8 tools for bushcraft

1. Knife
2. Proper foot wear
3. A pot with lid
4. Small forest axe
5. Tarp/tent
6. Sleeping bag or quilt
7. Map with compass ( I know that's 2 items but honeslty they're pretty much useless without each other so I've always counted as 1 as I won't bring one without the other)
8. 8 depends for how long I am going, not long enough I can't carry my own food I'll bring my sven saw but if it's for a while I pack my fishing rod.
 
From my toy collection:

-Small Forest Axe
-Flour. orange Mora H.D.
-Flour. orange Izula 2, neck carry
-Tarp
-Pack
-LMF Fire steel
-Primus LITECH Trek Kettle Pot
-Bandana
 
Upnorth,

Great story and thanks for sharing it. It's an important tale to be learned from.

As I see it, there are 4 primary outdoor traditions:
+ Backpacking, climbing, skiing
+ Hunting & fishing
+ Camp lore, bush craft and primitive skills
+ Military

Each tradition has different cultures, different core skill sets and each can learn from the other.

My cousin who lives in Vt and does lumber and a sugaring operation got benighted helping a friend look for a downed moose. He didn't have enough stuff in his jacket pockets and spent an uncomfortable night in the woods with a worried family. This was in woods he knows like the back of his hands but dark is dark is dangerous. In the past, he's been amused by my habit of carrying a large fanny pack or even a small day pack when hunting but as a hiker/climber/skier, I just won't be in the woods without my essentials pack.

Once, I went hiking with very close friends who had section hiked the AT and the Vt Long Trail. We got pinned behind a river after 36 hour rain. We weren't lost but we knew we had to add an extra day to bushwack out without crossing any streams. As a hunter, I felt very comfortable moving through the woods off trail but it was their first time and not without stress and worry on their part. For all their experience in the woods, moving off trail creeped them out.

Last story from several years ago in Maine. A teenager skied off the back of one of the ski resorts and got himself quite lost a good long away from a road. He fashioned a crude branch shelter and hunkered down and was rescued after 2 nights in the winter woods. He and the wardens credit him watching Cody Ludin on TV.

We can all learn from the different traditions this is very true. But I don't think this means that every aspect of every tradition has enduring merit in all situations. Camp lore is cool and I dig sharp tools but I'm not lugging around a bunch of them in my emergency essentials kit. IMO, the essentials kit has to be big enough to help and small enough to always with me.
 
NKlamerus said:
The thread is 8 bushcraft things to collect. Or carry and why.
Click to expand...

I understand that.

My point is that rather than just thinking "bushcraft" (whatever that actually means...), what specific tasks do you actually need specific tools for?

Are you planning on sitting around, leisurely making feather sticks and figure-4 traps and carving a kuksa? Or are you talking about what you might need in a desperate situation, where you are caught out in challenging conditions? Are we talking needs, or are we talking crafts around the campfire?

Personally, I don't need a Mora carving knife, I don't need a hobo kit with a fork and spoon, etc.

Unless the hypothetical situation is defined, then what rationale is being used for tool selection? Or, without a specific situation in mind, I guess we're simply talking about general preparedness for a spectrum of possibilities?

I would also define "tools" as knives, axes, mutli-tools, etc. - things that are operated by hand and offer some sort of mechanical advantage.

Things like a tarp, kettle, water purifier, etc. are equipment, but I would leave them off my "tools" list.
 
That's where context becomes very opinionated


Because anything that helps my survival in a "bush" environment is a tool IMO.

I really like how pinnah divides it all. Posts like that are why I join forums.
 
Smithhammer said:
I understand that.

My point is that rather than just thinking "bushcraft" (whatever that actually means...), what specific tasks do you actually need specific tools for?

Are you planning on sitting around, leisurely making feather sticks and figure-4 traps and carving a kuksa? Or are you talking about what you might need in a desperate situation, where you are caught out in challenging conditions? Are we talking needs, or are we talking crafts around the campfire?

Personally, I don't need a Mora carving knife, I don't need a hobo kit with a fork and spoon, etc.

Unless the hypothetical situation is defined, then what rationale is being used for tool selection? Or, without a specific situation in mind, I guess we're simply talking about general preparedness for a spectrum of possibilities?

I would also define "tools" as knives, axes, mutli-tools, etc. - things that are operated by hand and offer some sort of mechanical advantage.

Things like a tarp, kettle, water purifier, etc. are equipment, but I would leave them off my "tools" list.
Click to expand...
I understand i need detail and context. I figured a fish hook/line and a file were pretty straight forward.
 
NKlamerus said:
I figured a fish hook/line and a file were pretty straight forward.
Click to expand...

I would agree, if what we're really talking about are items for a survival situation. Then a fish hook/line makes sense.

But that's not the impression I got from the OP's list of items, which seemed weighted toward "crafty" tools, not necessarily essential for survival, per se. Which is all well and good, and obviously there's no "right" or "wrong" here, but this just underlines the problem with what the term "bushcraft" has become, imo. It means too many different things - some of which overlap, but some don't.

