swonut
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2007
- Messages
- 1,425
This morning, I was out for a walk in the woods just South of Kansas City, KS with my little stubby-muk at my side. A fine example of the quality work that Fiddleback Forge puts out consistently. Easily riding in my pocket, it was available and handy to help me make it through the walk.
The area is called Camp Branch Glade and Im about 75% sure it is a reference to a camp that was on the Ft Leavenworth-Ft Scott Military Road back in the day. The map in the historical society paper definitely runs through the area. https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1978summer_robbins.pdf
MAP PHOTO
The area is a mix of hardwoods and prairie trees like cedar and osage. With the fall, the osage fruits are dropping and can be seen with their large brain-like outer skin.
Cutting into the horse apples as they can be called, shows the inner seeds. Here the stubby-muk gets all coated with a very sticky juice from the fruit.
Continuing along, I see a split branch and decide to craft a fuzz stick.
Knowing how hard and dense the wood is from working on my five-board bench project where Im trying to use butterfly joints to strengthen the osage seat board.
The Stubby worked like a champ and yes, osage is incredibly hard wood. Some say it is the hardwood with the highest BTU/lb in North America.
Putting away the fuzz stick, my attention turns to tender. Here, the cedar bark provides an easy bundle of fine fibers to catch a spark (no fires are allowed in these woods.)
From there, I spook a deer and a few big fat squirrels gorging themselves on the nuts. Mist would know what type of nuts these are, but for today, they must remain simply nuts.
Along with the simple nuts, I soon stumbled across a few simply mushrooms. If anyone knows what type they are, then shout out. I decided that they were best consumed in pictures to be viewed alongside my lunch at a later point.
Then, as I rounded the turn, I was confronted with a huge oak tree blocking the trail. With a creek to the left and a rock face to the right, I pulled the stubby-muk from the sheath and began to chop away. The stubby-muk sucks at chopping, and I figured it would take way too long to do a ring cut with a baton.
I decided to call off the chopping as I was about 1/3 of the way through this and it was super apparent that I needed to change tools or strategy.
So, I just used brute force and clawed my way through the branches.
After inspecting the hollow trunk, I continued on and saw this particularly good specimen of an Osage Orange tree.
So, weve made a fuzz stick, explored mushrooms, talked about nuts, batoned through a tree blocking the trail, used knowledge gained from making a five board bench, talked about Osage and probably a few other threads that Im forgetting. Anyhow, thanks for all you guys posting and sharing. It really all came together this morning as I had a little walk in the woods and thought about how Fiddleback Forge is so much more than just a well made knife.
The area is called Camp Branch Glade and Im about 75% sure it is a reference to a camp that was on the Ft Leavenworth-Ft Scott Military Road back in the day. The map in the historical society paper definitely runs through the area. https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1978summer_robbins.pdf
MAP PHOTO
The area is a mix of hardwoods and prairie trees like cedar and osage. With the fall, the osage fruits are dropping and can be seen with their large brain-like outer skin.
Cutting into the horse apples as they can be called, shows the inner seeds. Here the stubby-muk gets all coated with a very sticky juice from the fruit.
Continuing along, I see a split branch and decide to craft a fuzz stick.
Knowing how hard and dense the wood is from working on my five-board bench project where Im trying to use butterfly joints to strengthen the osage seat board.
The Stubby worked like a champ and yes, osage is incredibly hard wood. Some say it is the hardwood with the highest BTU/lb in North America.
Putting away the fuzz stick, my attention turns to tender. Here, the cedar bark provides an easy bundle of fine fibers to catch a spark (no fires are allowed in these woods.)
From there, I spook a deer and a few big fat squirrels gorging themselves on the nuts. Mist would know what type of nuts these are, but for today, they must remain simply nuts.
Along with the simple nuts, I soon stumbled across a few simply mushrooms. If anyone knows what type they are, then shout out. I decided that they were best consumed in pictures to be viewed alongside my lunch at a later point.
Then, as I rounded the turn, I was confronted with a huge oak tree blocking the trail. With a creek to the left and a rock face to the right, I pulled the stubby-muk from the sheath and began to chop away. The stubby-muk sucks at chopping, and I figured it would take way too long to do a ring cut with a baton.
I decided to call off the chopping as I was about 1/3 of the way through this and it was super apparent that I needed to change tools or strategy.
So, I just used brute force and clawed my way through the branches.
After inspecting the hollow trunk, I continued on and saw this particularly good specimen of an Osage Orange tree.
So, weve made a fuzz stick, explored mushrooms, talked about nuts, batoned through a tree blocking the trail, used knowledge gained from making a five board bench, talked about Osage and probably a few other threads that Im forgetting. Anyhow, thanks for all you guys posting and sharing. It really all came together this morning as I had a little walk in the woods and thought about how Fiddleback Forge is so much more than just a well made knife.
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