Exploring With The Little One & Playing With Tinder

[Mistwalker]

Some of you may remember a review I did of the T.M. Hunt Yuma model about four years ago, if not here is a link if you want to look at it.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1014509-T-M-Hunt-Yuma-model

I picked one up after playing with the original prototype in Florida for a few months, before it even had a name.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/985025-T-M-Hunt-General-Utility


I had asked Todd about one in a good stainless after the Florida trip. But since he had been making knives mostly for people in the Midwest for several years, where salt water wasn't a concern, he wasn't comfortable with working stainless yet. Though he definitely had his heat treat and quench dialed in very well in O-1. So O-1 it was, for the time being while he researched and experimented with stainless. Well this year at Blade my wish came true, and Todd handed me a Yuma made of CPM 154. I haven't had time to really put it through its paces yet, too much work to do right now. But have taken it out with me the last few days at work and introduced it to it's new temperate rain forest home.


As usual the knife came with one of Todd's very well made leather pouch sheaths

But a lot of the time I prefer to carry it attached to my water bottle carrier which it happens to match very well.

My daughter has spent a lot of time in the field with me while I am working lately, ad giving me a helping hand. I think this will be a fun summer.

We haven't had much rain lately, so two days ago the Wine Raspberries were looking a little dry. But the berries themselves seem to be looking ok.

The thistle doesn't seem to mind the lack of rain at all

And the Dewberries are looking ok

The Blackberries are looking a little puny so far...

Some of the critters

One of our favorite creeks barely had any water in it for her to throw rocks in.

We have done a lot of tinder experiments lately. One involved using the Spark-lite fire starter to ignite the Baddest Bee Fuses from the Epiphany Weatherproof Fire Kit. Two lessons were learned with that. The first was that the Spark-Lite ignites the Fuses very easily. The second was that the Spark-Lite is a bit fiddly for children learning how to use them. It was much quicker for me to use the Spark-Lite, but she had better results using a ferro rod. So far the average burn time with the fuses laying flat has been around 3 minutes which is usually more than long enough.

More critters...some not so fortunate ones...

Large leaves

Not all thorns bare fruit...

I found a fungus I want to experiment with later

We finally got some rain, summer storms the last couple of afternoons. I have a couple of trees to positively identify and add to the data base.

Though garlic is easy enough to recognize

I think she has the fire fuses down pat now. One thing I really like about them is that are slower burning and can be ignited in one spot and relocated to the fire base.

Another plant I want to identify. Alayna says it looks like asparagus to her.

I'm curious as to what these guys are too. Tiny little things less than ¼ of and inch long.

So far the only thing I have actually cut with the new Yuma is a few feather sticks. But that will change soon with the next project we are working on.

.

 

[Murphnuge]

Good to see y'all out and about buddy! That stainless Yuma will definitely get a shakedown with you guys.

 

[Herlock]

Hi! Beautiful pics as usual :thumbup:. Very nice post, it’s always a good time when out with kids . I really like your knife! Maybe it’s really time for me to add a new fix blade to my “wild bunch” .

I am not 100% sure but I think this tree can be what we call here Jude’s tree (Cercis siliquastrum). It’s quite common in my area, it grows both in Nature and also popular in gardens for its beautiful blossoms.

I am pretty sure about the beetles though, they really look like Epicauta rufidorsum for me.

Thanks for posting. Take care.

 

[mete]

Very nice photos ! CPM-154 will make you happy .Try using diamond for easy sharpening.
Alayna is getting a fantastic education ! That may very well be asparagus .Does anyone use taste to help identify plants . I say taste not eat as there are toxic plants .Put it in your mouth for a short time chew a bit and spit it out !
Those rocks Alayna is sitting on ,they fracture in an interesting way.Any info on that ?
Do the seed pods of that tree provide food for animals like the Acacia family does ?

 

[John_B]

Dude I thoroughly enjoyed this thread and to get to do that with your kid too.

 

[DYSPHORIC JOY]

Cool pics.

 

[panzertroop]

Amazing pics and that knife! WOW

 

[jmh33]

Thanks for sharing!! She is growing up fast and before ya know it she will be teaching you!!! KOOL knife!! John

 

[Mistwalker]

Good to see y'all out and about buddy! That stainless Yuma will definitely get a shakedown with you guys.

