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- Jan 30, 2014
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The family and I just returned from a big road trip from Santa Cruz to the Canadian Rockies. We drove 3,650 miles total. Our first stop was near Mount Shasta. We spent a couple nights there and then headed up to Washington to visit family and friends. From there we travelled on to Revelstoke B.C. and then Banff and Jasper Parks in Alberta. We came back through Idaho and Eastern Oregon and then back to Cali. We were gone almost three weeks and had a great time. I brought quite a few knives because I knew I would have some time to work on skills and play with sharp tools. I also wanted to test out the two knives I made recently and see how they compared to some of my nicer knives. My fiddleback Camp Nessie was one of my most used because it is killer in the camp kitchen. I spent some time trying all the knives and comparing them and I was reminded how well the camp Nessie is all around. It can baton well, make feather sticks easily and rocks the food prep. Outside of food prep, I used the two knives I made the most. I learned quite a bit about them. The larger one performed well but needs help on the handle. There are a couple edges on the handle that need work. They left hot spots on my hand when I worked with it for over an hour carving a spoon. I will say it held an edge well though. After making a spoon and doing some fire prep, it still sliced right through paper like butter. The handle on the smaller one is very comfortable but it needs a lot more maintenance on the edge. I had to bust out the sand paper on the strop at one point. The larger one was tempered at 400 degrees and the smaller at 450. I imagine that has something to do with the difference in edge maintenance. I might do my next one at 425 just to experiment.
Here is our rig for the adventure. We mostly stayed in our pop top which works great for us.
With so much camping, I had a lot of time to practice some fire skills. I did some flint and steel but mostly used a fire steel with feather sticks for tinder.
Here are most of the knives I brought on the trip.
Left to right - Fiddleback Camp Nessie, Turley Green River, Adventure Sworn Classic, and my home made knife.
Left to right - Turley mini dogface, Fiddleback scandi Karda and my home made knife.
Here is the camp nessie doing it's thing. The bark river lil canadian was for my helper.
I think the smaller knife I made is about the size of a palmer and it turned out to be a really great size to carry around. I would love to pick up a palmer at some time. This knife is in 1/8" and I think it would be awesome in 3/32" because this one was a little thick for slicing apples. Other meal prep was fine.
Even though this knife needed some edge maintenance, it was super fun to use. There is something very special about using tools you made.
With so much camping, I had a lot of time to practice some fire skills. I did some flint and steel but mostly used a fire steel with feather sticks for tinder.
I kept the spine sharp on both of my home made knives to light a fire steel. This time I used some cedar bark as tinder.
I got to use the ax I forged quite a bit because at the parks in Canada they give you wood with your fire permit. You just have to do a little processing.
Here is the funky spoon I made with my home made knife. Doing a project is a great way to test a knife for me.
Now onto some pics of the terrain.
Here are a couple pics from our first stop near Mount Shasta, CA
This was my first time to the Canadian Rockies and they were stunning to say the least.
My son using the life straw filter on a hike.
We rented a canoe one day.
This is the view from a paddle in camp site. We just stopped in for a few minutes.
We saw lots of wildlife including five black bears.
The animals get a lot of paparazzi action.
I got up one morning for sunrise (it rises early up there) and a bird was very upset about something. I went over to check it out and found this little Marten. That was the first time I has seen one.
I took some plant pics and more skills stuff, but I think this is probably enough pictures for this post. I will leave you with this parting shot of a bear rambling down the road.
Here is our rig for the adventure. We mostly stayed in our pop top which works great for us.
With so much camping, I had a lot of time to practice some fire skills. I did some flint and steel but mostly used a fire steel with feather sticks for tinder.
Here are most of the knives I brought on the trip.
Left to right - Fiddleback Camp Nessie, Turley Green River, Adventure Sworn Classic, and my home made knife.
Left to right - Turley mini dogface, Fiddleback scandi Karda and my home made knife.
Here is the camp nessie doing it's thing. The bark river lil canadian was for my helper.
I think the smaller knife I made is about the size of a palmer and it turned out to be a really great size to carry around. I would love to pick up a palmer at some time. This knife is in 1/8" and I think it would be awesome in 3/32" because this one was a little thick for slicing apples. Other meal prep was fine.
Even though this knife needed some edge maintenance, it was super fun to use. There is something very special about using tools you made.
With so much camping, I had a lot of time to practice some fire skills. I did some flint and steel but mostly used a fire steel with feather sticks for tinder.
I kept the spine sharp on both of my home made knives to light a fire steel. This time I used some cedar bark as tinder.
I got to use the ax I forged quite a bit because at the parks in Canada they give you wood with your fire permit. You just have to do a little processing.
Here is the funky spoon I made with my home made knife. Doing a project is a great way to test a knife for me.
Now onto some pics of the terrain.
Here are a couple pics from our first stop near Mount Shasta, CA
This was my first time to the Canadian Rockies and they were stunning to say the least.
My son using the life straw filter on a hike.
We rented a canoe one day.
This is the view from a paddle in camp site. We just stopped in for a few minutes.
We saw lots of wildlife including five black bears.
The animals get a lot of paparazzi action.
I got up one morning for sunrise (it rises early up there) and a bird was very upset about something. I went over to check it out and found this little Marten. That was the first time I has seen one.
I took some plant pics and more skills stuff, but I think this is probably enough pictures for this post. I will leave you with this parting shot of a bear rambling down the road.
