Fatwood Hunt Failure

Recently I have been on the hunt for fatwood but after several failed attempt I messaged Mike from MCQBushcraft and ask for any advice, Mike kindly went out and filmed a video for his YouTube channel MCQBushcraft.

This weekend I went with his advise in my head down to a local woods and found a down tree. I was unable to ID the tree as I had gone out without my book.

The first two branches I cut had all the signs I had been looking for, so I went ahead of split the branch into quarter and used the back of my blade to scrap the wood into fine shavings. 

When attempting to you light the shavings it would not take and after several minutes of trying I attempted to use a lighter, failing with the lighter lead me to believe I did not have the fatwood that I had thought and rather the branch was damp due to the rain in the week. 

The hunt continues. 

Night Out : Crafter Fisherman and the Hillbilly

My brother (Bevan), mate (Dave) and I made plans to get out into the woods for the night, so we planned to meet up and head into the woods for 2 pm, but due to some delays we never made it in until gone 4 pm meaning we had to set-up in the fading light. 

This is where practice makes perfect and I was able to set-up for the night with relative ease, thankfully the weather held up we all got our shelter up in the dry. 

Once settled we started gathering firewood for the night, it had been raining on and off for most of the week so pretty much everything was wet.  Once we had gathered what we required for the night and some dry tinder I started the fire using some potassium permanganate and glycerine.

The ground was soaking and Dave had soaked his boots though and we had the pleasure of him carefully  drying them over the fire.

The night was pretty warm, so the fire was kept a nice manageable size, enough to cook our dinners and keep us warm.

From about midnight it rained pretty much none stop until 6am, but we all reamained dry under the fantastic DD tarps.

Bev under DD XL tarp

Dave under DD 3x3 Tarp

My DD Superligth Tarp

We had driven into the woods in Bevan's truck, to get to our camp site, thankfully this meant we did not need to walk out in the now even more soaked ground.

We all had to leave early due to family commitments, so once packed up we cleared up the site to leave no trace.

Another good night out with family and friends and already can not wait to get out again.

Night Out : Noahs First Night Under Tarp

Once again Noah and myself attended the September meet at White Rose woods near Towcester with plans for it to be Noah's first night under tarp (the Vango Banshee 300 went along in the car in case Noah felt uncomfortable without the security of being in a tent)

I set up the tarp in a flying diamond configuration close to the communal fire pit, this way I would be close enough to hear him if there were any issues. 

Alex managed to get two rabbits during the day and demo his method for preparing the rabbit for the stew.  Noah watched with interest on what was happening, however he did not want to try the stew later.

I took the bow along with me for some practice and set up a target a safe distance away, after a while I was getting some nice clusters.

Anyone who wanted to have a go on the bow did, however not every one listened to instruction and preferred to come up with their own method of firing the bow.

Around the camp

Bunny Stew

Though out the day I spent time with Noah under our tarp and he seemed pretty comfortable with the idea of sleeping under the tarp.  We sat around the campfire for most of the night and Noah soon started to fall asleep after some hot chocolate.

Noah got into his sleeping bag and soon feel off to sleep.

Throughout the evening I checked on Noah several times, placing him back on to his sleeping mat after rolling off.

In the morning we both woke up early, Noah had a great nights sleep and woke up happy, especially when we were visited by one of the fellow campers dog.

Its moments like this where I really want a bushdog for myself. 

It was a very successful night out in the woods and Noah enjoyed his time in the woods.  Now we are both looking forward to the next night out. 

Kit : Bushcraft Fire Kit

Fire lighting has been one of my favourite skill to learn in bushcrafting. To me fire lighting comes in to different forms, firstly being the no fuss fire or sure fire and for this I carry a lighter and some home-made tinder tabs (made from rolled up make-up removal pads wrapped in cotton to hold its shape and dipped into wax to waterproof them)

These tabs can be cut open to reveal some of the cotton material and the wax acts as a flame extender. If I want a fire without any fuss this is what I use to get it going.  These tabs can be ignited by a lighter or a ferro rod and burn for about five minutes. 