It's good to be out and about with her again. I am glad she has full range of motion in her hand and no signs of nerve damage. We worried about that for a while after the accident, but other than the scar you wouldn't know anything had happened to her hand. I am very thankful for that! It will definitely get a shake down, we have several projects for ASG on the agenda for this year, so it has its work cut out for it

Hi! Beautiful pics as usual :thumbup:. Very nice post, it’s always a good time when out with kids . I really like your knife! Maybe it’s really time for me to add a new fix blade to my “wild bunch” .

I am not 100% sure but I think this tree can be what we call here Jude’s tree (Cercis siliquastrum). It’s quite common in my area, it grows both in Nature and also popular in gardens for its beautiful blossoms.

I am pretty sure about the beetles though, they really look like Epicauta rufidorsum for me.


Thanks for posting. Take care.

Thank you, I'n glad you enjoyed them You may be right on both counts and now I want to see those trees in spring just to see if they bloom like that. If so they will be beautiful. So many different types of beetles it's hard to keep up with them all.

Very nice photos ! CPM-154 will make you happy .Try using diamond for easy sharpening.
Alayna is getting a fantastic education ! That may very well be asparagus .Does anyone use taste to help identify plants . I say taste not eat as there are toxic plants .Put it in your mouth for a short time chew a bit and spit it out !
Those rocks Alayna is sitting on ,they fracture in an interesting way.Any info on that ?
Do the seed pods of that tree provide food for animals like the Acacia family does ?

Thanks man! I believe it will too, My go-to sharpener for field carry has been the Falkniven DC-4 stone for years and I just bought a new one, so I'm sure that won't be an issue. I'm loving having the Yuma in a more corrosion resistant steel.

The last couple of years she has gone to different camps over the summer, Girl Scout camp, a Zoo camp, a science camp at the school, etc., but this year a lot of the work I am doing for ASG is centered around teaching wilderness skills to youths and she wanted to help me with those projects so it looks like she will mostly be hanging out with me for the summer. I may do the taste test on it later, as it certainly has a lot of asparagus-like characteristics, but I want to do research the images a bit first.

We were working in an area of an old quarry and at the mouths of an old abandoned mine so I imagine they had been blasted out of that. That could explain all the fractures.

No ideas on either of those trees really, till I do some more research. But I will definitely be observing them the next couple of years.

Dude I thoroughly enjoyed this thread and to get to do that with your kid too.

Thank you very much, very glad you enjoyed the post! My father spent a lot of time teaching me about nature and how to live off the land in different environments here in the Tennessee hills and in south Florida where he grew up during the depression, and I worked with him a lot in the evenings at the printing company where he was operations manager. Those are my most favorite memories of my childhood. I am very fortunate in the work I get to do these days, and I feel doubly blessed to be able to share that with my daughter.

 

[Mistwalker]

Cool pics.

Thanks man, glad you liked them

Amazing pics and that knife! WOW

Thank you, and yeah the knife is reeeeeally sweet. Definitely worth the wait!

Thanks for sharing!! She is growing up fast and before ya know it she will be teaching you!!! KOOL knife!! John

Thanks John! Glad you enjoyed the post! Man don't I know it, she is growing up too fast! Being out with her brings back a lot of memories from my childhood and times my father and I spent together in the wilds. I am totally digging the new Yuma

 

[hunter55]

Thanks again for sharing!
Excellent thread, fantastic photos, but the most important to me is that you are there with your daughter…
As you have already mentioned you are feeling “doubly blessed to be able to share that with your daughter” and that is the most important fact.
Keep going and ENJOY the company!!!
As somebody else in that thread has mentioned already the “little one” is growing up very fast… One day she is going to teach you. Then other wonderful moments will follow...
For the time being, enjoy the trip!

 

[tknife]

Great pics Mist, looks like a fun time with your daughter. She has great taste in T-Shirts too! That Hunt looks awesome :thumbup:

 

[Mistwalker]

Thanks again for sharing!
Excellent thread, fantastic photos, but the most important to me is that you are there with your daughter…
As you have already mentioned you are feeling “doubly blessed to be able to share that with your daughter” and that is the most important fact.
Keep going and ENJOY the company!!!
As somebody else in that thread has mentioned already the “little one” is growing up very fast… One day she is going to teach you. Then other wonderful moments will follow...
For the time being, enjoy the trip!

