Ethan's July Challenge

[Moosez45]

Alright, Summer's on in full force, its hot, and it that time of year to kick back, and take it easy. Here we go.

Ethan's July Challenge, Campsite furniture.

Contest is easy enough to talk about, but more challenging to do. You will need to make some camp furniture, Beckerstyle.

You must use a BKT knife, and only BKT knives. Nothing else. You can make any kind of campsite furniture you want, but it must be made from natural materials, and it must work. You make a chair, it must support your weight, you make a table, it must be level and hold stuff, you make a jungle bed/couch, you guessed it, it must hold 2 people weight.

This will be a duo contest, which means you can have a partner help you. Take pics, hold this, hand me that, etc. So, if you make one chair, you will need to make two, you make a jungle bed, you might want to make it big enough for two, or make another. Keep in mind, can't have a table without chairs, can't make a bed without a canopy, tables, stools, benches chairs, whatever you decide to make, make enough for two. Here's a chance to partner up, teach, learn, and show off your BKT's and skills to a friend.

Natural materials count as anything that grows or grew out of the ground. Greenery and wood. Yes, I know that canvas material was a natural material, but it has been processed. You want canvas, you gotta make it. No scavenging for tarps, or rope, but I will allow the use of paracord. Yes, its synthetic, but everyone should have gads of the stuff on them at all times anyway. Paracord ok, rope from Home Depot, not OK.

Feel free to make as much as you want, of anything you want, it just has to be used around the campsite. Outhouse? yeah, go for it. Leanto, nope, thats shelter, ya dig?

The group of two that makes the most, or the most impressive campsite setup, wins stuff. 2x stuff, one for you and your partner. Doubles, if you will.

Must be 18, you are responsible for yourself and your partner, neither BKT/Kabar, BFC, Ethan Becker, The Beckerheads, etc. is responsible for your actions. If you can't pay for it, don't break it.

THIS IS A BECKERHEADS ONLY CONTEST

To enter, post "Beckerhead #---, I Accept the Challenge" in this thread, edit your post as your entry when you are ready. You can change your entry as many times as you wish, before the contest close August 1, 2011.

You are allowed no more than 10 photos, or you can post a video no longer than 7 mins.

NO CHATTING IN THIS THREAD, OR YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED

The Prizes
1st place- BK7 (2)
2nd place- BK2 (2)
3rd place- BK14 (2)

Alright, lets have some fun, be safe, and get your furniture on.

Moose

 

[Bladite]

yar - he used my idea - nice :> the picture there is a huge hint btw go forth! i want to see pictures bwa hah hah.

which reminds me. if nothing else, i should order a few hundreds of feet of some kind of paracord. handy stuff that.

 

[BushOgre]

Beckerhead #112, I Accept the Challenge and willingly am biting off more than I can chew.

 

[NixKustoms]

Beckerhead #51, I Accept the Challenge

Well I guess i wasn't able to complete the entire contest, but I still wanted to post what I did. (trees may or may not have been hurt in the making of this entry)

So here is what I got.

The material. Alder saplings.

Harvesting.

The pile.

The making.

The finished product

I had a good time trying to figure out how to do this but I don't think my partner did. Lazy break (that's his new nickname)


Thanks guys!!! :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[maethor]

Beckerhead #89, I accept the challenge.

The German Scout Cooking Table

Don't mind me, I'm just putting some pics here for storage...

That's it for today, would have done some more but ran out of daylight and cordage.

 

[gundude73]

beckerhead 114, i accept the challenge.

i decided to build a small table.

materials and tools used:

sticks and branches from the avocado tree
leaves
BK14

i first had to scavenge up wood

found 4 good legs, had to cut down one to make it the right length

batoned through a piece to shorten it to length

used a stick to dig into the ground to anchor the legs

used the eskabar to take smaller branches off the larger sticks

basic frame

basic table

added a leaf covering, supporting some full soda cans and bottles

might i add, this was my first attempt at building furniture.


edit 7/10

adding to my entry, decided to carve a fork

not as many pictures as the table so i will elaborate on how i made it.

first i batoned a piece of wood to size with the BK14, then i sharpened the end.

at that point i batoned into the wood again to make the spears of the fork

i had to use smaller pieces of wood to keep the individual forks separated. basically i used the spine of the BK14 to jam them into place. when i was done i used my hands to break them to be relatively flush.

i made it on the long side. it can be used for eating or cooking.

also my first time building flatware. pretty much flying by the seat of my pants and using my "instincts" to build what i think is right.

 

[machine26]

Beckerhead #29, I accept the challenge.

Ok heres the first bit so far. This camp furniture I made is alot like the BK3, and me too actually. Its ugly but it works.

Got 2 camp stools, 1 small table, 100 hour candle holder(behind table) and a small cooking platform put together with rocks. I had a big elaborate plan in my head for when I got out there, but decided to KISS. I learned two things from this, BK3 can get a hair popping edge again with just an arkansas stone in a couple minutes and Im happy with sitting my ass on the ground lol.

Sorry for the lousy pic, Ill go get more pics when I add more stuff.

Heres a tripod I added today. Seen supporting my fully loaded maxped jumbo.

 

[Flexxx]

Beckerhead #034 I accept this challenge....
This is awesome, my wife is down for this one

 

[clich]

Beckerhead #113 I accept the challenge.



Time to teach the brother in law some things

so when i sat down to plan what it is i was going to make, i thought should i build a chair? nah that will be done...should i build a place to sleep? nah i usually pass out whereever. then it hit me...the piece of furniture that we all wish we had when camping is.......






A BAR! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I present "Cass De La Beckerhead" where the beer is cold, the women are hot, and the blades are bulletproof.

