BUSHCRAFT: What is it? Anyone can you do it!

Get a knife, a hatchet, and an axe and you have all the tools you need to survive. The rest is between your ears.

100% agree with you! Question is, who has this needed info "between their ears" and how bad do they want to learn it (if they don't know it)?

Can any of you tell me what bushcraft you know and how you practice it?

How many of you out there can start a fire with only what nature provides during any season?

I expect there are very few ... winter (rain/snow) being one of the most difficult due to the wetness of the would around you. But, there are still ways to do it by using the dry part of the wet wood (like the middle) to create the pieces for the Bow Drill. Use a shoestring as the string for the bow...everything is possible with knowledge!

Here is a Bow Drill made easier. He starts by using a hand drill, then shows you what his hands go through with the hand drill and makes a more advanced drill that accomplishes the same thing but without hurting his hands.

At the end, it is not just a bow drill for fire ... but an actual drill!



Last Edited by DDan> on 06/24/2018 07:03 AM

What is Bushcraft?

Bushcraft is a diverse and extremely useful skill set to add to your survival arsenal. This guide should help get you started but there is no teacher better than experience.

Go out into the world and practice your bushcraft skills. You will make yourself more confident, adaptable, and better prepared for whatever fate throws your way. Always remember, Chance Favors The Well Prepared.

[link to www.thebugoutbagguide.com (secure)]

I think that term got started by those whose ancestors descended from the UK. The term bush is not common here.
There are groups in Canada and the UK and Australians and even Germans who transkate their videos say bushcraft.

Ancestral skills is a better term as it applies to all: ladies, indigenous, Europeans, Africans, Asians, etc.

It simply is an amalgam of the ordinary skills that humanity used and honed to live outside of civilization. This skill set as far back as 10,000 BC on average although there is some evidence of 12,000 BC.

And it can be almost anything like wild edibles as this predates agriculture and that includes raising first herds and then more complicated livestock through the raising of fodder.

It includes very early pre-civ skills like flintnapping and cooking. Pottery is considered the skill that made agriculture possible for the first storage of water in a sustained way versus the first use of animal stomachs.

Of course spears and the atl-atl which could be used at long distance to take even mastadons. Then later as cordage improved and livestock improved, then rawhide made into bowstrings. And then laminated bows with strips of glued rawhide and beaten tendons with the glue made of melted hooves.

Food preservation and seed saved for next year. This typically includes some variation of jerky or pemmican.

Fire preservation to reduce rebuilding a means of transporting fire, starting fire by bowdrills and handdrills, and organizing fire to burn with less waste. Some unique methods were invented like friction rubbing of rawhide, molded ice lens, fire pistons, the fire plow, etc.

Making wine is in there of some kind though it might be corn like tizwin or persimmon or some unusal plants the pgymies drink that is fermented.

Sewing using bone needles and awls and cordage and rawhide. Leathermaking. Looms. Beading with handdrilled shells and belting ornamentation. Clothing and shoes of leather and beaten bark.

Then the tribes start roles of the seer, the shaman, singers, craftsman, chiefs, favored wives, matriarchal societies, complex polygamy and polygany, etc.

The creation of sacred structures, dramatized hunt rituals, rites of passage, fertility, death rituals, planting rituals, etc.

Recognized art beyond utilitarian, music that is not sacred,etc.

Nice one AC and it makes a good point that we put a title to something that was simply taught throughout our history as survival or living!

Since the seventies there has been a push to save ancestral skills.

There were always historians and reenactors and heritage museums that tried to keep ancestral skills alive.

Then there were gardeners and hobby farmers.

Then the Outward Bound movement spread from the military origin in the UK to youth to youth at risk to women and went very mainstream as a leadership tool.

Then hippies went communal and learned ancestral skills to cut costs. Some left and started the Back to the Land movement.

Then veterans started survivalism.

Then urban homesteading.

Then the Latter Day Saints and preparing by having a cache of food.

Then Mother Earth News went mainstream.

Then Organic Farming.

Then scouting included ancestral skills.

Then a recapturing of Native American Skills.

Then Tom Brown Jr and tracking and his school.

Then new homesteading and living off grid.

Then preppers.

Can we form a bush community and go it on our own? I was just telling my family that I would love to leave this prison slave drive and move to the bush. They think I’m crazy but I just want to live for the true human purpose. Is that crazy?

Why not slowy learn and become more self-sufficient? There are groups in permaculture and they are called permies. There are people who get together at a wilderness school and take seminars. There are people who are master gardeners. There are mentors for young people. There is camping and backpacking and primitive camping.

There is homesteading. There is scouting and teaching kids. There is summer camps that are Christian and secular with these skills.

There are lots of ways to plug in and connect with others. There are communities but they are reticient to take in people who are excited until they realize it's work.

There is actually something called guerilla gardening. They will go in where no one claims the land an the city has been bulldozing to cut down on utility use. They create gardens that include food, herbs, flowers, trees, etc.

It is not work it is living. I suppose it is all in what you want it to be. I see it as living. There is more knowledge and wisdom in living for yourself and community then sending them off to public school.

bump to follow...

What about knives?

Knives are an important part of a bushcrafter's kit...

What knife do you use/have?