So when one says, "these are my essential bushcraft tools," the discussion is all over the place and we're clearly not all talking about the same thing, as we've just seen.

Personally, I'd love to see the term fade into the sunset, in favor of more specific and useful terminology for conversations like this. I think it would avoid at least some confusion.

But then again, I can, and probably should, just stay out of these threads...:D
 
I love these threads. I think we all forget we can't read each others minds! What a scary world it would be if we could.
 
Codger_64 said:
I knew you were going to say that! ;)
Click to expand...

Uncanny. :D

And welcome back to Idaho, Codger.
beerchuge.gif
 
Smithhammer said:
Uncanny. :D

And welcome back to Idaho, Codger.
beerchuge.gif
Click to expand...

Tenjewberrymuds! Now we shall see how an old Southern dog adapts to a foreign land. Unfortunately it seems that most winter paddlesports are out for me here, but I will shortly be trying out and reviewing some knives made here and hopefully better adapted to the landscape than yours truly. And prepping for paddling into 2015. Say, how come there isn't a thriving paddlesports community here? Plenty of rivers with lots of freeflowing water? But no canoeists?

2hribdl.jpg


OK so where do I find the fatwood and trees to saw down and baton here?

312eeqh.jpg
 
Last edited:
based on your list i take it you mean cutting tools then my sweet spot for awhile now is 4...a sak in my pocket:

075_020_zpse01a9026.jpg



a ~4" knife hanging on my neck (nowadays a mora 510) and some kind of a chopper (machete, tomahawk, or axe - depending on the weather/mood/goal for that trip):

078_016_zps474685c4.jpg



...and a folding saw.

078_008_zpsef7bb5ff.jpg
 
NKlamerus said:
That's where context becomes very opinionated


Because anything that helps my survival in a "bush" environment is a tool IMO.

I really like how pinnah divides it all. Posts like that are why I join forums.
Click to expand...

would you consider fresh water a tool? How about temperate weather? Both greatly help your survival, but are environmental, and for the most part, out of your control.

Bushcraft isn't about survival, per se. It's about survival skills, and carving spoons, as near as I can figure.
 
I spent 7 weeks riding a motorcycle to Alaska & Yukon Territories, on and off-road, much of it camping. Rambo, I ain't, however. I thought upon setting out, that I could bring nearly unlimited gear, but it quickly became apparent due to weight & bulk that I had to mail home a buncha crap: mostly redundant stuff like lightweight rain gear when my riding gear is already rainproof, excess clothing, yadda yadda.

The stuff I brought and used and appreciated having after the thinning of the herd were:

- a Sven saw: very light, sharp sharp sharp, and a very thin blade (.030", iirc) which ***dramatically*** reduces the effort required to make a cut. These "survival machetes" which are .1" or more thick and have staggered teeth just won't cut efficiently, and the knife-style handle is extremely hard on your wrist.

- a cold steel pipe hawk. The "pipe" part makes a nice hammer to pound tent stakes, and the longer handle makes splitting easy. And, it's relatively light. Many years ago, I mistakenly bought a Gerber short axe with a knife in the handle. What a stupid, stupid object. It was actively dangerous if you tried to chop wood with the knife in the handle: the knife would go flying. To make the stubby little axe split, you had to put so much effort into it that I felt I was going to lose a toe if I missed.

- a Kershaw Skyline. Turns out the Skyline is a delightful knife, but not a very good camp knife. It's not quite long enough to prep food conveniently and a little small in my hand. I was considering bringing a SOG Team Leader, but decided a fighter wasn't going to be good in camp either. In retrospect, I'd have brought a fixed blade, probably a Mora of some flavor. Another downside of a small folding knife: it slipped out of my pocket in a dark latrine un-noticed.

- a pocket-sized, double-sided fishing whetstone. Good for sharpening the axe, mostly: the skyline never needed help. Get one with it's own sheath or it'll wear holes in stuff.

- a Bic lighter. I brought a fire steel & striker "just in case" along with some pill bottles full of my favorite tinder (binders twine), and I used occasionally, but honestly, just to stay in practice, and for personal entertainment.

- an aluminum fire shield, basically a 10" x 2' piece of soft aluminum flashing. Increases the efficiency of a stove, increases the felt radiance of a fire, protects a new fire in windy conditions. Can be used as a splint in an emergency. Downside: makes everything in your pack black where it touches it. A plastic shopping bag isn't a bad idea.

- P38 can opener for, you know, opening cans. Sliced the ever loving crap out of my finger as a boy trying to open a can with a knife. Never again, and specifically the LAST thing you want to do in a wilderness situation is injure your hands: they're how you stay alive. Don't put it on your keychain, it will tear holes in your pockets.

- Speaking of protecting hands: sturdy gloves. I used my riding gloves for all wood processing.

- Paracord. 1000 uses. hoisting bear bags, laundry, splints, perimeter trip line for the claymores (just kidding). :emot-yarr:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top