Stuff

There are thousands of forums, sites, blogs, schools, books, videos, blah blah blah, that talk about the gear for bushcraft. So I'm taking my turn. But-

I'm going to talk about the most important ones here and that's it. I'm going by store bought gear for this, so if you're looking for a lesson on how to poop a rabbits foot out of your butt, make cordage from armpit hair, or make fire by rubbing your ears together you're in the wrong place.

Things that everyone should have in a backpack or with them when heading off into the woods. This is a minimal list with some options.

First aid kit. At minimum a small boo boo kit with some band aids and bandages. If you live in venomous snake country make sure the kit has a snake bite kit in it. It boggles my mind at how many "lists" don't mention a FAK.

Compass (and a map if possible).

A lighter, matches, or a ferro rod with a scraper. I suggest all three but.....

A good knife.

A water bottle.

Cordage. Something strong enough to make a shelter.

A loud whistle.

A flashlight.

Water purification tabs.

A bag or pack.

This is a very solid foundation. This list can be added too or made smaller, and should be built to fit your personal area.

FAK:

Make this as elaborate or sparse as you wish. But some key items are of course any medications you take like heart pills etc., bandages in different sizes, some alcohol prep pads (work as fire starters too), some ointment for burns or miner cuts, medicines like aspirin and little duct tape to make a splint in an emergency. Chest sealers and a TQ are also a good idea. Toss in a whistle as well and maybe even a plastic mirror.

Get a book of first aid and study it.

COMPASS:

This is a tool everyone should have with them heading into the woods. Especially when going into unknown lands. I also suggest a map of the area you plan to be in. Maps are as easy as saving a page from the web and printing it these days and this method is more or less free, I mean, you pay for that internet so why not get a little something back besides hanging out on my awesome blog and fantastic forum. I would/will never rely solely on electronics for all navigation, invest in a decent compass.

Go someplace very familiar and practice with the compass. Start by learning navigation from one land mark to the next, and the next, and the nest, and so on. Having that map you printed will come in handy as the top of the page will be north, so you can use the map and compass to navigate without having to dive into the world of aeronautics to navigate.

FIRE:

There is no skill more important than being able to make a fire. It will dry your clothes and your person, warm you, make water potable, cook your food, be used to signal for help, keep animals away, and most important it can comfort your mind. A good fire kit should have at least a lighter, some stormproof matches, and a ferro rod with a scraper. I would also suggest learning to use flint and steel and a magnifying glass (if you're AO will allow this method). Friction fire with a bow drill is a good skill to know, but would be the last thing I'd suggest if I were teaching someone due to the fickle aspect of proper materials and conditions. If you're hurt or need a fire ASAP it's just not worth the success to failure ratio. If you have a small kit with the lighter, matches, and a ferro rod with a scraper you're going to be fine. I suggest a dedicated scraper to use with a ferro rod as not all knives have sharp spines for scraping, and not everyone wants to properly sharpen the spine of a knife.

I also keep some tinder with me. At minimum a few dry cotton balls. A small piece of fatwood is a great option and you can order it online.

Practice with twig fires and tinders. I say this because in the woods you're going to have and use small twigs to get fire going most often. Next would be split wood and using shavings. Practice with both but the twig fire should be prominent.

KNIFE:

I would have two. I strongly suggest a good fixed blade belt knife on your person and a folding knife in your pack. The style of knives is a personal choice. I would recommend if your choice of folding knife is a Swiss Army Knife, get one with a small saw on it. The same goes if you prefer an actual multi-tool. Other than that I only say carry both the fixed blade belt knife and the secondary folding knife.

Learn to use your knives. Even to do dreaded batoning. If you use you knife to split some smaller wood you may be able to get to a dry middle if the wood is damp. You don't have to split down giant logs here, but being able to split smaller diameter sticks into kindling should be something you want in your wheel house. Also learn to use the knife for carving, which you can practice my making try sticks and shavings. Both teach control and are skills worth honing. Of course your going to use those knives for food prep too.

Make sure you can at least sharpen your knife as well. Often in the field if you have a leather belt you can use that to strop the knife back to plenty sharp enough for camp tasks. Or you can carry a pocket sharpener which makes life easier.

WATER BOTTLE:

This is another one of those personal choices, at least as far as material goes. But if going metal, go with a single wall and not an insulated bottle. I say this because a single wall stainless steel water bottle can be set in or near the fire to boil water without damage to the bottle or harm to yourself. You can make a double wall insulated bottle a little safer to use in and around fire by making a small hole in the outer shell. The hole removes the pressure between the walls so it won't warp or crack as easily.

Plastic is also very acceptable (not in fire of course!!). Just use some purification tablets if the need arises.

