- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
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So today, I found I had a couple of spare hours so I decided to hit the woods. A couple of weeks ago, my buddy Phil and I were down in the valley and found that a large Basswood (Tilea americana) tree had come down. Basswood is my all time favourite material for friction fire hearths and bow drill spindles so I decided to get me some because winter's a'comin', and it's a good time to tune up the hand drill and bow drill skills.
Noticed a little food on the way in - Rose hips, also high in Vitamin C. Rose stems can also make good arrow and atlatl material. (Sorry about the out of focus picture - shaky 66 year old hands
)
While it's good to have some kind of survival kit on you while out and about, it's also good to know natural substitutes in case you're caught short handed. Case in point - Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) thorns. They can easily double for sewing needles to repair torn clothing, packs, etc. Simply split the thorns up from the base about half way or so, spread the split, insert the thread ( or fibre substitute) squeeze the base together and sew.
(if you want to see how it's done, click here .)
Hawthorn also provides edible fruits, flowers and young leaves. Some West Coast Indians used Hawthorn spines for probing boils and skin ulcers and for piercing ears; fish hooks. Used the wood for digging sticks, clubs, axe handles, dipnet handles. Hawthorn has also been used medicinally in many different ways.
BTW, supposedly, eye scratches from thorns can cause blindness from a chemical in the thorns, even though the scratch itself may be rather superficial
At the base of the valley, runs this little creek, called Red Hill Creek, named such because of an abundance of red clay in the valley walls. I have made a little bit of pottery from the clay.
One project I have just finished was to make a baldric for my larger blades out of 550 ( as per Slatts Rescue Belt ). All together it contains about 100 feet of 550 and can be accessed quite quickly - it unravels like a daisy chain. I'm quite pleased with this belt and it's a great way to carry a quantity of 550.
A closer picture.
And, of course, the Becker Tac Tool
I brought the 3 today because it fits nicely in my carry bag (couple of inches shorter than my 4) not upsetting anybody I might run into, and also, because it batons like a champ, and what I wanted to do was to rough shape some hearths and drills. I couldn't get any batoning pictures because I was by myself.
Some of the material I gathered.
(continued below)
Noticed a little food on the way in - Rose hips, also high in Vitamin C. Rose stems can also make good arrow and atlatl material. (Sorry about the out of focus picture - shaky 66 year old hands
)
While it's good to have some kind of survival kit on you while out and about, it's also good to know natural substitutes in case you're caught short handed. Case in point - Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) thorns. They can easily double for sewing needles to repair torn clothing, packs, etc. Simply split the thorns up from the base about half way or so, spread the split, insert the thread ( or fibre substitute) squeeze the base together and sew.
(if you want to see how it's done, click here .)
Hawthorn also provides edible fruits, flowers and young leaves. Some West Coast Indians used Hawthorn spines for probing boils and skin ulcers and for piercing ears; fish hooks. Used the wood for digging sticks, clubs, axe handles, dipnet handles. Hawthorn has also been used medicinally in many different ways.
BTW, supposedly, eye scratches from thorns can cause blindness from a chemical in the thorns, even though the scratch itself may be rather superficial
At the base of the valley, runs this little creek, called Red Hill Creek, named such because of an abundance of red clay in the valley walls. I have made a little bit of pottery from the clay.
One project I have just finished was to make a baldric for my larger blades out of 550 ( as per Slatts Rescue Belt ). All together it contains about 100 feet of 550 and can be accessed quite quickly - it unravels like a daisy chain. I'm quite pleased with this belt and it's a great way to carry a quantity of 550.
A closer picture.
And, of course, the Becker Tac Tool
I brought the 3 today because it fits nicely in my carry bag (couple of inches shorter than my 4) not upsetting anybody I might run into, and also, because it batons like a champ, and what I wanted to do was to rough shape some hearths and drills. I couldn't get any batoning pictures because I was by myself.
Some of the material I gathered.
(continued below)
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. great pics and woods knowledge. I had a dendrology class in college. I still remember sneaking around dropping off notes of the genius and species at each tree for the test the next day. Basswood is great carving wood too. I used to know some native story about which woods are good for friction fire bass wood and willow some story something happened fire etc...great pics looks like a good hike.
) BTW, I would recommend keeping a log with dates, materials used, successes or lack of and any other relevant factors. Works much better than memory after awhile and can be a great reference.
