Jul 30

Blogland

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I forgot to put up the link to Mark’s Bushcraftleather site so here it is www.bushcraftleather.co.uk.

While I’m here I’ll do an update on what’s going on in Blogland. Here’s my top favourite sites (in no particular order).

Mungo from Canada is still producing his usual well written blogs on camping, canoeing, trips into the local woods and of course of Monty the Beagle. Recent news is that there’s a little Mungo on the way.

The American Bushman writes a lot about kit because he’s got a lot of kit…particularly knives. A lot of knives! The good news for the rest of us is that he’s selling most of it off. Here’s B’s link and here’s the “shop“.

Sam from Woodcraft in Poland writes about his new life as an English teacher in Poland with a woodcraft slant. Recently, he’s been learning about the weather. Good stuff.

Every post that Fenlander puts up is like a mini tutorial about an aspect of bushcraft. As a manager of a nature reserve and Bushcraft instructor he knows his stuff. He also writes great accounts about his cabin inside the arctic circle.

Gary is the owner of Bearclaw Bushcraft and used to be an instructor for Ray Mears. Gary’s equally a font of all knowledge and tends to challenge our thinking with provocative entries. Check out his blog here.

Boulmer Birder is a birder extraordinaire producing excellent photographs and even better drawings of birds. The entries follow his journey in atempting to achieve a lifetime list of sightings.

Surburban Bushwacker’s hilarious entries meander from aspirations to hunt moose through to actual rabitting, all from the London suburbs. It looks like he’s been side tracked by fly-fishing at the moment. The recent ”Fishing in a Barrel“ entry is a classic.

JP has just started Naturestrails. It’s more of a Bushcraft course/shop site at the moment, but I hope he develops his blog as his natural humour and stories of adventures around the world chasing spiders will be worth sharing.

Barkfoot doesn’t post too often, but when he does they are extremely good entries. The bat detector entry had me in stiches.

Chris from Hike Wales is a hiker who does some good kit reviews. I’m sure he’s a closet bushcrafter as he sometimes delves into the world of hammocks and hobo stoves. His photos are very good as well.

Somebody described Wilderness Warrior as Rambo meets Johnny Morris. His gentle approach to Nature makes him nothing like the former. He’s is very much into Nature Awareness and Wilderness Therapy. I’ve had a bit of correspondence with Geoffrey about this and the site is well worth a visit.

Aktoman is another hiker from Scotland. His adventures on the Scottish hills are often interdispersed with techy notes with a splattering of good photos.

Tales from the Wood by Badgerman is a recent find. Well written exploits of a fellow Badger enthusiast. Not only that, he climbs trees! There’s some excellent photos as well as some funny stories of those “stripey fiends”.

Jon from Track4life taught me on my tracking course. He’s setting up a bushcraft/Tracking school on Exmoor. Jon has just started a series about tracking in Bushcraft Magazine.

I can’t close this by not mentioning my sister site Woodlife Network. Well, if you can’t advertise on your own site, where can you advertise? The Network started up as a closed forum for people from the Buckinghamshire area (who kindly invited me to their meets) but quickly expanded to a Social Network. The idea was unashamedly copied from a site in the US and has been developed using open source software.

The Network is now more than just a forum in fact it’s a forum on speed! Members can have their own home page with its own blog, a photo, audio and video upload feature and specialist group pages. It seems to be evolving into a true Networking site where people in the same area or with the same interests in the outdoor field are actually getting together in real terms to enjoy all the facets of Nature and Bushcraft. Good banter, discussions, tricks and tips and chatter populate the site. Have a look around.

If I’ve not mentioned your site, please forgive me as I’m doing most of this from memory. Leave me a comment and I’ll include you next time around.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Jul 28

End of July In East Sussex

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Friday afternoon saw me once again battle against the M25 traffic to go to the East Sussex meet.

For the first time, the weather looked as though it would stay fine and dry. I set up in my usual spot, slinging the small DD hammock in amongst the cool of the Rhododendrons and then wandered down to the central area chatting with others as they arrived.


