BCUK Meetup - Archive

[The General]

I would love to attend, perhaps bringing along a selection of knives to demo different types and talk about things like steel, rust inhibitors and how to sharpen knives etc. I know a lot of you guys are already good at this, but a different approach may just give you a little info or teach you a trick or two! I certainly want to see a lot of stuff and learn!

My major problem (not being a driver...) is getting there, ideally if someone is going down from North Wales or willing to divert I would be happy to go halves on the jungle juice!

I live in Llandudno BTW

[JakeR]

I would definatly like someone to teach me how to sharpen convex in real life! Seems a lot harder doing it just by written advice (very good advice BTW)!!

Cheers,

Jake

PS sorry i am in South Wales.

[Stuart]

thats the great thing about having a meet up, there are somthings you just have to see and try to fully understand

[JakeR]

Exactly.

[The General]

Not asking much are you? :wink: LOL!

[JakeR]

Who...me?

[Wayne]

General looks like you have yourself a sharpening workshop in the making.

i just can't get a razor edge on my knives. Any practical advice would be great.

[JimFSC]

I'm in too sounds great, anyone going from the South Coast as I can't drive (I'll be living on the Isle of Wight by then!!).

Blue Sky!
Jim. :-D

[The General]

General looks like you have yourself a sharpening workshop in the making.

i just can't get a razor edge on my knives. Any practical advice would be great.

Sounds good! Now if I can just get the time off and a lift!

[Lithril]

Jim I can give you a lift, I live just outside Southampton anyway. Otherhalfs coming but there should still be plenty of room in the car.

[JimFSC]

Nice one! Sounds good to me.
Blue Sky, Jim. :-D

[karen]

Well, im looking forward to this meetup and looking forward to meeting loads of new and interesting people. Ive been to Merthyr Mawr so know how beautiful it is there, which is why im hoping to bring along my niece. Am planing on teaching her a little stalking while we are there, we are gonna sneak up on all the grown ups.

If there are any other people going with children who can think of any other activities to do with the little uns please let me know and we can arrange something. I love the idea of sharing these experiences with my niece (whos nearly 3) as she'll grow up with the love, knowledge and respect of the outdoors.

Cheers

Karen

[jakunen]

That's great Karen. The younger you start them, the more time they have to learn.
Although I don't have any kids to bring, having been a Sunday schools teacher, (yes even with my evil streak), how about somethign like a plant lore quest, see how many different trees or plants the kids can find/identify. The winner getting a bar of chocolate or something.
Rather than defoliate the place they could pick up a 'ticket' attached to the tree, that they write 'oak', 'ash', etc., on or give them a list of trees to find, number some trees (a piece of paper tied to a branch) and get them to match the numbers to the names on the sheet.
I'd be happy to help organise something like that. As Gary says in his signature

Knowledge is a gift the wise will freely share

.
I'll even stump for some home made chocolates/cakes or something.

[karen]

Rather than defoliate the place they could pick up a 'ticket' attached to the tree, that they write 'oak', 'ash', etc., on or give them a list of trees to find, number some trees (a piece of paper tied to a branch) and get them to match the numbers to the names on the sheet.

Thats a great idea for the older kids, i hadn't thought of that!!! For some of the younger ones i was thinking of bringing paper and crayons for leaf and bark rubbings. Thanks for the idea and i welcome all with ideas and help.

The younger you start them, the more time they have to learn

I cant agree with that statement more, and if we arn't willing to teach them, who will!!!

Cheers

Karen[/quote]

[Gary]

Ya but martin it says THE WISE! -

[Stuart]

are you going to teach anything on the weekend gary??

I going to try pestering Rhoda into sharing some of her tracking skills :-D

[JakeR]

I see a possible problem. Around the 20th is results day. A and AS level results are around the 20-21-22 possibl later but i will have to check. Bugger.

Jake

[Gary]

I will be demoing the beer drink workshop - closely followed by the falling down workshop!

Will PM u about demo's.

[jakunen]

THANK YOU GARY!
Last time I buy any your kit...

[Gary]

YOUR WELCOME MATE! And you'll be back because you know I have loads of goodies on there that you want!

