Better than a good day at work.......

D

DOC-CANADA

Joined
Apr 14, 2006
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A week ago, tonym emailed me and said he was coming up here for a couple of days for work and how far was I away from where he'd be.

Now I've never met Tony except here in BladeForums, but it was easy to tell he was a good guy and was keen on all things W&SS related, so I was pleased to inform him that he would only be about an hour away. It was decided at the time to also give kgd an invite, on the off chance he might be down this way, as well as my buddy, Phil. Remember, it was fairly short notice, as well as a working day (Monday).

As it turned out, everybody was available. It would have been nice to make it a bigger event, but the particular area prevented it.

Since neither Tony nor kgd had ever done hand drill coals before, it was decided that would be on the top of the agenda.

Here Ken is working really hard to get that coal.

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"Can it be?"

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Success!

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The smile on the face of a first-time hand drill fire maker.

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Now Tony's up.

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Now that's a look of concentration.

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Here Phil is checking on Tony's progress.

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(continued below)
 
Unfortunately, although getting very close, success eluded him. All the time he was drilling his butt off, he had this huge blister on his left hand, which broke, but he soldiered on, in spite of it - Personally, I would have quit a lot earlier, but he's not me.

Anyway, he's close enough, that I think he will be successful his next time around. Deciding he had to save face :rolleyes: he quickly whipped up a coal with a bow drill.

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You may have noticed that we were doing this under Ken's hammock tarp. It was lightly raining off and on, and nothing will screw up a friction fire attempt faster than a raindrop falling on that hard-earned coal. Actually, the coals came very easily, for the most part, considering the high humidity.

Once finished with the fire making, we were going to work on some traps, but decided to do a hike and plant walk instead. For some reason, I got absolutely no pictures of this, so hopefully Ken and Phil will post some of theirs in a couple of days.

After the hike, we didn't have much time (you notice how time flies when you're having fun?) left, so we played with a couple of traps.

Some of you may be familiar with the Promontory Peg and the story surrounding it. Anyway Phil modified the accepted design and came up with a design much easier to make and set up. Here he is explaining some of the finer points to Ken.

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Some of you older members might remember Pierre the rat from earlier trap threads. Well, not only Pierre came with us, but also his 2 nephews Andre and Francois.
Here Andre is checking out Phil's trigger.

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Hmmmm.............

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Well, anyway, that's pretty well all the pictures I took and I apologize for the quality. I'm sure Ken and Phil's pictures will turn out a lot better.

Hope you enjoyed.

Doc
 
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Excellent field report Doc, thanks for the pics. And now that Tony's becoming an international bushcrafter...Ray Mears, watch yer six!
 
Great stuff Doc, definitely looks better than a great day at work :thumbup:

That teasel doesn't look anywhere near as "spikey" in those pics :) , I've still yet to find any here. I'm thinking I may have been in Illinois last summer when I saw it.
 
Thanks for all the comments, guys.

mistwalker said:
Great stuff Doc, definitely looks better than a great day at work :thumbup:

That teasel doesn't look anywhere near as "spikey" in those pics :) , I've still yet to find any here. I'm thinking I may have been in Illinois last summer when I saw it.
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Hey Mistwalker, according to the USDA, you should have Teasel in your area, as well. As far as "spikey" goes, the nodes have been carved smooth and the little prickles removed by a quick scraping.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Hey Mistwalker, according to the USDA, you should have Teasel in your area, as well. As far as "spikey" goes, the nodes have been carved smooth and the little prickles removed by a quick scraping.

Doc
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Maybe I need to look a little further north or north-west of here. Looking at that map I am right on the Tennessee / Georgia line and it says it isn't in Georgia.

Is it blooming right now, already bloomed, or not bloomed yet in your area?
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Some of you may be familiar with the Promontory Peg and the story surrounding it. Anyway Phil modified the accepted design and came up with a design much easier to make and set up. Here he is explaining some of the finer points to Ken.

Doc
Click to expand...

And the much easier to make and setup design would be????
(That's just cruel not sharing. ;) )
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Drill was Teasel (Dipsacus sylvestris) and the hearth was Basswood (Tilia americana).

Doc
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Well, after looking it up, it looks like all the thistle behind my house is actually teasel. :o You learn something new every day. Thanks Doc.

Jeff
 
Awesome pics Doc, thanks. Looks like you guys had a great time!

Oh...what kind of knife was on Tony's hip? Just wondering...;)
 
From the thread title, I was expecting a story about "...a bad day of fishing". At any rate, spending time with friends and practicing skills that you enjoy sure beats a good day at work if you ask me. Nice pics, Doc. Looks like you guys had fun.


Gautier
 
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