Apartment Dwellers

I feel your pain, brother. I too am an apartment dweller. Well, my property management people call it a condo. It's an apartment. Either way, to ease the pain, I regularly use my 5 in the kitchen and for starting fires to light the grill. I figure it is a good way to practice fire starting without venturing into the woods. I just build a small fire with whatever I can scavenge and use that to get the lump charcoal going.
This summer, with any luck, I am moving out of the city limits. Cant be too far from work since I am pretty much always on call, but I can be far out enough to shoot and work on my bushcraft.
 
That picture of the BK-9 looking out of the window is a classic. Evokes a lot of emotion. I won't show it to my Becker's though.
 
Ethan Becker said:
Hey Jerry.....

I say take Todd up on his offer but, in the mean time, buy a cheap pair of anvil pruners and "help" the landscaping crew by harvesting a few 1/2 & 3/4 dia. branches and put down an old sheet and make traps and other stuff inside.....It is very convenient "dirt time" and it allows you to hone skills that will pay dividends when the dirt is real and not carpet.....If you have a fireplace practice your firemaking there.......I do that every morning using a BK 11 or 16 ........Makes one match fires almost automatic...... Spring has almost sprung, so practice up......

All Best.....

Ethan
Click to expand...

Ethan's giving you good advice. Almost all important skills can be worked on in your apartment - basketmaking (yes, containers are an important skill), net making, arrow making, traps and snares (for deadfalls, get a couple of planks and put a hinge on one end, then put a piece of old shingle on the working ends to stop the prop stick(s) from slipping - for lifting type snares, throw a hook over the top of a closet door on the inside, throw on some surgical tubing and fashion an anchor board under the door, and you're good to go - you may even come up with some new trigger mechanisms), even fire making! Doubt it? I've been doing it for years. (I should qualify this by saying that I don't blow the coal into flames, I just get the coal - that's the harder part, anyway).

forKen2.jpg


You're only limited by your imagaination.

Doc
 
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I've been relegated to apartment living for the past... 8 years more or less, and there is no end to it in the immediate future (2-5 years). I totally know your pain.

I keep my 9 by my bed just because if I didn't, I'd never see the thing.

Like others say, there are a few things you can do to ease the pain. I "helped the landscapers" by trimming off a few offending branches in my apt complex (dang guys actually do a good job, I had to partially climb a tree to get one of them because there was nothing else that wouldn't be obvious). I keep a big tuperware thing in the front room that I use to catch shavings from whittling/carving/trapmaking projects. I do that while my wife and I watch TV or stuff like that. At this point I have like 2 full grocery bags full of shavings just waiting for some fire building practice :).

Hold in there man :).

Oh, I also practice cordage making. Believe it or not plastic grocery bags make pretty good cordage. I've got a length of about 16ft thats about 3/16 - 1/4in thick. I think that took me a total of about 6 hrs and like 6-9 bags.
 
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sorry for the delay. It took me a while to hike through a few miles of unoccupied, uninhabited wilderness to get to my computer to post my condolences.
 
That sounds like a pain in the hiney, being cooped up in an apartment. Maybe try giving them new pairs of pants? Or light modifications? Or, you can always do like I do, find new ways to use a knife.. Ya, popping one out in a public setting will sometimes get you a look or ten. It's annoying as hell. Liked the orange paracord--looks good on the black..might have to get some orange pcord now...damn.
 
Nice wrap, I really like the Nite Ize clip, I think I need to pick a few of those up!
 
I have heard the clip can tear up the pocket in your jeans (or whatever else you have it clipped to). I've read recommendations to get the Nite Ize Hip Clip. Its the same thing but without the locking part and its less expensive.
 
I feel your pain too. I have my own house but live in Vegas. Might have to go chop up some slot machines soon. Poor BK9, it looks like its even shedding a tear.
 
The 9 was put into action tonight.... My little lady's poor neglected kitchen knives wouldn't touch the acorn squash. The 9 made quick work of it.

I'm conflicted.... I have this compulsion to make these dull knives sharp; however, the dull knives justify the use of the BK9. Regardless, we should celebrate the simple victories.
 
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