as they don't like sharp knives.
Looked well put across and fun, like everyone else I like the lock picking idea too.

Cheers for posting,
GB.

 

[Whit Spurzon]

I enjoyed that thank you, as has been said, good getting folk over their apprehension of knives. They're a good tool and not some demonic entity. Though the amount of times I have to resort t my pocket knife when cooking at folks houses as they don't like sharp knives.
Looked well put across and fun, like everyone else I like the lock picking idea too.

Cheers for posting,
GB.

That sounds so odd to me. Such a basic tool that I use daily at home, work and play is an object of fear to some.

That mindset seems to have spread to America too. I was amazed to learn that my niece's son was in Boy Scouts and didn't have a knife. I've carried a knife everyday since at least the second grade. I even carried openly, clipped to my belt as part of our uniform on days we had cub scout meetings after school. Times sure have changed. I feel sorry for the younger generations.

 

[Goatboy]

That sounds so odd to me. Such a basic tool that I use daily at home, work and play is an object of fear to some.

That mindset seems to have spread to America too. I was amazed to learn that my niece's son was in Boy Scouts and didn't have a knife. I've carried a knife everyday since at least the second grade. I even carried openly, clipped to my belt as part of our uniform on days we had cub scout meetings after school. Times sure have changed. I feel sorry for the younger generations.

No it's odd to my head too, had a knife in my pocket since a nipper and always have one unless somewhere the law doesn't allow. It's the fear of sharp knives that the OP has successfully addressed with folk I'm really chuffed about. So many folk don't realise that a sharp knife is a safe knife. (And don't get me started on glass chopping boards in kitchens).
But I think it's especially good that Lyope is female as knives and knife buffs are often seen as strange bearded who are a bit lonely. I think some folk would be more receptive. I hope you don't mind me saying that Lyope? But the UK does have a bad attitude to knives which needs addressed.

 

[Stringmaker]

That looked a great event; I really like the whole skillshare idea as it has endless possibilities.

Well done on your session; you made a difference to those people's perception of something we all take for granted.

Nice spoons too

 

[Chilliphil]

This is really good to see. We need more public awareness that knives are tools and not weapons. I teach knife skills to kids as young as six as I think it is so important to change perceptions from as young as possible. And yes, I do teach sharp is safe, there is no other way.

 

[craeg]

Thanks for sharing and great set of spoons there.
ATB
Craeg

 

[presterjohn]

That lock picking session looked interesting. I used to be in sales many years ago and went on a training course at the Yale factory once. They made a big thing about how they were much harder to pick than normal cylinder locks and we were given cheap Chinese cylinders to pick. They were very easy to pick due to the flat ends on the pins. Yale pins have mushroom ended pins so they are harder to keep cranked to the edge of the lock hole when opening. They obviously were not as thief proof as they thought.