making a bowl in the wilderness

A

andrew7978

Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
664
On my last camping trip, I decided to make a bowl. It holds about half a liter of water and surprisingly doesn't leak.

To make one:

1. Get a large log, preferably one that is flat on both ends. This makes it easier to stand upright on the ground and prevents the coals from falling.

2. Light a fire nearby and let it burn enough until you have orange coals.

3. Tranfer some coals to the center of the log, Just be careful not to burn yourself. You can make this transfer by using two sticks as tongs. If you are having trouble keeping the coals in the center, you can put some wet sand around the edges of your log.

4. Let the coals burn for a while, maybe 15 minutes or so. You want to keep blowing on the coals to keep them hot, but try to prevent an actual flame.

5. Dump the coals, then take a sharp rock and scrape out the burned part of your log. This will allow your coals to always be burning fresh wood.

6. Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 until your bowl reaches its desired depth.

Before you drink from the bowl scrape out the inside and rinse it in water several times. Burnt wood is not bad for you (in fact adding a small amount to the water you drink can help relieve stomach aches), but it might taste better without the charcoal taste.

101.jpg


102.jpg


The knife was not used in this project, but this is blade forums and this is the knife I had on the trip.
103.jpg
 
This is significantly great information. One of the least-realized survival realities is how to boil and sanitize water when you don't have a container! This is by far the easiest method I've ever seen for making one with almost nothing on you.

Excellent work.
 
Snakedoc said:
Nice work, how long did it take to complete?
Click to expand...

Probably about 4 or 5 hours. I probably could have done it faster, but I was doing other things while making it. I was thinking if you put a rock on top of the coals, it would keep the heat in and focused down on the log, but I'm not sure if that would work as I didn't try it.

Watchful said:
This is significantly great information. One of the least-realized survival realities is how to boil and sanitize water when you don't have a container! This is by far the easiest method I've ever seen for making one with almost nothing on you.

Excellent work.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment. I haven't tried boiling water in it, but I'm sure it would work pretty well. I have seen Les Stroud put hot rocks in his water to boil it. I think that method would work well.
 
Awesome, I have been wanting to do that for a long time.

Thanks for posting
 
I'm getting to hit the woods for two nights, two weeks from now. I've got to try this. As simple as it is, I've never thought of it.
 
I've always wondered what the time factor was on that kind of bowl, so thanks for that information.

I have considered the idea of using a large freshly-fallen tree trunk and cutting a bowl into the side of the trunk with an hatchet or large chisel. Then, in my mind, I'd finish deepening the depression with coals...I've never had the opportunity to try it, but I'd like to someday. On the one hand with a larger tree-trunk based bowl, you could not take the container with you, but on the other hand you could potentially make a pretty big container, thus giving you the "economy of scale" by being able to sterilize and store a lot of water all at once.

Either way (big bowl vs. little bowl), survival is work. Staying put is usually a good idea, and since the good guys don't always find people within 72 hours, a plan for a slightly longer stay might, in some cases I would think, clearly be in order. And in any case my luck and Murphy's Law is such that moments after finishing my 5 gallon tree trunk bowl, I'd probably be rescued.:)
 
Watchful said:
This is significantly great information. One of the least-realized survival realities is how to boil and sanitize water when you don't have a container! This is by far the easiest method I've ever seen for making one with almost nothing on you.

Excellent work.
Click to expand...

:thumbup:I agree
 
Watchful said:
This is significantly great information. One of the least-realized survival realities is how to boil and sanitize water when you don't have a container! This is by far the easiest method I've ever seen for making one with almost nothing on you.

Excellent work.
Click to expand...

Yeah, people always say make a birch bark container. Birch is not available everywhere but a log is not hard to find. I am sure a bowl could be made on a horizontally fallen tree. This way is more versatile and doable than other methods.
 
Thats true, you might have to use soe wet sand to contain the coals, but its definatly doable. Good idea.
 
Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing...that's one I'll have to try (when there's no fire-ban...stinking Texas summers:grumpy:)

ROCK6
 
I was thinking if you made one deep enough you could probably cut a round piece of wood to fit in it fairly tightly as a top. You could then use a bow drill to drill a hole in it and tie a rope in it so you could pull the top off. Then you could sling a rope around the entire thing and you could have a portable water bottle. I guess that is a little more involved and would take a lot of extra time but would be a cool side project if someone wanted to take it on.
 
cool project there, and well executed in my opinion.

how wet was the log? was it deadfall in good shape or was it fresh-fallen? i notice some small cracks at the edge of the bowl likely from fast drying...that's why i ask.
 
siguy said:
cool project there, and well executed in my opinion.

how wet was the log? was it deadfall in good shape or was it fresh-fallen? i notice some small cracks at the edge of the bowl likely from fast drying...that's why i ask.
Click to expand...

It was fairly dry. It was a log someone had cut and left by the fire pit. I believe those cracks are from me pouring water on the edges when the flames flared up. I probably shouldn't have been as lazy and I should have used wet sand, not water. Despite these cracks it still holds a fair amount of water. Most of them do not go all the way through.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for posting that. What's next...a log canoe?
:thumbup:

I've made a couple from cedar bark but that looks like one of the things that you can do (as you said) while doing other stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top