Over the past year, or better part of, I've been in a position of contract advisor to a pack of young little guys, and thier fathers. I was brought on board originaly to just give a once in a while demo of some outdoor skills, and a talk, but over the winter it kind of grew into an expanded mission. Now, after the better part of a year, I can say its been interesting. Some conclusions I have come to;
1. 9 and 10 year old boys are way brighter and more observant than we give them credit for.
2. The culture of modern sububia has created at least two generations of outdoor deprived males, in the 30 to 40 range of age.
My only fear now is that I may have overdone it. These boys now are as trained as some boy scouts of 13 and 14.
They all have been bit by the knife bug. We origianally went with the victorinox recruit so ever boy would be equel as far as gear. The boys have learned to sharpen them very well, and all have taken to carrying a red handle cut down Eze-lap. In late fall of last year, we all took a hike and they used the just learned notch and break method to cut themselves a hiking stick. The sticks were aged over the winter, and in spring were steel wooled, stained, varnished, and cord wrap grip areas installed.
We've done several campouts this past spring and summer, and the boys are awesome. They've learned to make some basic eating utensils with thier pocket knives, and one or two of them are good spoon makers, a few others whip up a pair of chop sticks in a few minutes. But best of all are the dad's.
Most, when we started did not carry a knife. City office guys doing the daily commute into Washington D.C., they were a product of the 70's suburbia. But now, Its very surprising how many of them have dug around and come up with a father's, grandfather's, uncles, or somebodys old pocket knife from a drawer someplace. A variaty of Old Timers, Camillus, Bucks, sak's, even a Case or two, have surfaced. The dad's are now pocket knife carriers.
When we started, I had made the choice to go with a non locking slip joint knife, so proper skills would develope. There's been a few cuts along the way, but nothing a bandaid (or two) didn't take care of. Curiously, only one boy was cut. Once the others saw the blood, they were real carefull afterward, seeing what could happen. But three of the fathers cut themselves pretty good. Again, bandaids took care of it. but I noticed that they now have a bond with a slip joint pocket knife. When an oportunity came up that one of the scouts was offered a trade by a kid for his sak for a locking blade semi-tactical knife, the scout was heard to rely, "Na, it just has one blade, and I don't need a lock."
One camp out I brought along some other knives, and they were passed around the campfire along with some of the dad's family's knives.. The kids have learned the differences between a stockman, canoe, peanut, trapper, barlow, scout (of course) and some pen knives of various makes and types. The boys seem facinated by the variaty of shapes, and blade choices.
And over the winter, they learned the holy trinity of sight picture, breath control, and trigger squeeze. Air rifles down a basement in cold wet weather, a bolt action .22 out at the range in mild weather. Dad's included. To my surprise, most of the dad's had never fired a gun before. They started with an air gun like thier son's, and had to repeat the holy trinity like Mr. van had us do. By spring, three of the dad's have joined my Izzak Walton League chapter, and bought a .22 rifle of thier own to start off.
All in all, I don't really know who's having more fun, the kids or me. They've been like those little dehydrated sponges you buy, that look like a flat piece of cardboard, but when exposed to water, quickly grow into a real sponge and soak up anything it comes in contact with. It seems that no bit of outdoor trivia is unimportant to them.
But most of all, I love how they have come to think for themselves. One young fellow actually argued with a teacher at school who overheard a conversation he was having with another kid about his weekend. The teacher was a little hincky about the young man carrying a knife on the weekend, saying nobody needs to be carrying a weapon around with them these days. The young scout in question had the guts to tell the teacher that a knife was a valueble tool for the outdoors, and futhermore, once upon a time when a man put on his pants there was a knife in the pocket. I don't know where he got that last part, really. (looks away whistling
)
1. 9 and 10 year old boys are way brighter and more observant than we give them credit for.
2. The culture of modern sububia has created at least two generations of outdoor deprived males, in the 30 to 40 range of age.
My only fear now is that I may have overdone it. These boys now are as trained as some boy scouts of 13 and 14.
They all have been bit by the knife bug. We origianally went with the victorinox recruit so ever boy would be equel as far as gear. The boys have learned to sharpen them very well, and all have taken to carrying a red handle cut down Eze-lap. In late fall of last year, we all took a hike and they used the just learned notch and break method to cut themselves a hiking stick. The sticks were aged over the winter, and in spring were steel wooled, stained, varnished, and cord wrap grip areas installed.
We've done several campouts this past spring and summer, and the boys are awesome. They've learned to make some basic eating utensils with thier pocket knives, and one or two of them are good spoon makers, a few others whip up a pair of chop sticks in a few minutes. But best of all are the dad's.
Most, when we started did not carry a knife. City office guys doing the daily commute into Washington D.C., they were a product of the 70's suburbia. But now, Its very surprising how many of them have dug around and come up with a father's, grandfather's, uncles, or somebodys old pocket knife from a drawer someplace. A variaty of Old Timers, Camillus, Bucks, sak's, even a Case or two, have surfaced. The dad's are now pocket knife carriers.
When we started, I had made the choice to go with a non locking slip joint knife, so proper skills would develope. There's been a few cuts along the way, but nothing a bandaid (or two) didn't take care of. Curiously, only one boy was cut. Once the others saw the blood, they were real carefull afterward, seeing what could happen. But three of the fathers cut themselves pretty good. Again, bandaids took care of it. but I noticed that they now have a bond with a slip joint pocket knife. When an oportunity came up that one of the scouts was offered a trade by a kid for his sak for a locking blade semi-tactical knife, the scout was heard to rely, "Na, it just has one blade, and I don't need a lock."
One camp out I brought along some other knives, and they were passed around the campfire along with some of the dad's family's knives.. The kids have learned the differences between a stockman, canoe, peanut, trapper, barlow, scout (of course) and some pen knives of various makes and types. The boys seem facinated by the variaty of shapes, and blade choices.
And over the winter, they learned the holy trinity of sight picture, breath control, and trigger squeeze. Air rifles down a basement in cold wet weather, a bolt action .22 out at the range in mild weather. Dad's included. To my surprise, most of the dad's had never fired a gun before. They started with an air gun like thier son's, and had to repeat the holy trinity like Mr. van had us do. By spring, three of the dad's have joined my Izzak Walton League chapter, and bought a .22 rifle of thier own to start off.
All in all, I don't really know who's having more fun, the kids or me. They've been like those little dehydrated sponges you buy, that look like a flat piece of cardboard, but when exposed to water, quickly grow into a real sponge and soak up anything it comes in contact with. It seems that no bit of outdoor trivia is unimportant to them.
But most of all, I love how they have come to think for themselves. One young fellow actually argued with a teacher at school who overheard a conversation he was having with another kid about his weekend. The teacher was a little hincky about the young man carrying a knife on the weekend, saying nobody needs to be carrying a weapon around with them these days. The young scout in question had the guts to tell the teacher that a knife was a valueble tool for the outdoors, and futhermore, once upon a time when a man put on his pants there was a knife in the pocket. I don't know where he got that last part, really. (looks away whistling
)
