Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,014
I've had the convex K.E.Bushie for a week today. Far from finished with testing, it's a long term test of the convex 1/8 / 3mm O-1 tool steel. Normally I use a knife in the kitchen first, then take it to the bush, but since I have used the convex 1/8 in the kitchen quite a bit, this time I hit the woods with it first.
The first project I thought of was inspired by the bitter cold and the snow covered ground. There is a method of using a bow drill called a two-stick hearth which, though more complicated to master than it at first appears, involves less intricate cutting and notching, works well on frozen or snowy ground, and doesn't require as much gathering of materials. All that is needed are something sharp to cut with (preferably a well made knife, as doing it with a sharp stone sucks
), some cordage, three sticks of soft-seasoned wood, roughly the same diameter, for the hearth and spindle, and a bowed sapling or branch for a bow.
This is the environment.
I try to find one branch, or small standing dead sapling, from which to make the heath and spindle. The wood needs to be dry, and softly seasoned, but not rotten. It should whittle into curls rather than crumble when you whittle into it, and it should be soft enough that you can dent it with your thumbnail.
Small knives aren't much for chopping, but in smaller projects like this a good sharp knife will do fine. When I am needing or wanting a clean break in branch say maybe the size of my thumb and even larger, I use a method I call ring-and-break. I whittle a ring notch all the way around the branch to weaken it, then break it, sometimes using a tree to break it on.
I usually make my spindles before the hearth-board.
The first project I thought of was inspired by the bitter cold and the snow covered ground. There is a method of using a bow drill called a two-stick hearth which, though more complicated to master than it at first appears, involves less intricate cutting and notching, works well on frozen or snowy ground, and doesn't require as much gathering of materials. All that is needed are something sharp to cut with (preferably a well made knife, as doing it with a sharp stone sucks
), some cordage, three sticks of soft-seasoned wood, roughly the same diameter, for the hearth and spindle, and a bowed sapling or branch for a bow. This is the environment.
I try to find one branch, or small standing dead sapling, from which to make the heath and spindle. The wood needs to be dry, and softly seasoned, but not rotten. It should whittle into curls rather than crumble when you whittle into it, and it should be soft enough that you can dent it with your thumbnail.
Small knives aren't much for chopping, but in smaller projects like this a good sharp knife will do fine. When I am needing or wanting a clean break in branch say maybe the size of my thumb and even larger, I use a method I call ring-and-break. I whittle a ring notch all the way around the branch to weaken it, then break it, sometimes using a tree to break it on.
I usually make my spindles before the hearth-board.
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