Fire by hand drill

Fire by hand drill

Tuesday 31 January 2012

A few finds in the woods

An axe!
Lighter fuel half full.

Who needs to bring anything when people leave tons rubbish everywhere. Some of it is very usefull- most of it not.

Still I would prefer it if people stopped being lazy bastards and took it home.

Monday 30 January 2012

Challenge

Hi,

I challenged a friend yesterday with a difficult bushcraft related theme. Of course he accepted becuase he likes to push his skills forward all the time.

Sure enough I just received a challenge in return.

My mission is to make a broad head thrusting spear with nothing but primitive tools and natural materials that I can gather locally. That means no ebay sinew lol.


Should be fun and I will learn a lot.

I will post up a few pics as I do it.

Wish me luck.
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Sunday 29 January 2012

A few improvised hooks

Hi all,

I thought i would put these improv hook pics up. they are made by my friend Paul from crab claws. The hooks are bound with resin glue.








Friday 27 January 2012

Deer stalking with Donal

I love getting out with experienced people, you allways learn something. This day was no exception.

Get out and about- get cold and wet and get some fresh air. Climb hills forget about bills.

Thursday 26 January 2012

I caveman

Hi,

Sitting here watching a great program on discovery channel.

Its about a group of modern people living as cavemen and women.

Really good show and very realistic in some ways.

Of course people from this age will struggle with the caveman lifestyle just like a caveman would struggle would struggle if thrust into ours.

Good for a bushcraft nerd like me though.
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Freedom

Hi,

I was just pondering after the birth of my daughter.

When ever she is an adult our civil liberties will be even further restricted.

Its an unfortunate fact that as the population of the world increases more rules must be introduced to manage us.

We are on the road to disater-soon there will be too many and then what do we do?

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Monday 23 January 2012

Making hooks

Hi all,

I have some small nails in my pocket from a recent ikea build. you all ways end up with some spare bits!

Anyway I decided to make some small fishing hooks.

This reminded me of a time when I was on a long flight. As a little challenge and to pass the time I decided to try and improvise some hooks from what I could find on the plane.

I ended up making quite a few from different things which I then used when I got to my destination.

Survival is all about improvisation.

Man made or natural materials are all fair game.

I ended up using a safety pin which I found on the floor of the toilets. I also attached a lure made from brightly coloured plastic sweet wrappers. I bound the hook with thread and waterproofed it with a wax crayon. I also found paperclips, which I think are a bit weak metal. The pull from a drinks can, pin from sowing kits and loads more.

Try it out its good fun. Make a hook from what's within 5 metres of you right now.

Thursday 12 January 2012

A day out with an irish friend.

Hi,
I spent a few hours yesterday with my friend Donal who is a member of the Irish bushcraft Club.
Among other things he is just back from a year in canada exploring the boreal forest so he had lots of good stories to share.
We went to a large woodland on the border and discovered a significant amount of edible wild plants like Pennywort, hairy bitter cress and sorrel among others as we walked.
We then started to see increasing fallow deer sign and were able to follow a large herd for a considerable distance through a beautiful Douglas fir wood. The deer had been nibbling at Bilberry tips and also eating the inner bark of the Firs.
Unfortunately we didn't see them this time.
We then practised some fire lighting skills taking the time to experiment with different tinders and methods.
We also went foraging for wood wasp grubs which are a great source of protein.
Check out this video of me finding and eating one!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=anCv9LG-NlM
Cheers,
Abo.
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