Thanks man, she has been my hiking buddy since she was three, and yeah growing up way too fast. And she has been teaching me things all along

Great pics Mist, looks like a fun time with your daughter. She has great taste in T-Shirts too! That Hunt looks awesome :thumbup:

Thanks T, we've been having a lot of fun this summer. One of the projects I am working on for ASG is a series on teaching wilderness skills to children. So we have been documenting a lot of her practicing skills. She had to take some of her own shots of the fire she started yesterday while we were out

Andy didn't have a shirt large enough fit me at blade, it was like shopping at Academy lol, so I picked one up for Alayna. She will have her own Fiddleback in time, I think it will likely be one of his Patch models, hopefully with like Starry Night burlap. But for the lessons she is getting into this year I really like her having an actual guard as opposed to an integral guard. And when Ed saw that she had been using the Runt model I bought last year I told him I might get her one of her own later with a brighter colored handle to suit her personality and a tapered tang and aluminum guard to make it lighter. When the Bushcraft Tactical-S showed up that I had ordered for some projects this year, there were two knives in the box. One was a new Runt with a red handle, yellow liners, bright blue pins, tapered tang, and aluminum guard. I called Ed and told him I was surprised that was ready so fast and asked how much I owed him, as I had only sent payment for the BT. He said I didn't owe him anything because that was not my knife, it was his get well gift to Alayna. Which just really blew me away. Ed is such a awesome guy, and makes fantastic hard-use field knives. Considering her get well present involved a lot of pain, arterial flow, and 25 stitches in her palm from a fall while playing with her soccer ball in the rain...yeah I'm totally good with just paying for mine She really gets a kick out of having our knives set up the same way.

 

[22-rimfire]

Very good education for a young person in my opinion. Appreciating nature/the outdoors is a wonderful thing and I hope she continues to enjoy it as well as being with Dad. There is a lot to learn if one is interested.

 

[Mistwalker]

Very good education for a young person in my opinion. Appreciating nature/the outdoors is a wonderful thing and I hope she continues to enjoy it as well as being with Dad. There is a lot to learn if one is interested.

Thanks man, I think so too. She has been interested in the outdoors since she started going to the woods with me. Even more since she got her own camera and a microscope for Christmas.

 

[mete]

Your daughter ,in one photo, is using a fire stick. But she is angled it as if cuttinig into the fire stick instead of at 90* or greater angle. Though I have a good fire stick but don't get to use it much.What is the optimum angle or does that also depend on the striker ?

 

[Mistwalker]

Your daughter ,in one photo, is using a fire stick. But she is angled it as if cuttinig into the fire stick instead of at 90* or greater angle. Though I have a good fire stick but don't get to use it much.What is the optimum angle or does that also depend on the striker ?

It very much depends on the striker. As it turns out the carbide striker she is using, some good shots of it in post #13 above, works really well in that position with the mischmetal rod she is using. It throws awesome sparks that way. I like that because it is really intuitive for her because it is so similar to the motion of whittling. That's actually how she accidentally figured that out. She had been whittling and got a little confused on a first strike and it did really good. So she keeps doing it that way.

 

[WILLIAM.M]

Another EXCELLENT thread Brother

You gotta send me those knives--Yes All

On Account---

On Account of they are SWEET!!!!

 

[JD Mandrell]

Great pics (as usual) and awesome parenting!

 

[Mistwalker]

Another EXCELLENT thread Brother

You gotta send me those knives--Yes All

On Account---

On Account of they are SWEET!!!!

Thanks bro, glad you enjoyed it. Lol, I might send you one to play with for a while if you want, but it took me a while to get both of these so I won't be parting with either any time soon I have talked to your friend Bill about maybe making a smaller knife of my own design, or at least his interpretation of it, for a project I have in mind for next year

Great pics (as usual) and awesome parenting!

Thanks man, glad you enjoyed them. I had planned on spending a lot of time this summer working on various skills with my daughter, from gardening to wilderness skills. I was really excited when my editor suggested I turn some of the exercises I have in mind into projects for publication. I love my work, and I love hanging out with my daughter, so it is really awesome to be able to combine those two parts of my life.