spitewinter october 2010

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shaggystu

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2003
4,345
33
Derbyshire
Eyup, I’ve just booked spitewinter campsite for 21st-25th of October (that’s right, four whole nights!) and of course you’re all invited.

Please take the time to read this post, by adding your name to the list you are confirming that you’ve read, understood, and agreed to the following.

edit:

we may be sharing the site with a group of explorer scouts. they're visiting on the thursday night to have a look at some of our set ups, and camping on the saturday night. i don't see that this will cause us any problems, i just thought you should be aware.

This is a child friendly site and your youngsters are welcome – unfortunately dogs aren’t.

Firearms (including air rifles, bows, catapults and anything else that fires a projectile) are prohibited at all times. If you turn up on site with any of the aforementioned you will be asked to leave.

Site fees are a measley £2.50 per person per night - but, with it being four nights this time they'll mount up, so can you please try and pay me as soon as possible, thanks.

There are good toilet facilities including showers, the showers take a token (50pence for about three minutes iirc) ask me for tokens if you want some.

Following on from the leave no trace thread and to try to pre-empt possible problems:

Forum members are responsible for themselves, the kit they use and their own actions at a Meet – if you bring along family (or a friend) then you also accept responsibility for them and their actions whilst they are on site.

Forum members under the age of 18 are welcome. However, they must be accompanied by at least one parent (or legal guardian).

You brought it in, you take it out – camping fees do not include a rubbish collection fee! The sites bins are the wheelie bins by the main entrance.

Fees must be paid. It’s rare, but sometimes people forget.

Responsible drinking of alcohol is ok – drugs are prohibited!

‘Appropriate’ behaviour: The site can, at any time, decline a booking – they can also ask* us (individually or wholly) to leave during the Meet. Be aware that the sight is surrounded by private farmland the owners of which are very aware of what’s happening on the campsite (there have been problems in the past with site users trespassing/vandalising farm land/buildings) and who do report back to the site owners regularly.

* i.e. Tell. The site is registered as educational land, there is neither a choice nor an ability to negotiate. Fees would still be owed!

Dropping kit off/parking – vehicular access is limited to a small car park by the entrance to the site – so you can’t pull right up to your pitch. Fortunately the site is only small so even if you wanted to pitch in the furthest corners from the car park you’d still only have 100yards at most to carry your kit. If anyone has concerns regarding the security of their vehicles I’m pretty sure that an arrangement could be made to lock the main gate overnight.

Fires – ground fires are not allowed – plain and simple, anyone found to be lighting ground fires will be asked to leave the site immediately. There are approximately 20 specific fire areas with raised concrete plinths spread around the site, these can be used for cooking fires, there is also a campfire circle in an amphitheatre kind of area,No cooking is allowed in the campfire circle. Some firewood is provided by the site but quantity and quality of wood is very variable (more than we could possibly use the first meet, none at all the second, loads again last time, sorry Ged), bringing your own fuel is a good idea.



Food - Unless organised prior to the Meet, you need to bring enough food to feed yourself while you are at the Meet.
Accidents do happen and people will try to help out where they can - If you are visiting someone elses pitch do not expect to be fed.

Use the appropriate tools at the appropriate times - mixing axes and low light levels is not a particularly wise move – chainsaws are prohibited at all times.

It would be wise to be carrying a torch before it gets dark! It could also be provident to put markers on your shelter so you can find it in the dark.

The site is suitable for using tents, hammocks and bivvies - use what you have and are comfortable using.

If you stick your name down and can no longer make it, please say so.

In the highly unlikely event that I need this ... I reserve the right to stop any individual(s) from attending a Meet.

Old hands

The Old hands are there to help me make sure that our reputation with Spitewinter remains as high as it is now - In effect the Old Hands will be Meet Mods.

It's fine if you want to:

be on your own
lay on your back looking at the sky, clouds, birds flying over etc.
whittle
practice 'stuff' - except tree felling; the site has strong opinions about that
practice flora and fauna i.d
so on and so forth ...