The blades

Harvesting saplings, yes these were live but in my defense i used almost every inch of stable wood and green stuff is so much stronger than deadfall stuff.

Dug holes for the posts with the 11

The basic skeleton

More of the skeleton with basic canopy added. This was the 4th trial to balance and support itself (it fell a few times) then I figured to support it with Y branches at each leg and stake it down like a tent, so we carved stakes and pounded em in with a branch. Heres my wife's little brother placing some of the sticks on top for the "bar"

The finished product supporting my pack full of goodies and a case and a half of beer. If only i still had the 1/2 barrel from the bonfire a week before i would set it up with the tap through the bar and as you can see there is plenty of room below for keg storage. I just like drinking....alot.....

The best part about a bar is it really attracts the LADIES to your campsite>>>> (the kids not old enough to drink, but he can bartend just fine )

Three days later its still standing (shown here with my 2 year old son)

The end we thank you for the chance. Either way im gonna buy the kid a bk-2 he really liked mine and he deserved it, he worked hard and and kept wanting to find more stuff to use the bk2 on. thanks again tho it was fun to make.

Edit: Its now been almost two weeks since the original build and the sucker still standing even through high winds and rain. Now im just gonna leave it to see just how long it will last. Then I can have a good ole fashioned bar burning

 

[KiljoyKutlery]

Beckerhead #333 , I accept the challenge.

Epic fail.
I waited till the last minute and then my lower back blew out...I have been out of action all weekend...sorry guys.

 

[Widerstand]

Beckerhead #31, I Accept the Challenge

Here is my entry. I made a bench, footrest, table, fire pit with reflector, and pot suspender.

This was a really fun contest!

Here is the location that I picked with my tools, BK9, BK2, and my BK11

Rather then 100% build a bench from nothing I utilized a tree that was cut down by a beaver and hued it with my BK9 for a nice flat spot.

Next came the foot rest cause I have got to be able to kick back and put my feet up.

Here is the start of my little table.

Here is the finished table for my stuff.

Here is my fire pit with stick reinforced sand reflector and pot holder.

My nice little camp.

 

[trailbum]

Beckerhead #26 I accept this challenge.

Getting started.

Table.

Raised beds.

Couch.

Works good for a funeral pyre.

All in all a good time with my son.

 

[iahunter3]

Beckerhead #93 I accept this challenge.

Not sure you can see them, but a storm took off the tops of about 5 birch trees a month ago. Those tops + some other yard debris is what we used.

These are the first two we lashed together.

Here we have the two sides built and we are adding the first piece to form the front of the seat. We used the smoothest branch here.

My "Helper" was more interested in using the BK11 to make a sling shot, he got more involved in the next few steps.

Here we have lashed most of the seat and I have definitely learned that I need to read more about lashing and knots! It isn't real purdy, but it is stable.
My Son lashed 1 side and I lashed the other. Some good conversation was had about the cordage and what to use next time.

First question after completion "Can we put this on the patio?", Don't think momma likes the bright green cord, so this one gets to stay by the shed. It's Done!

The real workers in this project were the BK2 and the baton.
But they all got their picture taken, so none would feel left out.

This was a great project for me. I had some good conversation with my Son, taught him how (kinda) to lash things together. He made a dandy sling shot with a trotline wrapped handle.

He asked several questions about this Becker guy who makes these knives, which was fun. He really is interested in knives and they've warned him twice (small cuts), but he gains a little more respect for a truely sharp knife each time.



Thanks for the contest!

 

[Moosez45]

Wow, so far, some really great entries. I'll be closing this one up tonight, and next month, I talked Ethan into taking a month off, in lieu of alot of things he's working out. Some good, some not so much.

I'm doing next months contest, so, we'll have our first ever, Moosez August Challenge, I'm gonna blow your mind, didn't I?

Moose

 

[Flexxx]

Bummer, I was going to enter this week...........been pretty damn busy

Oh well good luck everyone

 

[FAL'ER]

This challenge I accept. #22

I did the work with my son jack (3 years old), the thread got locked about 3 hours earlier than expected so that be the reason for this thread.
Ethan's July Challenge

Camp stool or seat. I asked my youngest to help me because he's the one of my 3 boys who always wants to see and hold my knives, guns and tools. Since he's only 3 years I really did all the work myself and used it as a knife safety lesson for him. I told him it was for a contest but he doesn't understand.

Large camp seat, For papa.


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Here's some of the raw materials used.


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Here's a shot of the project well underway, I learned how to render tree sap/ pitch down into glue for this project, there a glue stick in this picture which I used to glue the wood in place before the jute twine wrap.


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Here's small chopping lesson.


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Us working on his seat.


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Here's the finished pair, Papa sized and jack sized, My boy already laid claim to that machete.


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Completed.

 

[Moosez45]

Midnight. Time is up. New contest will start tomorrow.

Moose

 

[Moosez45]

Sorry about that, forgot the PST tim zone thing. My bad Fal'er.

Moose

 

[Ethan Becker]

Hey Everybody......

As the inimitable Gibbs might say....Bloody good work !!!!.....Machine and WIDERSTAND DID A WHOLE ROOM FULL ......I liked Machine's decorating slightly more so he gets # uno and Widerstand gets second.....Trail bum gets third partly because he put his buns on the line.....MWTIC gets an honorable for great design and really nice execution.......Nice work !!!!......Fal'r gets something for sure because of the glue pot if nothing else....very cool, indeed......

Thanks guys....

Please e. mail your avatar, name and real name and shipping address.....



I would really like you guys to share how long it took to build.... from gather to tail on.....Could be helpful.....Add please your self described skill level please.........

All Best.....

ethan

 

[Moosez45]

Opened back up, thanks E.

Moose