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- Mar 10, 2014
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We had a family come visit us from the US. We had an awesome time together and we appreciate the huge effort and expense for them to travel with their four kids!! Well, their oldest son (12) is into knives, so I introduced he and his dad to Fiddleback, Fletcher, WAS, and 40 Point! I still don't have my Osprey, or Chris would have had some props too! To say that they were impressed by our favorite makers is an understatement. I'm 99% sure that they are going to come to Trackrock with me next Spring when I'm back Stateside. I always have at least a couple knives on my person, so they got do much admiring whenever I'd pull out a knife and put it to work. But enough about that, I'll get to the topic of my title.
We left the city behind as my family (5 people) took them (6 people) for a little backcountry adventure. Our Landcruiser was packed with 11 of us, food, water, cameras, gear, and of course my knives
. We did some hiking, I preached in a small church, and we stayed at a cozy little 'hotel'. The 'firewood' they said they provided was a sad sad joke. It was fresh cut saplings and it had been rained on. Nobody could get a fire started, and we had packed marshmallows and had 7 anxious little ones waiting! I hadn't brought my Bushfinger, and other then that and my Bushcrafter which resides in the USA, I have all 6.5" (overall length) and below fixed blade knives! I'd like to remedy that when I'm Stateside . . . I REALLY would like to get a 5/32" TT Camp Nessie with Shadetree scales :thumbup:
So, I pulled out my Fiddleback workhorse, my 12" machete. I quickly started to work on the wood we had been given. I chopped the branches down to a more manageable length and got to work batoning them to different thicknesses so we'd have something more reasonable to start a fire with. I normally travel with a whole box full of tools, survival items, etc, but with 11 people in the vehicle plus bags on the roof rack, I had to travel lighter. I normally keep dryer lint, alas we didn't have any. We labored away and finally with the wood I broke down with the machete, even though the wood was wet, victory! We got a fire going. Kiddos were happy, marshmallows were roasted, and some of the other people staying at the hotel came out to the fire and said, "how'd you do that? We tried and tried and couldn't get a fire going. We were watching you from inside laughing with each other and exclaiming that you'd never get the fire going." Well, my Machete and Boy Scout skills won the day! I don't have pictures of that fateful night, but here's a few from our trip.
I love my Fiddleback Machete. The only thing I'd like different, is to have a Shadetree handle and a bit more girth to the handle too. My Machete is just a little slim in my grip.
Pics from my 'real' camera! I love my Fujifilm. The majority were taken with a 50mm lens, so with acception of the alligators, I had to be pretty close to capture these.
This guy would NOT hold still!
Be careful of the crazy angry Llama . . . this one cracked me up. She was aggravated and pacing. I was close enough to get spit on, so I'm thankful that didn't happen.
We left the city behind as my family (5 people) took them (6 people) for a little backcountry adventure. Our Landcruiser was packed with 11 of us, food, water, cameras, gear, and of course my knives
. We did some hiking, I preached in a small church, and we stayed at a cozy little 'hotel'. The 'firewood' they said they provided was a sad sad joke. It was fresh cut saplings and it had been rained on. Nobody could get a fire started, and we had packed marshmallows and had 7 anxious little ones waiting! I hadn't brought my Bushfinger, and other then that and my Bushcrafter which resides in the USA, I have all 6.5" (overall length) and below fixed blade knives! I'd like to remedy that when I'm Stateside . . . I REALLY would like to get a 5/32" TT Camp Nessie with Shadetree scales :thumbup: So, I pulled out my Fiddleback workhorse, my 12" machete. I quickly started to work on the wood we had been given. I chopped the branches down to a more manageable length and got to work batoning them to different thicknesses so we'd have something more reasonable to start a fire with. I normally travel with a whole box full of tools, survival items, etc, but with 11 people in the vehicle plus bags on the roof rack, I had to travel lighter. I normally keep dryer lint, alas we didn't have any. We labored away and finally with the wood I broke down with the machete, even though the wood was wet, victory! We got a fire going. Kiddos were happy, marshmallows were roasted, and some of the other people staying at the hotel came out to the fire and said, "how'd you do that? We tried and tried and couldn't get a fire going. We were watching you from inside laughing with each other and exclaiming that you'd never get the fire going." Well, my Machete and Boy Scout skills won the day! I don't have pictures of that fateful night, but here's a few from our trip.
I love my Fiddleback Machete. The only thing I'd like different, is to have a Shadetree handle and a bit more girth to the handle too. My Machete is just a little slim in my grip.
Pics from my 'real' camera! I love my Fujifilm. The majority were taken with a 50mm lens, so with acception of the alligators, I had to be pretty close to capture these.
This guy would NOT hold still!
Be careful of the crazy angry Llama . . . this one cracked me up. She was aggravated and pacing. I was close enough to get spit on, so I'm thankful that didn't happen.
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Thanks for sharing, great pics!
