Pignut hunter

Its a beautiful day.

Buried beneath the ground is a delicious treat known as the pignut. A small edible golden brown tuber.

The tuber supplies the energy and resource required to produce the new plant and flower in the spring.

I recently uploaded a short video on finding and harvesting this wonderful springtime wild food.

Enjoy and please subscribe to my channel

Thanks,

Andy

Pignut Hunter

A simple woodland tray

This little project takes about 15 minutes once the materials are collected. A pair of snips is ideal for making it neat but I just used a knife here.

Collecting Spruce Roots at the weekend for future projects.

My first good knife

Hello,

I was reading a very interesting post on Paul Kirtley's blog yesterday where he talks about the value of a locking knife for survival. Paul Kirtley's Blog .

The article was excellent as is usual for Paul but what caught my nostalgic nerve was his talk of the knives he used when he was first starting out.

I have mentioned my Rambo type survival knife which I got for christmas when I was a boy. I used to run about with it strapped to my leg 24-7. It was obviously a very cheap peice of steel but I loved it.
The funny thing is that if you are un aware that better knives exist it dosnt bother you and you get on with making huts, skinning rabbits and lighting fires.

However, one year for a holiday our travelled to the Isle of Man. In a small fishing shop there was a glass counter full of the most fancy looking knives. I took a shine to a nice shiny stacked leather handled sheffield steel knife. I remember it was £6.99 which in 1986 was a lot more than it is now. I convinced my dad that i needed it and he let me spend my holiday savings on it. I then proceeded to cut the tip of my finger off with it.  Here is is.

This knife has been lost and found so many times I lost count. It has hacked, chopped and sliced through everything, dug holes, poked fires, killed enemy indians, killed enemy cowboys, been used as a throwing knife, a spear tip, an ember pan, gut rabits, fish, pigeons and bigger. I learned to sharpen knives on it and slept with it under my pillow for a while. Itwas the envy of my friends at the time. A great little knife indeed.

I sometimes think it would be nice to find a picture of myself with it on my belt but sometimes it is better to just remember things.

Cheers

A few bushcraft user knives

"Bow-drill for Beginners, Friction fire made easy"

Hi Guys,

Over the past 6 months or so myself an and a friend have been writing a beginners guide to Bow drill fire. Well finally it has been published on Amazon Kindle.

Please take a moment and have a look. The step by step guide has over 70 photographs and costs less than a beer! (thats £1.53 or $2.45)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007RX3DEI/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

It is also available on Amazon uk here.

And other amazon sites too. Just search Bow drill for beginners


Kindle reader is available free for PC, Mac, and phones too. Kindle reader download

Here are a few sample photos from the book.

Cheers and thanks for the continued support on the blog.

Andy

Testing hultafors

Hi,

During our scout training session we gave out 20 identical Hultafors stainless steel knives to use.

If you ever want to test a knife this is the way to do it.

During the course of the day this little knife gutted, skinned and boned 20 rabbits, split wood, made feather sticks, scraped fire steels, tapped pines and birches, dug holes was involved in knife throwing competitions ( when I was not looking!!!!) Chopping scouts fingers, poking fires, poking fox poo, digging roots, chopping wood, hammering, attached to sticks as spears, shelter making, stick sharpening, carving, hair cutting, ember carrying and many more when I wasn't watching.

Anyway 16 out of 20 are still in perfect order. The other 4 have minor dings in the edge probably from digging or cutting to close to the bone or who knows what.

Anyway the knife is highly recommended indeed and has a great handle and a good quality and sharp blade. The blade is well shaped and a good general purpose tool. The sheath is plastic and I stuck knife and sheath x 20 in the dish washer to sort out all the blood and rabbit bits.

Highly recommended.

Mora carving knife.

Hi,


If you dont have one of these they make wonderfull neck knives.

I needed a staff to make my way over steep ground and had to cut one using this knife because it is all I had with me at the time.

By putting tension on the pole by bending it and then rocking the knife in a pumping motion you seasaw through the wood quite easily. To go through a peice of wood like this with a baton would be very diffcult with this knife.

The knife makes a brilliant every day general purpose knife and is small, lightweight and easy to tuck in a pocket or hang around the neck.

The grind is scandi and the knife is very easy to sharpen.

As it is a carving knife it is obviously not designed for heavy work.

For carving, skinning small mammals and any other light work it excells though. The tip can be quite fragile as it is very acute. I have had to regrind my slightly as it snapped off a few times, which is easy with a diamond stone or similar.

The sheath is pretty crap and does not hold the knife well at all. I cut a slit down one side to allow it to expand when i push the knife in and this solved it.

I think this knife is only about £10 here in the uk.

If you have one of these and a larger general purpose knife like a lueku for heavy work and maybe an axe and saw you will have everything covered.

Mora hunter bushcraft knife

Hi ,

I got my hands on one of these.

The blade is standard Mora quality but the handle is different from the others. It is incredibly comfortable and grippy even in the wet.

I took it out today to light a fire in the rain and it was really good. I think it would be excellent with gloves too.

For only £10 you cant go wrong really. Yet again Mora make another good knife.

Bushcraft knives

This is a knife I had made by Adam of JLT Knives.

http://www.jltknives.co.uk/

It is O1 steel with a reindeer antler handle and red Liners. The balance length and width is perfect for me. Adam is a great bloke and if you get a knife from him and there is an issue he will sort it asap. Not only that he gives you a lifetime guarentee with it. Cant go wrong really.

.

A little bushcraft knife i made

I made this from an old file using some hand files and a hairdryer. Very satisfying project.
A knife making friend gave me a few tips.

Have a go.