Seriously though, with the sharing knowledge thing in mind I am more than happy to demo something or other - say firelighting techniques and maybe a couple of fire lays.

Unless anyone has a request otherwise!

[jakunen]

<mutters under breath> Yes you do have more kit I want...

Seriuosly though, aside from plantlore and helping organise stuff for the kids (did i really volunteer to do that? (Sarge, the nutter volunteered again!)), I'd be happy to demo camp cooking techniques (and I DON'T mean a la Hudson and Hall or Rciahrd Cawley...).

Can't really think of anything else I used to teach that I can do now :-? Too much beer under the bridge?

[Ed]

I'd be happy to demo camp cooking techniques

Hope you have got a good rabbit recipe ;-) ... really though ... that would be great.

:-)
Ed

[ScottC]

This sounds great, If only someone else in my family was interested in bushcraft aswell and then i could go :-( . Ah well i guess i'll have to wait a few years. :cry:

[jakunen]

I'd be happy to demo camp cooking techniques

Hope you have got a good rabbit recipe ;-) ... really though ... that would be great.

:-)
Ed

Ed,
I've got somewhere in the region of 10,000+ recipes for practically every food you can imagine.
Do you want stews? Roast? Jugged? Baked? French? Medieval? Shall I stop now??

[karen]

Well, i have to say that this meetup sounds better and better every time i log on!!!! Can't wait!! Not only do the young uns get to learn stuff, so do I. Sorry you can't make it Young Bushman, maybe you can talk to some teachers or youth workers in your area, if you have any. There are always projects going on and they are always looking for new ideas. I will try and get some info for you and maybe you can help set up something in your area. Good luck.

Please PM me if you find anything out or for more info. :-D

Cheers

Karen

[ScottC]

Thanks Karen that's really kind of you!



Cheers,
Scott

[JimFSC]

Ere, young bushman (and anyone else interested) there are 'Bushcraft' organisations in the UK...they just aren't called Bushcraft Clubs! Bushcraft is after all the craft of the 'bush' - not a UK term really. In the UK we have Woods- hence Woodcraft! Try out the Woodcraft Folk (a quick search should put you in contact)- they have regular meetings and camps (mostly family type camps I believe), alternatively check out the link on my posts- FSC, Forest School Camps are similar to the Woodcraft Folk but specialse in camps for Kids/teenagers instead of Families and meet less often (unless you go to all the Workcamps like me and spend one weekend in 4 camping! As a charity FSC is accessible to anybody if youre interested in FSC contact me and I can pass you on to membership staff....
Additionally I hear occasional rumours of very active woodcraft type activities going on in Scout Groups (you'll probably need to shop around to find a group who are into bushcraft skills).
You never know- there are some scout leaders who are members maybe theres one in your area!

Blue Sky, Jim. :-D

[Womble]

YB,

Jim has it right, there are scout groups that do a reasonable amount of Bushcraft. A mate of mine is an Explorer Scout leader and tries to get as much bushcraft into the Explorers Duke of Edinburgh work as he can; I try to do a simelar thing with my Scout troop.

Have you looked in the Leader chatter section recently? There is a thread sargey (?) put up about a weekend he was helping to run for Scouts, Explorers and leaders that seemed to be pretty good.

[Andy]

the woodcraft folk is great if you like bad singing round a camp fire well from what I remember anyway. DF groups "organise" their own camps
http://www.poptel.org.uk/woodcraft/ is the main web site
though if you tell them you hunt animals with a rifle you will end up with a bit of stick most peopole seem to have a closed mind to that.

[JimFSC]

I have never actually been to a Woodcraft Folk event, although I know many members, I have camped extensively with FSC :wink: and I must admit that my singing is by far the worst , all the same thie singing only accounts for an hour out of a normal 7am- 3am camping day and those songs come in handy when the kids have been walking for 5hrs with full packs in the rain and need a distraction from their blisters/ sunburn/ fatigue! :-D . As for hunting, FSC staff don't tend to approve of guns and hunting for it's own sake (especially veges and vegans) however few objections are made to catching and cooking trout, other fish and even spit roasting 50lb lambs! \:

Blue Sky,
Jim.