I carry a Jacklore Classic (handmade in UK) 4mm with a tapered tang, Mosiac pins, black liners with Massur Birch scales on my belt.

Here is Sandy showing my knife (at 8m24s) before I purchased it...



I also carry a Mora Garberg (connected to my back-pack) and a Mora Eldris neck knife for small tasks and skinning small game, fish, etc...

I prefer full tang knives are the best even though there are some very good Mora knives out there for a cheaper price and great quality!

Also what kind of steel? I mix it - Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel, depending on what I am doing.

Last Edited by DDan> on 06/24/2018 09:28 AM

I dated a chick with a thick bush. I didn’t learn much other then you need more then a lady razor to tame it

Very true. I really enjoy taking my 2 youngest out (12 yo) so they can experience the nature and feel the serenity of nature and how to respect it (not trash it)! They really like to make things with some Mora's I bought them. First a taught them how to handle/respect knives and when using them (since they were learning) to always cut away from your body to avoid unnecessary emergencies in the woods (even though I always have a first aid kit) ;-)

I honestly thought this would be a thread on the bush family's evil ways.

It doesn't require much ... it is basically camping but without the necessities you bring from the city life ;-)

Personally I always carry a 3x3 Tarp, Hammock (Ticket To The Moon - double), Sleeping bag/pad (sometimes), Knife, Saw, fire-starting kit, food and water filter kit. Sometimes I bring a Forrest hatchet, but usually a folding Saw is ok.

I even have these things in my back-pack when I am go on my Mountain Bike in the woods...matter of fact, I went yesterday with my son and stopped for a break and put the hammock up in about 3 minutes to enjoy the nature.

LOL, I could do that also, but this makes me happier.

Ya know, although I always liked nature (lived in the mountains, camping, etc...) I never really got into it this deeply until I wanted to show my kids something and realized that people were becoming more dependent on their phones/games. Now my goal is for them to see something that was there before and that they can do it to with a little effort (and it is very satisfying)!!

We live it.Look up joe robinet on utube.

Yep, I know Joe's channel ... he just finished a really nice series (6 parts) in Northern Canada. What does that have to do with you?

What about folding saws?

Is there a specific brand that you prefer over others?

I use to always carry a Laplander, but I decided to go with a "Silky Gomboy 270" now because it has 10 teeth per 30mm (1 1/4 in) and it is designed to be a "pull" saw which means it cuts when you pull it. It takes less effort to cut things and it is good for Green/Dry wood. Here are the dimensions:

56 cm (22 in) - fully opened (slight bend in the shape when opened)
27 cm (10.5 in) - Blade length
30 cm (12 in) - Closed - Length
5 cm (2 in) - Closed height
2 cm (3/4 in) - Closed width (at handle)

Handle it like a soft rubber that allows a good grip even without gloves.

FOR PEOPLE NEW TO THIS:

I have some basic advice, for which, you need no tools or skills. If you're stuck in the woods over night:

1. do not sleep on the ground. Pile up a lot of leaves and sleep on top of them.

2. you can build a basic survival shelter with no tools. Find a 6-10 foot long pole tree on the ground. If you can't, you can bend over a similar live tree and step on the bend to break it. If it doesn't break clean, twist and/or use a rock or another branch or whatever to break it free. Then take that and put one end into the fork of a tree about 4-5 feet above the ground with the other end in the dirt, then start taking other branches to build a triangle shelter. Fill the inside with leaves, so you're not on the ground. Enough branches and leaves built up along the main pole will keep out snow and provide shelter for some insulation and wind protection.



yup, me too.

my kids have gotten good with a firesteel. One day, my wife came home and asked where our kids were. I said straight faced, "playing with fire in the backyard." then realized what and how I said it and we laughed.



yup. Have you started teaching them how to read a map, visualize the landscape around them, how it relates to the map. Compass is, obviously, important, but where we live (Colorado), you can actually navigate without a compass as the terrain is so distinctive that a topo map can guide you. (except when you need to leap-frog orienteering/travel)

i have both and like you, prefer the silky.

I also carry just a 12" hacksaw blade thinking if it ever got bad enough, I can fabricate a bow saw. I've done that in my backyard for practice, but not in the field.

any of y'all have a Fallkniven S1? I'm thinking about getting it as my main knife.

Good advice!!

Yep, I am ex US Military and I have two compasses (one for me and one for them). I teach them to first orientate themselves with the immediate surroundings, then how to look at a topo map of the area to know where exactly we are. As you said, it is easier to navigate with mountains vs. what is here in Germany (where I am). Actually there are only 2 or 3 spots in the forest next to me that have high points (20-30 meters high). I also teach them when going to a point and an obstacle is in your way (bolder, cliffs, etc...) to alter the way around it going right the first time and left on the second so not to stray from the tended destination. This technique is really handy at night but can be also adapted in the day but easier with reference points.

We take vacations in the Alps (sometimes in Germany and a lot in Austria) ... this is when we can really check the navigation skills out. I have been out of the military for almost 25 years, so it is also fun for me to get back into it. I have been getting back into it for the last 5 - 7 years, so I am still a bit green ;-)

Last Edited by DDan> on 06/24/2018 01:56 PM