- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
I thought I might be able to miss the rain this morning, but it started spitting just as I hit the trail. Still, the overcast day and wet vegetation give incredibly lush visuals that are superb for picture taking if you can keep your camera a bit protected.
I immediately came across my buddy Joe's bowdrill kit from Thursday night. He was alone working the kit and testing out his knew Turley Knife - the Gasconade River knife and posted a review of that knife elsewhere. I recognized the spot he was doing his testing on and found his kit lying there on the log. Its a quite little place in the prairie we often both visit together and alone. I thought about making a fire with his kit, but given the moisture in the air and touch of wetness from the rain, figured I would go a little more modern. I left his kit as is.
Knife pictured above is my Bryan Breeden Cub in green micarta designed by Bearthedog. Its a nice bushy blade that was formerly owned by JeffH who reprofiled it to an aggressively thin edge. Then owned by Spookey, then by Mtnfolk Mike. Its seen a lot of hands! Whenever I take it out with me as I did today, I think that I should be using it more often. I did mode it a bit by taking my dremel to the micarta ends (at the blade edge) and ramping them down a bit. Not really much I could suggest to improve upon this one. Its just an amazing EDC with just enough blade length to keep you confident about bigger bushy tasks.
I don't know if Joe found these cherries he was asking me about or not, but I took a photo of them below. I'm assuming Joe didn't leave the berry scat either. Somebody had a feast. We don't have bears here so I'm guessing its a racoon although he would have been climbing some pretty spindly trees to get his cherries.
Amidst the wet goldenrod was a sun-dried downed piece of cottonwood as is very common around these parts. I figured this was perfect for my one stick fire. Easily breakable as it was about 2 thumbs width letting me do all the processing with my knife.
The rain began to patter a little more now, so I headed to a large oak tree for a bit of cover while I did my fire practice. Joe will immediately recognize the tree as a landmark.
Used a bark platform. You can see my legs are drenched already. Thankfully, its rather hot and getting cold isn't an issue.
Split up that cottonwood into kindly sized pieces. I didn't really get all that careful with my fuzz sticks. First, I don't find you need as thin a curl as people seem to suggest for lighting using a firesteel. Second, its raining and I want to get my fire going not demonstrate pretty carving methods.
I was using a cheap China firesteel. It works well enough for me! I prefer the method that IAWoodsman and RangerJoe uses for sparking. I hold the tinder down with the end of the rod and spark with the spine of my knife. Joe is often careful, he sort of scrapes in a staccato fashion like he wants to witness each spark catching into flame. I use a gorilla technique and just scrape the crap out of the firesteel until I see a strong flame formed. Yeah, it wears out the rod faster. Thats why I have so many cheap China firesteels
I immediately came across my buddy Joe's bowdrill kit from Thursday night. He was alone working the kit and testing out his knew Turley Knife - the Gasconade River knife and posted a review of that knife elsewhere. I recognized the spot he was doing his testing on and found his kit lying there on the log. Its a quite little place in the prairie we often both visit together and alone. I thought about making a fire with his kit, but given the moisture in the air and touch of wetness from the rain, figured I would go a little more modern. I left his kit as is.
Knife pictured above is my Bryan Breeden Cub in green micarta designed by Bearthedog. Its a nice bushy blade that was formerly owned by JeffH who reprofiled it to an aggressively thin edge. Then owned by Spookey, then by Mtnfolk Mike. Its seen a lot of hands! Whenever I take it out with me as I did today, I think that I should be using it more often. I did mode it a bit by taking my dremel to the micarta ends (at the blade edge) and ramping them down a bit. Not really much I could suggest to improve upon this one. Its just an amazing EDC with just enough blade length to keep you confident about bigger bushy tasks.
I don't know if Joe found these cherries he was asking me about or not, but I took a photo of them below. I'm assuming Joe didn't leave the berry scat either. Somebody had a feast. We don't have bears here so I'm guessing its a racoon although he would have been climbing some pretty spindly trees to get his cherries.
Amidst the wet goldenrod was a sun-dried downed piece of cottonwood as is very common around these parts. I figured this was perfect for my one stick fire. Easily breakable as it was about 2 thumbs width letting me do all the processing with my knife.
The rain began to patter a little more now, so I headed to a large oak tree for a bit of cover while I did my fire practice. Joe will immediately recognize the tree as a landmark.
Used a bark platform. You can see my legs are drenched already. Thankfully, its rather hot and getting cold isn't an issue.
Split up that cottonwood into kindly sized pieces. I didn't really get all that careful with my fuzz sticks. First, I don't find you need as thin a curl as people seem to suggest for lighting using a firesteel. Second, its raining and I want to get my fire going not demonstrate pretty carving methods.
I was using a cheap China firesteel. It works well enough for me! I prefer the method that IAWoodsman and RangerJoe uses for sparking. I hold the tinder down with the end of the rod and spark with the spine of my knife. Joe is often careful, he sort of scrapes in a staccato fashion like he wants to witness each spark catching into flame. I use a gorilla technique and just scrape the crap out of the firesteel until I see a strong flame formed. Yeah, it wears out the rod faster. Thats why I have so many cheap China firesteels
That's not Elderberry. Elderberry has compound leaves. That is either Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) or Guelder Rose (V. opulus) I need a magnifying glass to tell the difference.