The second form of fire lighting is using traditional methods, when I have more time to relax and can take time to start a fire I enjoy using a flint and steel striker kit. 

The kit contains the striker and flint along with a tin of char cloth and some coal extenders (birch  polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) and cramp balls/King Alfred's Cake (Daldinia concentrica) When out in the woods I collect material to make a tinder bundle to ignite into flame. If the materials are damp I attempted to dry these by storing them in my pockets, hopefully by the time I will need them they will be dry.  Failing the natural tinder bundle the kit also contains a small amount of jute twine to make a tinder bundle.

Fire by friction is another method of fire lighting that is practised but I rarely use this method to get a fire going. I find this a great skill to have so I attempt to  get a flame by friction a few times a year. Currently my fire kit contains some cordage for the bow, however my aim is to successfully start a fire using some natural cordage made when in the woods. 

I also carry a lens to allow fire by sunlight, rarely used but nice to have. the lens is stored in some rubber inner tube which give me another method of surefire with the lighter.

When out in the woods I always have a second lighter and a ferro rod on my personal.

Kit Contents

Pouch - Maxpedition M-2 Waistpack

Outside Pocket Contents

• Small tin (contents : Wax covered cotton tinder tabs)
• Lighter

Inner Pocket Contents

• Birch bark
• Lens
• Large tin (contents : flint and steel striker, charcloth in small tin, jute twine, slow match, birch polypore, crampballs)
• Small ferro rod

Tool : Crook Knife

Whilst attending the CLA Game Fair at Blenheim Palace I purchased a Lauri Hook Blade from English Handmade Knives stall, I had wanted to try my hand at handling a stick tang blade for a while.

The gentleman at the stall gave me some tips on how best to go about handling the blade as well as a helpful fact-sheet.

The Lauri Hook Blade dimensions are 60x18 mm

The first job was to cut down the stick tang to the required length and then file down the brass bolster to fit the blade.

For the handle I used a piece of Sycamore, after squaring the end off I marked out where the stick tang would go.

Using the drill press I removed most of the required material, after that it was a simple matter of filling out the fit the profile of the blade.

Once the blade was fitting nicely I marked out the handle shape.

Clamping the handle into a vice I cut the handle to shape, from here I sanded the handle to the shape I wanted.

At this point I used some epoxy resin to set the blade in the handle, once set I did a final sanded down until smooth and fitted nicely in my hand.

Night Out : First Night Out At The New Permission

After several years of trying to get a local permission for overnighters and general bushcraft activities it has finally happened.

Recently my brothers friend Dave has started joining us out camping, over a camp fire chat he mentioned he does some work for a guy who has some woodland. After a few phone calls we  got permission to use the woodland for what ever we wanted to do.

Turns out the guy owns 5 acres, but he wanted to confirm with another guy who owns the rest of the woods that it would be OK for use to be in the woods.

This week we got the green light.

Originally I was on a ban from nights out as my daughter was born only a few weeks ago, but with a bit of smooth talking SWMBO gave me the second green light of the week.

So 30 minutes later my brother Bev, Dave and myself were heading out to the woods.

Soon the tarps started to going up

Mine

Dave

As it was a late start to the day it soon became dark and dinner was cooked and eaten.

Firewood was plentiful, bearly having to move to get some.

For the rest of the night was camp fire TV and campfire discussion

The guys started some late night carving, I warned them to keep they eyes on their fingers as I left them too it, being a second time dad I was already tired.

6am I was up

And found my brother just about in his hammock (after feeling a bit restricted he made a late night adjustment)

I thought I better get back to my baby girl and mommy so packed up early and headed home, with strict instructions on how to deal with the remains of the fire.

Back to the cars (on a short walk due to getting to the woods late it didn't give much time to explore)

And I headed out

Stopping at Costa to get some croissant for SWMBO as a breakfast her letting me out on early parole for good behaviour.