Yesterday was absolutely beautiful, so I decided to take the top off the jeep, grab some gear and head to the woods. The weatherman said it was supposed to be a beautiful weekend until Sunday afternoon. I kissed the wife goodbye and headed to a spot I knew would be secluded that was about 30 minutes from my house. Parked the jeep, disabled the fuel pump and headed down the trail.
Gotta have the blade picture, right?
I just recently picked up this Husqvarna hatchet. Some people have posted that they are made by Wetterlings. Mine is stamped HB for Hultafors Bruks. It came very nicely profiled but with a secondary bevel, so I took it to a full convex and stopped just at shaving sharp. It's not hair popping sharp, but it will shave. Also, mine is not bearded like the ones made by Wetterlings. It has more of an American style head than a Swedish or German style. It balances perfectly, has a good size to weight ratio, throws great chips and was dirt cheap. The sheath is garbage though.
That log was my seat for the night while I cooked boiled water for supper and enjoyed a pipe. I set up my tent rain fly using just my hiking poles, but unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of it...
We've had a ton of rain in the previous two days. If you look closely, you can see it puddle around my shoes.
I used a piece of rotten log to start my fire on top of. Little bit of fatwood, some jute and a few clicks of flint and steel yielded a nice fire that quickly prepared my water and kept me toasty. Here's the remains. None of the nighttime shots came out very well.
Saw these interesting bumps on my sitting log.
At first I thought they were some kind of mold or fungus....
Nope! That's pine sap!
A few tentative chops later...ladies and gentlemen, we have fatwood
This log is perhaps 35 feet long and mostly solid fatwood. I couldn't resist myself and decided to harvest some. I chopped two V's about 18 inches apart on the top of the log. Then using my hatchet and a baton, I came in from the side of one V and batonned over to the other.
Waste not - want not. I snagged two nice size pieces of fatwood and all of the chips from the two V's.
on to part 2
Gotta have the blade picture, right?
I just recently picked up this Husqvarna hatchet. Some people have posted that they are made by Wetterlings. Mine is stamped HB for Hultafors Bruks. It came very nicely profiled but with a secondary bevel, so I took it to a full convex and stopped just at shaving sharp. It's not hair popping sharp, but it will shave. Also, mine is not bearded like the ones made by Wetterlings. It has more of an American style head than a Swedish or German style. It balances perfectly, has a good size to weight ratio, throws great chips and was dirt cheap. The sheath is garbage though.
That log was my seat for the night while I cooked boiled water for supper and enjoyed a pipe. I set up my tent rain fly using just my hiking poles, but unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of it...
We've had a ton of rain in the previous two days. If you look closely, you can see it puddle around my shoes.
I used a piece of rotten log to start my fire on top of. Little bit of fatwood, some jute and a few clicks of flint and steel yielded a nice fire that quickly prepared my water and kept me toasty. Here's the remains. None of the nighttime shots came out very well.
Saw these interesting bumps on my sitting log.
At first I thought they were some kind of mold or fungus....
Nope! That's pine sap!
A few tentative chops later...ladies and gentlemen, we have fatwood
This log is perhaps 35 feet long and mostly solid fatwood. I couldn't resist myself and decided to harvest some. I chopped two V's about 18 inches apart on the top of the log. Then using my hatchet and a baton, I came in from the side of one V and batonned over to the other.
Waste not - want not. I snagged two nice size pieces of fatwood and all of the chips from the two V's.
on to part 2
)
