longer term collection/storage

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siguy

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Aug 26, 2006
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yesterday or the day before i was out playing with my new wetterlings axe, just chopping on some pieces of wood laying around. i started to chop a very undersized notch into a very large log, and as i kept chopping, i realized i had created a nice little container. i brushed the chips out of it and walked away, forgetting about it until this morning. last night and this morning it has been raining pretty hard on and off, and when i walked by the log i noticed it had collected roughly 2 cups of water.

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this inspired the thought that a larger version of this could be very handy in a long term survival situation, or if you needed something to focus on to keep from going mad. i suppose with enough determination one could probably make something strongly resembling a canoe with this method. just thought i would outline the basic method, even though its not too complicated.

i cut the bark off of the log first, to make it easier to chop cleanly and to make it easier to see what's going on. the bark could be used for other things, like for making a shelter or used as a container of sorts.
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next i leveled off the area a bit with some axe cuts and started to cut a notch much like for chopping a log in half...but far undersized.
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keep chopping at the sides of the notch until you pop out some chips
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keep going and going until the dish is deep enough and long enough. after you have the basic shape of the dish, you can make it longer by chopping more off of the sides. also, it is good to make some cuts on the short sides of the cup, then make some splitting cuts in the dish to pop out nice big chunks of wood.
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once you are happy with the size and shape, you can use your axe or your knife to smooth it up a bit. don't worry too much about making it totally smooth, unless you are looking to kill time. shown with "viking" model mora for size comparison. this one probably would hold 4-5 cups of water
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just thought i would share.

note-some woods wouldn't be good to do this with, such as oak. avoid trees that have large amounts of tannins or other toxins in them.

note 2- i haven't tried, but it might be possible to boil water in these containers with the hot rocks technique...something to play with in the future.
 
that's pretty cool simon... sand those out and you have some nice containers...:thumbup:
 
i think that as i have time here and there i will try enlarging this one to make it bigger and bigger...maybe even large enough to hold a gallon or more.

i was also thinking that it could be made really smooth if i used my gouge.

i might try doing some more experiments with this sort of thing.
 
You know, I'm wondering if you could use any wood if you lined it with something. Maybe some clay from a river bank? Good idea, either way.
 
storl, good idea there. hadn't thought of that. i don't have any clay around here, just soil and a little sand...

but even if you had a piece of plastic or something that wasn't suitable for anything on its own it could be used to line a container like this. that would also keep the wood from soaking up any of the water over time.
 
I've also seen people do much the same thing with coals from the fire. Get lots of coals. Scoop them onto a log. Allow them to burn into the wood. After it cools chip away the burnt and repeat till the hole is big enough for your needs. If you have a saw you can make a bucket this way. Or bowls. Or spoons.

To seal the wood, use rendered fat, or bees wax.
 
siguy said:
note 2- i haven't tried, but it might be possible to boil water in these containers with the hot rocks technique...something to play with in the future.
Click to expand...

Every year we take the kids to a maple syrup fest. They show modern methods of boiling sap into syrup, and then they show the old ways. They do exactly this.

They have a log that has been hollowed out by axe. They have a fire going with hot rocks. The guy uses deer antlers for scooping and carrying rocks. Pretty cool :thumbup:

Nice chopping fun there too!

As far as woods, I imagine white oak would be fine, but maybe not red oak. I am assuming that pine would probably not be a good choice either, due to the pitch. I would think a medium harness wood (for ease of chopping) might be good. Like a poplar, aspen, birch, etc.

B
 
IIRC, in our area, at least, the early peoples used Basswood (Tilia americana) to boil Maple sap in. Food safe and easy to carve.

Doc
 
Nice work Simon :thumbup:

The burning technique seems pretty effective but as the link from Quiet Bear will attest, seems like it takes some finesse and I imagine a good deal more time. I think getting it started with an ax and then using coals to smooth it out and deepen it seems like it would be a pretty efficient means of creating a container.

I wouldn't be too worried about using oak, the tannins while not particularly healthy in large amounts aren't all that toxic. After all, charred oak barrels have a long respected history in the fermentation industry ;) Also most of the tannins would leach down and out via gravity.
 
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