As the evening went on, I succumbed to the relaxing atmosphere and the mind and body started to wane, helped by the usual liquid passarounds. I slowly meandered up to my area where I gratefuly fell into the hammock.

I had brought along my cheap, thin Mountain Life sleeping bag, but there was no need for this at all over the two nights. I simply covered my feet and fell into a blissfully deep sleep, allowing the cool night breeze to waft over me.

Saturday morning again brought bright sunshine, but it didn’t completely penetrate the communal area where we congregated. This left the area nice and cool.

A couple of us decided to walk up to the pond to watch the dragonflies. I noticed Common darters and the ever present Azure damselflys. A Golden-ringed dragonfly put in an appearance but it was either too fast or wouldn’t settle to capture with the camera. This turned out par for the course for the whole weekend and it seemed that all the other animals in the wood conspired against me to get some good photos. Even the photos I do have are of a poor quality (as you may have noticed).

On the way back, we had a stand-off with a vixen on the main track. Only when we thought about taking a picture did she turn tail and run off. My “distressed rabbit” call only stopped her in her tracks for a short while before she darted into undergrowth.

The rest of the afternoon was spent just chilling and chatting. These are meets where you can do as much or as little as you want. I half-heartedly decided to add another carving to my tracking stick to go with the carved feather.

We all chipped in for some organic meat and this was duly barbequed for the evenings meal. The site was turned into a base camp as a trench was prepared for the barbeque and a large gas ring was utilised for some vegetables. A spatch cock chicken was slowly cooked over the fire.


As the barbeque was cooking, I went back to the pond. I had seen some fallow tracks and was pretty sure that as the evening drew to a close the fallow would be out around this area. I crept up to pond and stood on tiptoe to look over a low growing Rhododendrons obstructing my vision from the pond. Nothing. I walked forward a little more when suddenly a fallow fawn pranced straight across the track. It must have been hidden just out of sight. I went forward a little more to see the mother jump off in the opposite direction towards the pond. They could only have been laying down just out of sight. Another missed photo opportunity!


As I crouched down I could hear the doe barking from the edge of the pond. On hands and knees, I tried to peer around the Rhododendron bush, but she must have entered the wood. I tried to listen and look for the fawn returning, but there was nothing. After a while, I slowly stood up. There was nothing to be seen. I sat and waited for 15 minutes or so but there was no other sign. Reluctantly, I gave up and returned to the site.

The barbeque was delicious - so much so that the vegetables went untouched. The evening turned into the usual social where stories and banter was exchanged at it’s normal furious rate.


As usual kit chatter and examination played an important part of the meet. I learned that Mark had set up a bushcraft leather site. He makes extraordinarily good pouches and sheaths. Well worth paying him a visit. I was impressed by a Roger Harrington neck and belt knife set, which will be coming on the market in December. I’ve already emailed Santa!

Two other bits I was impressed with is the Primus frying pan. By all accounts this is a “must have”. Quite lightweight with folding handle but strong enough to do the job. Also if you’re feeling lazy enough not to carve a spatula, this plastic folding one from Blacks will do the trick nicely.

We cleared up the site on Sunday (after a fry-up of course) and reluctantly went our seperate ways. I know that some folk who go to these meets read this; so thanks again for your company and a great weekend.

Pablo.

Jul 23

Leuku Puuku Combi

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The original combi comes from Finland and is made by Iisakki Järvenpää. They seem to specialise in very fancy looking knives but the Leuko Puuku combinaton is a bit more basic.

The set consists of a 7 inch leuku and a little 4 inch puuko (how do you pronounce these names properly?) Both blades are EN-10204 Stainless steel and are tempered to HRC 54-56.
What I love about the set is the sheath where the puuko being carried in front of the leuku in the same sheath like a kind of marsupial baby. The sheath actual comes in a natural colour, but I dyed it brown.