CORD/ROPE:

This is mainly for tying out shelters, making a ridgeline, replacing a shoe lace, making a cooking tripod and that sort of thing. So basic 550 paracord is fine, and even the stuff from big box stores will do. I would keep a hank of 50 feet, one of 25 feet, and a few small hanks of spare cordage on hand.

I would go over and have a look at the knot section here. You don't need to know a ton of knots, but the few I suggest will do fine around camp.

I do carry some heavier weight rope when camping too. Often it was simple cotton clothesline rope. Not only can you use it as rope it's also a good tinder.

FLASHLIGHT:

I always have a flashlight on me. even on a daily basis most of the time. Seeing with a little light is much better then trying to see on the dark, and a little safer to boot. Once again this is a personal preference. But I really suggest going with battery operated over rechargeable. I can always be sure to have some spare batteries on hand while in the woods more so then making sure I have something to charge a light. A lot of folks like headlamps, which I prefer for hunting, but in camp I like a hand held flashlight of at least 100 lumens.

WATER PURIFICATION:

I keep some water purification tablets in a few of my first aid kits and take them when I feel they will be needed. Boiling from a moving stream or creek is usually safe enough, but not so much from standing water like lakes or ponds. To be safe I not only boil the water from the latter but also use the tablets. It truly sucks to put bad water into your system. Consuming bad water is about as much fun as hitting your thumb with the claw side of a roofing hammer.

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This by far not meant as a complete list. It's simply the foundation, as I stated above. A small stove of some sort with a little fuel, cooking and eating implements, spare clothing...... There's plenty to be added as you see fit. I generally have everything but a sink so.........

 

Stickers!

 The stickers I ordered for the Adirondack Bushcraft Brothers™ arrived a little while ago. I went plastic material so they can be placed on items like our water bottles and such and be washed.

Knife Sharpening

 Okay, first things first here, this is not rocket science, but it does take practice and some finesse. Especially using stones and a strop the old fashioned way. I also want to add buying a Lansky kit can save a lot of time because they come with jigs for proper angles. I do not have one at this time so I am not going to discuss them beyond this point in this post. I am going to explain the way to sharpen using a double sided wet/dry stone. I prefer those because I can use them on the fly without trying to screw around with water. On the chance I need to sharpen in camp I use my leg as a support and water simply does not work in this situation. But I prefer my little travel sharpener nowadays. And finally, I want to add, the average camper won't need to sharpen their knife often. They aren't using the knife for hard use.

So you have a knife, and that knife will at some point need to be sharpened. Lets take a look at some knives.

As you can see from the above image knives come in different shapes and edge grinds. Above are a Scandinavian grind (top), a full flat grind (middle) and a full convex (bottom). Do each of these need to be sharpened a different way? Yes. Yet once you grasp how to sharpen the answer will be not really. Let me explain a little further.

Sharpeners come in a lot of varieties as well. In the image below we have to more common variations from a couple leather strops I made from old belts, to some strops made by friends using sand paper and compound, and sharpeners ranging from basic pocket stones (stone and diamond) to two sided stones, two sided diamond stones, round diamond rods, ceramic flat stone, and my favorite a travel sharpener with coarse and fine ceramic rods. It doesn't really matter which you prefer as they all have the same goal. But for this exercise I'm using a two sided wet/dry stone and a strop and then my travel sharpener.

The first thing you need to do us lay the blade flat against the rough side of the stone.

Now you want to pivot or tip the blade to find the proper angle for the edge. This takes some time to learn but you can feel the difference where the blade angle goes into edge angle.

Once you have that you slide the knife forward trying to hold the angle. Going first forward then in reverse as in the GIF's below.

Do this for both sides of the knife until you feel the edge is sharp enough for you. Then flip the stone and repeat on the fine side. This is another personal preference. Some want to shave the hair off a hair while others just want the knife sharp enough to cut some food and maybe whittle a little bit.

I like to run my knives on a strop after using a stone like this. For stropping you simply set the knife on the strop, find your angle and run the edge along the strop from spine to edge.

I like to use the little plastic travel sharpener more and more these days. All you need to do is set the sharpener on a stable surface, set the knife in the slot so it's centered and draw the knife back.

After pictures:

The other thing I really like with the little travel sharpener is how fast and easily it sharpens my trackers. I just set the knife in and draw it back to the quarter round and pivot the knife up then into the chopping area by pivoting it down.

Using the stone and strop method takes practice, patience, and time to learn. But at the end of the day once you start to develop the feel for your edges it won't matter if it's a scandi, flat, convex, or any other edge geometry.

I suggest getting one of the double mini ceramic rod style sharpeners. Especially for beginners. It will sharpen your blades up very effectively and efficiently. The ones I have even make quick work of harder steels like D2.

So that's it. No fuss, no frills.

At The Camp

 Been a very hectic and sad week. The camping trip I had planned was cancelled but I still headed over to the camp for a few hours.