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Skills :: General
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As we all know deadfall can be deadly and is a real hazard in forests. Some years ago a large branch about 30 feet long and as thick as a man’s body fell on a friend of mine breaking his spine and knocking him out. He is now a paraplegic. I have had medium stuff fall near me a few times and had a small 18 inch long stick land on my head a few days ago which was painful but not injurious.
The use of charcloth in primitive fire starting represents something of a chicken and egg conundrum. In order to make charcloth, one first needs fire… and to make fire most primitive pyro’s use charcloth. So…where do you start and are there alternative ways to get a cook fire ablaze with flint and steel?
I am lucky enough to have access to loads of crampball fungi which if not used will simply be burnt/buried and had a batch at home that was passed its best so I thought I would have a go at using it to cook over!! Crampball Fungi is known for its ability to catch a spark very easily! And as such is prized by backwoods practitioners for lighting fires. (Smouldering Crampball is also a good insect repellent). It burns so well that it can actually be used in place of charcoal!
Go and collect a long piece of lime wood about the width of your fist at the base with as little knotts as possible. I wouldn't cut down a single lime tree. This wood was taken from a bunch of shoots around where there were large fallen lime trees. Cut through the base of the wood as cleanly as possible at a diagonal.
I arrived during harvest time and many people were busy gathering in the rice crop or engaged in related matters and were too busy or too tired to humour my request for a lesson in an old way of making fire
I'm sure many of you bushcrafters have a Crook Knife for carving out spoons and bowls. When you purchase the knife they dont come with a sheath of any kind. The basic case I make in this tutorial is to protect the knife from damage but also to protect you from the blade when its not in use.
Latest Articles
| Summer Bushmoot 2008 (02.06.2008) |
 BushMoot, the best event of the year - from 1st -5th August 2008 at Merthyr Mawr in South Wales.
The Moot is now Full |
| Fish Trap (01.04.2008) |
 I used Hazel wood. Choose the
thin long shoots of wood which i would think are a couple of years old.
If you don't catch anything at first don't worry. It may just be a case of
changing a few things.
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| Birch Tar - How to collect it (23.02.2008) |
 Most bushcrafters know that Birch bark is fantastic for fire lighting
because of all the oil concealed within it. This tutorial guides you
through the process of extracting that tar from the bark.
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| Wild Wine (Part 8) (28.11.2007) |
 Now we could bung a label on (which should always say they type of wine and when it was bottled). I suggest you cross-reference to a book of recipes and notes so that when you get a cracking wine you can recreate it. We are going to add a little something to the presentation of the wine by putting a foil cap over the neck. First we drop a foil cap (available for a couple of pence from a wine shop) over the bottle neck.
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| Wild Wine (Part 7) (26.11.2007) |
 Right, we now have clean, fined and filtered wine. We pour it into clean (yes and sterilised) bottles with a funnel. We need to cork it. Its possible to put corks in with a mallet. I use a corking gun and waxed corks that do not need to be soaked (plain corks do)
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| Wild Wine )Part 6) (23.11.2007) |
 Well, the finings have worked – the wine is beautifully clear.
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Most Popular Articles
| Paracord Bracelet Tutorial (23.04.2007) |
 As soon as I'd finished my Paracord Bracelet, I'd decided to write a tutorial on making one. A good thing considering the majority of the responses since I posted it were asking me how to do it! Here goes.. You will need approximately 3 metres of paracord with the ends already sealed/melted, and something to make a temporary knot - a twist tie or piece of string should suffice.
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| Tarps - Benefits and Basic Instructions (16.07.2007) |
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| Bannock (05.04.2007) |
There was a period in my life where I lived out of a pack for months at a time and this was one of my staples.
I like to coil it like a rope on a stick and bake it over hot coals...
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| How to Sharpen an Axe (09.07.2007) |
 I have been asked a number of times recently to provide some advice of guidance on the best way to sharpen an axe. Whilst I am always happy to provide input, I thought that it might be worthwhile to put together a tutorial on the basic techniques. The techniques used in here are intended to provide not only a sharp axe but also a safe and efficient axe.
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| Berry Picker (23.04.2007) |
 There are many different ways you can make a berry picker but this is just a design i came up with which uses a packet of kebab skiewers and some discs of wood.
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| Fire By Friction - Using a fire-kit made with stone tools (31.05.2007) |
 The whole kit took less than three hours to finally pull together — though that really overlooks by far the most time-consuming aspect, the preparation of materials. In fact, preparation has two components, actually. The first is the selection of materials. The second is the actual preparation.
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