The leuku is a traditional Saami knife used by reindeer herders. The handle is birch and in the traditional shape. The flat heel is designed so that it can be pushed with the palm of the hand and the the rounded pommel is suitable for use with a thickly gloved hand. Holding the knife at the pommel end and flicking the wrist also gives a little more power. Traditionally, the males use 9 inch knives and the females use the smaller ones.

It’s been mooted that a 7 inch blade is pretty much the ideal knife size for general bushcraft use. Having used 4 inch knives for quite a while, I know that the smaller knives have their limitations, while the larger machettes are perhaps to unwieldy.

The 4 inch puuko is a traditional shape but is noticably not as wide as normal puukos. It’s designed for the more intricate carving, skinning or food prep jobs. Both blades are 3mm thick and as I said, stainless steel. Stainless? Mmmm. Not sure about that and I have good reason to be dubious.

I tested out the puuko with a fire-steel and promptly broke off the tip of the knife. Whoops. It was a good chance to test out my metal profiling skills and I’m glad to report I soon had the tip back. I tried out the leuko. Great stuff. The blade is sharper than a sharp thing. I was happily chopping away at some wood for a carving project when I noticed a little dink in the edge. Again the edge came back very quickly but the secondary bevel and the stainless steel wasn’t the ideal combination for what I need it for.


I tried a little battoning and the nickel pommel cap worked itself loose and another dink appeared in the blade.

I concluded that the stainless blade with a secondary bevel (nor in actual fact the whole knife) just wasn’t robust enough for my use or use against the hard wood in the UK. Perhaps a carbon blade with a more appropriate grind (perhaps convex or scandi) would be better suited for my use.

I debated whether I should just stick with a smaller blade and an axe but to be honest, I don’t do that much heavy wood chopping to warrant carrying an axe all the time, so I decided to replace the Järvenpää leuku with a Stromeng Samikniven one.

This gave me a few problems because it’s virtually impossible to get 7 inch Stromengs in the UK. 6 inch ones - yes; 9 inch ones - yes; 7 inch ones - No. The guys at Stromeng Knivsmed were very helpful though (especially when it came to postage and packing). Also I wasn’t sure whether the new knife would fit the old sheath.

After a slight delay I received the Stromeng. In all the pics, the Stromeng is in the middle). Now. Will it fit in the combi sheath? Yes…JUST!! But I had to make a slight adjustment to the plastic liner in the main sheath compartment as the Stromeng is slightly wider.

I immediately tested the combi out in the woods. I noticed that the Stromeng handle was slightly smaller than the Järvenpää, but the convex carbon blade is excellent for what I need it for. I tried to replicate what I was doing when I dinked the Järvenpää blade and there was no sign of any blade damage and from then until now (about a month later) the blade is holding up sharp and true.

My conclusion then is that the original Järvenpää combi isn’t up to my requirements. The puuku is ideal food prep jobs being stainless and razor sharp and it’s also great for carving jobs. The Järvenpää leuko is probably not suited to wood projects, particularly chopping. If you’re not doing this then all will be well. A carbon replacement in the form of a Stromeng works for me, but it wouldn’t be worth buying two sets just for the combi as cheap as the combi was (about £46).

Just a footnote. According to Ragner’s Ragweed Forge, you can get a carbon version of the combi but, at this time it’s showing out of stock (and has been for a few months). I wonder if you can mix and match the two knife steels in the combi as I have done. Now that would be ideal!

Pablo.

Jul 20

Fork ‘N’ Wasteland Plants

butterflies, insects, wildflowers, woodcraft 4 Comments »
 
I could only manage a few hours in the woods this weekend. I decided on the spur of the moment to have a go at making a fork. If you’ve ever tried this you’ll know that it’s not easy. I gouged away carefully at the gap between the prongs, but still managed to split the wood slightly. I’ll probably also have to harden the ends of the prongs over a fire or they’ll break too easily. Although it doesn’t look too bad, I don’t think it will last very long under constant use. I think I need more practice!

