Basic and practical bushcraft

Shotgun

Shotgun

Joined
Feb 3, 2006
Messages
8,250
I wanted to start a thread where we could discuss basic and practical things to make while camping and backpacking to make life easier.

By basic I mean simple and takes little to no equipment. Think "a knife and a piece of string is all that's necessary" type of thing. I want to get away from specific gear. I want this to be more about what you can make instead of what you can carry. This could be something that you think is a no brainer that you do without even thinking but could be key to someone else starting out or who never tackled the problem in that way before.

By practical I mean something that makes sense for general camping and backpacking. Figure 4's and friction fires are cool but they're really not something most people are going to actually do every time they go out and unless you're in a survival scenario, really aren't necessary.

I'll start it off so you guys get a jist of what I'm thinking. When I camp I try to find a good fire stick for the campfire. Simple concept and really any semi strong stick will do but I've found that if you can find a stick with a branch coming off of it in a y it makes it easier to do two things. If the branch coming off is facing you it makes it much easier to hook logs and in turn makes them easier to move about the fire. Same concept as the hook on a modern fireplace poker. Also, if you need to pick up a log and place it somewhere else in the fire(carefully) you can use your hooked stick and a second stick to do so. With the hooked stick and a second stick you have 3 points of contact instead of two so you don't end up doing flaming stick juggling.

Any other simple bushcraft tricks you guys do when bumming about?
 
For hiking/backpacking, which is what I do now, whether one night(usually) or several-none. No time for playing with sticks when I'm going and doing.
Camping is another story. Rare for me, but then I've sometimes had a couple of people with me, and between us an axe and bow saw.
Then I'll make stuff, sometimes. I like to use dovetail notches. You can make a fire crane to use instead of a tripod for hanging a pot over the fire(or make a tripod), or with multiple dovetails, a footstool, or even a chair. I've made a rack for separating different sizes of firewood so you can stack them up. We did those things when I was a kid in Cub and Boy Scouts, and it can be fun to revisit even if there isn't that much practical value.
Maybe some other little stuff like boot racks, something to hang packs on, a line or shaved branch for hanging a sleeping bag, or drying wet raingear.
Most of the things I remember best were in the Scout Fieldbook-still have it somewhere around here. One thing in there was making a semi-circle of rocks against the bank of a stream, and using it like a cooler. I never actually did that, though I've known people to haul six-packs of beer in mesh laundry bags trailed in the water behind a canoe, or even an inner tube. I kind of want to do a camping trip for a change...
 
I've been known to set up camp and find that I left basic cookery tools at home. Making an impromptu roaster basket for fish or hotdogs, a spatula to turn burgers, a spoon to stir stew and ladle it out is a quick and easy chore that takes minimum time and skill. Usually I can whip them out while my fire is burning down to cooking coals.

Since I canoe camp fairly often, keeping track of the water level is sometime important. Sticks driven into the ground/gravel at the water's edge and spaced evenly up the bank give me an accurate, easy way to guage the stream's rise or fall. Placed correctly, they can be seen at night from the tent with a flashlight when there is no moon. A rock cairn (or series of them) works as well.

Sometimes I also fish on these trips. I may forget (or forego) my stringer and, if there is willow present, use a long withe as a stringer or even weave a quick willow basket. Willow also makes good hotdog or biscuit sticks. Kids like cooking their own "pig-n-a-blanket" over the campfire and cooking their own bacon, sausage or buscuit keeps them occupied while I tend the main course.

Cooking pones (johnny-cakes/hoe cakes) on a flat, greased rock is good too.
 
It does depend on your activities, but a lot like Codger mentioned...mostly simple things to make camp life a little easier:

DSC00561.jpg


I thought I had a picture, but if I'm staying at a fixed site for a couple of days I really like the tripod bushchair using a little fabric. Of course plenty of the typcial tasks such as tent stakes, hiking sticks, spoons, tongs, etc. I've also built a primative slit-trench with a seat and backrest for the wife and daughter.

