I've greatly enjoyed the skill based threads of late, making a welcome change from the numerous "new gear pic" threads. So I thought I'd put my money where my mouth was and start one myself.
Knife Skills
I don't claim to be Ray Mears or Mors Kochanski, but I do consider myself moderately competent when carving wood.
I've read that in the "old days", Swedish men would sit round the fire carving spoons as an example of their knife prowess, trying to carve a more elegant spoon than their friends. Spoon carving, a bit of an old standard to bushcraft/ survival, forces the user to employ numerous grips with a knife.
So in the spirit of Swedish tradition
I thought I'd put up some pictures of my spoons, ranging from early efforts to most recent.
http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=spoon1.jpg
http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=spoon2.jpg
Fire:
Feathersticks are another old standby. Too often in survival manuals (even the Lofty Wiseman version) you'll find drawings or pictures of feathersticks that look like they've been made with a piece of broken glass rather than a knife. Yeah, these will start a fire a little better than just wet wood, but they are less than ideal.
A featherstick should be a piece of standing deadwood split into sections to expose the dry inside. The feathers (curls) should range from large (to ignite the main wood) down to small (so small they light from a spark). I don't know if my feathersticks would pass Mors Kochanski's standards, but the tiny curls do light from a firesteel, which in turn ignite the larger curls up top.
http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=feather1.jpg
A closeup of the tiny curls
http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=feather2.jpg
I'd love to see other people's pictures of carving. Spoons, feathersticks, anything you like.
Let's see some more skill based threads!
Knife Skills
I don't claim to be Ray Mears or Mors Kochanski, but I do consider myself moderately competent when carving wood.
I've read that in the "old days", Swedish men would sit round the fire carving spoons as an example of their knife prowess, trying to carve a more elegant spoon than their friends. Spoon carving, a bit of an old standard to bushcraft/ survival, forces the user to employ numerous grips with a knife.
So in the spirit of Swedish tradition
I thought I'd put up some pictures of my spoons, ranging from early efforts to most recent.http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=spoon1.jpg
http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=spoon2.jpg
Fire:
Feathersticks are another old standby. Too often in survival manuals (even the Lofty Wiseman version) you'll find drawings or pictures of feathersticks that look like they've been made with a piece of broken glass rather than a knife. Yeah, these will start a fire a little better than just wet wood, but they are less than ideal.
A featherstick should be a piece of standing deadwood split into sections to expose the dry inside. The feathers (curls) should range from large (to ignite the main wood) down to small (so small they light from a spark). I don't know if my feathersticks would pass Mors Kochanski's standards, but the tiny curls do light from a firesteel, which in turn ignite the larger curls up top.
http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=feather1.jpg
A closeup of the tiny curls
http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae62/apfel1984/?action=view¤t=feather2.jpg
I'd love to see other people's pictures of carving. Spoons, feathersticks, anything you like.
Let's see some more skill based threads!