 

I spent the rest of the time looking at the plants growing on some waste ground. This is a good time to identify these plants as there’s a lot in bloom.
Cinnibar Moth catapillar on Ragwort - Ragwort is poisoness to most mammals
[edit] Burnet moth (possibly six-pot Burnet) on Common centaury
Tall melilot

Great willowherb

Birds-foot trefoil
Scarlet pimpernel
Vetch
Field bindweed
Cinqfoil
Common mallow
Small tortoishell on thistle
Self-heal

Thanks for the visit.

 

Pablo.

Jul 17

A Very Sad Post Script

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I’m sorry if this seems a little downbeat in an otherwise (hopefully) upbeat blog but the subject matter is too ironic not to mention. I considered making this a private entry, but decided that you may too wish to consider this in light of my previous post.

A friend and colleague died last night as I was writing the entry about fitness. He was 38 years old and a fitness fanatic. He enjoyed playing rugby at weekends and trained everyday at the gym. He was supremely fit. He collapsed after a session on a stationary cycle and after many attempts at resusitation, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. It was suspected he had a massive heart attack.

Dave, Rest In Peace mate.

Pablo.

Jul 16

Olympic Dream

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It’s not long until the Olympics, so I thought I’d better start training.

Last night I put on my Rogue Rangers and strode out of the house and onto the country roads where I live. I was greeted by a couple of nutters who were actually running; but I maintained an aloof, steady moderate to fast walking pace.


It took me 25 minutes to reach my local woods when usually it’s a 5 minute drive. I was quite upbeat but a little annoyed I couldn’t stop to look at some of the hedgerow plants. I even resisted turning into the woods and headed steadily for the two steep hills that were ex-USAF bomb storage facilities.

My mind went back to my old training days as a Physical Training Instructor in the Army. The only way to get fit quick is to vary the pace and go up and down hills. None of this lycra clad gym/pilates/aerobics nonesense for me!

I scrambled up the first hill which had the desired effect. My breath became laboured and my heart started to pound. On the second hill, I stopped at the top (just to admire the view you understand.) On the second time around, I decided that the planned third repetition would wait until next time and I started to head for home. So far this had taken 30 minutes. Just right. One hour round trip. But I started to struggle and I suddenly questioned why I had done this.

Yes. I remember now. Mrs P had looked at the holiday photos and said, “Now we know who ate all the pies.” I had also noticed that the few walk-ins to some meets left me breathless, especially with a heavy pack. Yes, it was time for action!

I was a little ashamed that a previously fit young man who had been 1981 Army champion over 400 meters and one time had beaten Kris Akabusi (a medallist in a previous Olympics) had been reduced to this. Not even a twice weekly 20 minute slot on the stationary cycle machine at home had managed to control the middle age spread and breathlessness. I have a well balanced diet with plenty of fruit and veg, but a sedentary job hasn’t made things any easier. I was also convinced that a little fitness training would enhance the enjoyment of Bushcraft.

Yes…that’s me (on the left)

At the 45 minute point I realised two things. Firstly, I had failed to put on thick socks; therefore the boots were rubbing a blister on my heels and secondly, walking was boring! I had indeed varied my pace stopping short of actual running but even so, I was bored! Sightings of Red-legged partridges came and went and a close study of Field scabious to name just one plant was passed by in a blur. Well - perhaps not a blur but you know what I mean.

Another flashback suddenly came to me. When serving in Germany, we occupied many a weekend (when not in the local Gast Haus) partaking in Volksmarches or People’s Walks (literal translation.) These fast-paced walks through the German countryside culminated in the famous Nijmegen March. 4 days walking (with pack) covering 120 miles. So, why wasn’t I enjoying the experience now?

I decided it was simply because there was nothing to do. There was nothing to occupy my bushcraft/wildlife centred enquiring mind. I like to walk and track or walk and watch or walk and zone-in or walk and do anything except walk and walk.

I tumbled in the house and massaged my aching feet. As usual, you feel quite good when you stop (like when you stop banging your head against the wall!) I vowed to myself that I would continue this but only once a week supplemented by the stationary bike instead of twice weekly as originally planned.

Right! When do the Olympics start again?

Pablo.

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