Hand drill in the Irish woods

Hi,

Just a clip of me out creating a hand drill set from scratch in the woods.

I think a good way to develop your personal skills is to give yourself little challenges.


I usually harvest my hand drill spindle green and then dry them out artifically in the hot-press, same with the hearths. But why not try it from scratch in the woods and see if I can get fire? So i did.

The drill is Elder and the hearth is Goat Willow I had to try and discard 3 or 4 drills before i found one that would work. The secret is findign a second year shoot which is straight, thick enough, dead and dry. It cannot be decayed at all which is a problem with Elder. Finding a good drill is the hardest part. I used a peice of crampball fungus in the tinder bundle to boost the ember and give me more heat to get rid of any damp in the tinder.

I hope you enjoy.

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