This is, in no way, a bushcraft course and it's for you to make of it what you will


Cheers

Stuart
 
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shaggystu

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2003
4,345
33
Derbyshire
meet list:

shaggystu (probably +1)
Elines
Cliv
dave53 (tbc)

we really should try and think of some projects for this one, we could achieve wonders with three whole days to spare.
i have an idea of a project i'd love to try but i want to see if it's feasible before i tell you what it is.
anyway, any ideas?

cheers

stuart
 

TinkyPete

Full Member
Sep 4, 2009
1,966
191
uk mainly in the Midlands though
meet list:

shaggystu (probably +1)
Elines
Cliv
dave53 (tbc)
tinkypete (TBC)


I hope I can make this on or at least part of it. I may be on a course during it, but get the weekends off hopefully and the course is back in the midlands so not as far to travel :)
 

Elines

Full Member
Oct 4, 2008
1,590
1
Leicestershire
we really should try and think of some projects for this one, we could achieve wonders with three whole days to spare.
i have an idea of a project i'd love to try but i want to see if it's feasible before i tell you what it is.
anyway, any ideas?

cheers

stuart

Not exactly a project but I know I should be doing better when I sharpen my Mori knives so any help on that be muchly appreciated - I use (freehand) an oilstone (two sided - 'coarse' and 'fine') and oil, if that makes any difference.

More than willing to take part/help out in any project, but would like some free time
 
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PREPER

Settler
Dec 31, 2009
645
44
Notts
meet list:

shaggystu (probably +1)
Elines
Cliv
dave53 (tbc)
tinkypete (TBC)
PREPER


:) ..........
 

shaggystu

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2003
4,345
33
Derbyshire
Not exactly a project but I know I should be doing better when I sharpen my Mori knives so any help on that be muchly appreciated - I use (freehand) an oilstone (two sided - 'coarse' and 'fine') and oil, if that makes any difference.

More than willing to take part/help out in any project, but would like some free time

an afternoon's knife sharpening would be a great project, i've got loads of stones/files/wet'n'dry/strops etc. that i'll bring up, if other's could bring their sharpening systems too we should end up with a real good range, which would give most, if not all, of us a chance to try something new out. i can bring a couple of old knives and axe heads as well for people to "have a go" with.

cheers

stuart
 

Elines

Full Member
Oct 4, 2008
1,590
1
Leicestershire
........................... i've got loads of stones/files/wet'n'dry/strops etc. that i'll bring up, if other's could bring their sharpening systems too we should end up with a real good range, which would give most, if not all, of us a chance to try something new out. i can bring a couple of old knives and axe heads as well for people to "have a go" with.

That would be brillliant if it could go ahead- thanks Stu
 
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IntrepidStu

Settler
Apr 14, 2008
807
0
Manchester
Last time was fun, even though i was going through hard times....Im defo up for it again Stu..Nice one for organising it again matey.
Stu

shaggystu (probably +1)
Elines
Cliv
dave53 (tbc)
PREPER
IntrepidStu
 

ged

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 16, 2009
4,980
14
In the woods if possible.
shaggystu (probably +1)
Elines
Cliv
dave53 (tbc)
PREPER
IntrepidStu
Ged - hopefully - and if I make it I'll bring some of my sharpening things. :)
 

shaggystu

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2003
4,345
33
Derbyshire
Sorry guys definatelly not going to be able to make this one, got to be in a field somewhere getting rained on for work over the whole month :(

well next years provisional dates are up there in the "12 months special" thread, there's plenty of time for your boss to schedule around us! you'll be missed mate

Last time was fun, even though i was going through hard times....Im defo up for it again Stu..Nice one for organising it again matey.
Stu

glad you enjoyed last time mate, look forward to seeing you again.