ROCK6
 
ROCK6 said:
It does depend on your activities, but a lot like Codger mentioned...mostly simple things to make camp life a little easier:

DSC00561.jpg


I thought I had a picture, but if I'm staying at a fixed site for a couple of days I really like the tripod bushchair using a little fabric. Of course plenty of the typcial tasks such as tent stakes, hiking sticks, spoons, tongs, etc. I've also built a primative slit-trench with a seat and backrest for the wife and daughter.

ROCK6
Click to expand...

Yep - the bushchair works well. Here is a pic for you Rock

DSC_0138.jpg


Sometimes its worth while to shape a baton if you are going to use it for wood splitting activities. I think taking the time to set up a tarp, either as shade shelter or rain also can be handy at camp.
 
Also, being able to whip up an improvised tarp shelter can be quite handy. Pressed for time with a rain coming, one can invert a canoe in a tree crotch and drape a tarp over that to make a bigger shelter to wait out a downpour. I have been known to tie the tops of three or more saplings or river canes together to wrap my tarp around tee-pee fashion. It gives pretty good protection from windblown rain and ,afterward, the uncut saplings or cane can be untied and no trace of a shelter site remains.
 
G'day KGD

Since most people these days drive to their campsites, why not just take a fold up camp chair in their vehicle?





Kind regards
Mick
 
I have a new motto: "if you are batoning with a small knife, have a wedge ready." It just takes a minute to make and it saves a lot of grief. I always get that sinking feeling in my gut when I realize the wood is tougher than I anticipated, and my knife has to take 4 times more abuse than I bargained for.
 
I like to take an S hook along with my lanterns, they give off better light when they are above your head. A stick with a branch on an end makes a good hook to pull down a higher tree branch, slip the S hook on the branch, your lantern handle on the hook and let the branch rise back up.
 
if you use a lean-to type shelter and a fire, keep the fire and lean-to parallel to the prevailing wind- this helps keeps smoke out

a reflective wall can add significant warmth if you have the time

bailwire.jpg


you can improvise a tarp out of something that doesn't have grommets or loops by using a small stone/little duff/soil/etc and giving the material a little twist, then tying it off w/ a slip knot or girth hitch

PICT0748.jpg


lay in more wood than you think if your depending on it for warmth through the night :)
 
SouthernCross said:
G'day KGD

Since most people these days drive to their campsites, why not just take a fold up camp chair in their vehicle?

Kind regards
Mick
Click to expand...


LOL - they [commercial ones] are more comfortable! It can also be difficult to sometimes find straight, dead poles that have enough strength. It would be far easier to cut and use saplings, but I am not that often in a place where I am comfortable, or it is allowed, to do so. So foraging dead standing trees is what you have to do. Sometimes its easy, others not so easy. Its even worse when you have 4-guys all wanting to make bushchairs at the same site!
 
I love making little things in the cooler months, even when I am just hiking through an area for photos. When it's cooler I can back along something to cook for a lunch and take a break by the fire making roasting forks for cooking meats and toasting bread to warm it up a bit, a pot hanger for holding the pot up off the fire, or SLOs (spoon-like objects) for stirring and eating quick soups. In the hotter months when the heat indexes are in triple digits I can be out all day and hardly think of food and never think of fire. I'll just drink a lot of water and eat a few crackers. This summer we had a run of 34 days straight of triple digit heat indexes some of them around 114F. You gotta be eat up with wanting to test something out to start a fire when the temp is that high lol.
 
always pack thread. I've made many a pine needle basket or plate. All you need is wet pine needles and string of some sort.

I mentioned in another thread chairs- I was at an extended camp way out in the middle of nowhere once and did make a chair- wooden pegs holding it together- with nothing more than a knife.

I've made styli for palm pilots, which sounds silly but whittling them used to be something I did constantly. Toothpicks, chopsticks, spoons, I can't think of the things I've done just having a splinter of wood and a small knife. I still do it in the shop when I'm out of stir sticks for the epoxy or need a specific shape to clean a handle join.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top