Ged - hopefully - and if I make it I'll bring some of my sharpening things. :)

hope you can make it, i'll work out some sort of rota to keep you supervised and safe and away from petrol!
regarding the sharpening things, it'd be good if you could bring along some of your stuff because nothing of mine ever gets used on stainless (very rarely at least) and i'd guess that your kit does, every blade i've seen you with has been stainless anyway.

meet list:

shaggystu (probably +1)
Elines
Cliv
dave53 (tbc)
PREPER
IntrepidStu
Ged - hopefully

cheers

stuart
 

ged

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 16, 2009
4,980
14
In the woods if possible.
... i'll work out some sort of rota to keep [ged] supervised and safe and away from petrol!

You mean keep everybody else safe? :)

... regarding the sharpening things, it'd be good if you could bring along some of your stuff because nothing of mine ever gets used on stainless (very rarely at least) and i'd guess that your kit does, every blade i've seen you with has been stainless anyway.

When I'm camping I normally don't do anything which calls for a large blade, mostly I just use a multi-tool or two and a small (sometimes very small) folder. Yes, they're all stainless because unfortunately they're often wet, sometimes for quite a while. If I lived in Arizona it might be different.

I have quote a few non-stainless tools like chisels and planes (which never get wet), and a few old folders, machetes and axes (which do). They rarely venture far afield but they take some stick at home. I'll try to bring some examples of those along too, and the sharpening tools I use for them, if only so you can see how rusty and rough they are. :)
 

shaggystu

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2003
4,345
33
Derbyshire
If the knife-sharpening goes ahead maybe someone can tell us just what the recent addition to the site on knife-sharpening actually means:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/downloads/pdf/knifeshexps.pdf

I have skimmed it and got nowhere - or is it just me???

i got as far as electron microscope and then lost all interest so i guess it won't be me doing the explaining! i wouldn't worry too much though chris, i've just spoken to spitewinter and apparently their electron microscope is in for service that week anyway, so i guess we'll just have to rely on the old fasioned method of testing for sharpness and seeing whether or not we can cut stuff up!

cheers

stuart
 

ged

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 16, 2009
4,980
14
In the woods if possible.
If the knife-sharpening goes ahead maybe someone can tell us just what the recent addition to the site on knife-sharpening actually means ...

I'll be glad to. :)

I have skimmed it ...

Therein lies the problem. :(

... got nowhere - or is it just me???

No, you probably aren't the only one who skimmed it. :)

There's a lot of science involved in sharpening a blade. Physics is part of it, but how materials behave is a greater part. The edges of sharp things are microscopically sized. At the microscopic level, materials like steels behave very differently from what you might expect. This paper presents some useful insights into that.

The paper is semi-academic and semi-rigorous. The author was careful to do something that is very important in any published work of this nature, that is he explains what he did. Unfortunately the title of the paper and the first two paragraphs are grossly misleading (*), and to my mind the author doesn't fully explain why he did what he did until page 43, by which time (in part because his explanations of what he did, as opposed to why he did it, are fairly lengthy) the boredom threshold of many people will have been exceeded.

* Perhaps my use of the term "grossly misleading" wasn't exactly called for, but he talks about knife sharpening in the title and his first two paragraphs (page 2) and then in almost all the rest of the paper he talks about nothing but razor blades. If this sounds too negative, then on the positive side I'm fairly sure that his misleading of the reader is not intentional.

If you will permit me to make some horrendous oversimplifications in summing it up, the guy sharpened some fairly hard (RC60) stainless steel razor blades, and, once he'd sharpened them, he looked at them with a microscope and reported what he saw. He didn't cut anything with them at all.

This is a fascinating paper and there are lots of things to be learned from it. But before I tried to make use of any of those things I'd have to ask myself one question:

"Why am I doing this?"

For example the paper does not talk about the actual applications of the blades, nor their edge retention qualities. It looks at the "quality" of the edges entirely in an optical sense, in other words is what it looks like. As I'm a beard wearer, the blade sharpening angles used in the paper are well below anything that I might normally use. This doesn't mean that there's nothing in the paper of value to me, but it means that I need to be careful how I apply it. I don't know for example if a perfectly smooth edge is going to cut what I want to cut any "better" (whatever that means) than the comparatively rough old edges that I normally use, and I don't know if it will last any longer.
 

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