Bushcraft or re-enactment

[Broch]

So is there a difference between Camping and Bushcraft?

In my oppinion yes, very definitely.

Camping is actually doing something - you are away from a home (as we know it in the UK anyway), living under some form of temporary shelter etc.

Bushcraft (or backwoodsmanship) is a set of tools (knowledge) that allows you to live away from 'Western' standards of civilisation but also to carry out tasks in a simple but effective way. So you apply bushcraft when you are camping but you could apply it when you are walking the dog, digging the veg patch, or even in the office! The better you are at applying that knowledge in the outdoors the more comfortable you will be.

As to the need for expensive gear - well clearly our forefathers were better at this without it than we are with it so it's not necessary. But owning gear isn't bushcarft; using it properly and effectively is.

Just my twopence worth!

Cheers,

Broch

 

[Hoodoo]

Well, it's like I've always said, we really do need to set up the Bushcraft Police and a set of rules to go along with 'em so everyone will know the proper way to behave. Now, who wants to be sheriff?

 

[Dingus Magee]

Hmmmmm - see the light......explain "the light".... are you talking Fenix or pine tar flambeaux here?
How much does a wool blanket cloak/poncho cost compared to a down jacket?
or a hobo stove compared to a ...whatever the "latest and best" stove is?
Street fashion shirts and trousers boast a nillion and one pockets, as do many trekking shirts and trousers...
Are you advocating titanium cookwear over cast iron? - I know what I prefer to cook in for best results (and versitility)
And for those past their active prime, what is wrong with camping only a short way from transport?
As to "re-enactment" surely Bushcraft is an "enactment" - of the life one wants to live for many....if only the morgage/kids/job etc did not get in the way.
Bushcraft is a very broad church, which can accomodate many tastes from "survivalist" to family camper, "wannabe Rambo" to "tree hugger", modern day Celtic warrior to Hi Tech Hero, forager to instant mash man - and all points in between!
It all comes down to enjoying the outdoors in whareverway you are comfortable in, hopefully in a non destructive, peacable manner, accepting that no two people are identical and have their own dreams.

Well said John...thats just what I would have said myself; would that I could write with such eloquence. I guess that what you're saying is that the 'woods/hill/outdoors' are all things to all people...let them enjoy it as they wish without spoiling it for others.

Materialism and marketing will have their way though, and I frequently have to convince myself that I don't REALLY need the latest..blade, pack, stove, car, mountain bike, item of clothing...whatever it is that is flaunted as being the one thing that will make me 'happy' in my life.

 

[British Red]

Well, it's like I've always said, we really do need to set up the Bushcraft Police and a set of rules to go along with 'em so everyone will know the proper way to behave. Now, who wants to be sheriff?

I nominate firecrest!

Last time someone shouted "draw" she was certainly the best

Red

 

[Toddy]

She don't miss when she targets either

cheers,
M

 

[Wayland]

 

[BOD]

...
Trust me on this, the Bushcrafters wear theirs all year long. Re-enactors ... only wear theirs for events.

Toddy

Omigod. I've now seen the light. My outdoor clothes and kit are the real thing.

The last remaining suit and the few ties in the closet are for re-enacting the old days when I was a wage slave going to an office every day and which I put on when I go to some company to help them plan an event to spend some of their CSR budget on the environment.

 

[firecrest]

heheh

 

[Indoorsout]

I DID IT!
I tottally derailed on pointless argument with an even more pointless one - that has also been done to death in previous threads!!!!!!
Do I get a special award?
A tin of Spam or a plastic troll seem aplicable......

You know, I've half a mind (at least that's what they tell me ) to make myself a wooden spork after all the fuss sporks get. Never be able to buy a Ti one after all!

You know, I'm not even a backyard bushcrafter, I'm a bedroom bushcrafter. In a bedsit I don't have the luxury of my own garden. I've not even managed to get out on one trip. Mainly due to money, partly due to transport. Do you know how long it takes to get anywhere decent by bus? Virtually all my kit is secondhand, swapped on here, in a sale when I got it or homemade.

I do intend to get out there one day, and with luck I'll be able to find someone who will be able to stop laughing long enough to show me how to do a little more than set up my £8-in-the-sale tent and secondhand el cheapo sleeping bag. I've never even made a cooking fire let alone cooked on it! I've carved my first spoons, started on something resembling a kuksa and done no end of leatherwork and to be honest that is something I love. Making things for myself is more my hobby than bushcraft, at least until I manage to get out there and try a few of the things I've learnt on here

 

[helixpteron]

 

[Minotaur]

This is the what is bushcraft arguement again, in another form.

Ok, the question is Bushcraft or re-enactment?

Bushcraft, should this not be a poll?

I have spent a lot of my life gaining, and want to spend a lot more time practicing, a series of skills, that until they need them no one else is interested in.

There are lots of skills dying out that people want, but for lots of reasons, no one is learning them anymore.

History is interesting, but I do not find one part of history, compleing enough to re-enact it. Also I would get in lots of trouble, I can just about work in 7 to 13 zones, so would end up knocking someone out, with a 13, which would be cheating. I am tempted to see if there is a Spartan group in the UK, that might be fun.

The gear heads are in trouble, and you have to feel sorry for them a little. They used to spend their time laughing at the unprepared, but now there are a new group, the knowledgable. These people have been around but they used to be on the fringe of one of the outdoor groups. Now we have the situation, were they are their own group. The thinkers, people willing to go, why wear what they wear, if I pay my money to someone else, I get something better, that lasts longer.

 

[Soloman]

Sorry but this all is a bit ott for me,its what you want from it.some of us will never be able to hike to a pristine loch or wonderfull woodland enviroment.
However if being a member here gives you a buzz then so be it thats cool.
Ive only in the last few years been able to buy a caonoe and a good gun so i can understand the frustrations of our new members,it will come in time.
soloman

 

[charadeur]

I won't defend bushcraft because that just seems to lend credibility to the troll. But the discussion of consumerism is worthwhile. Not because those folks are not real buscrafters but because they need to realize that the psychology of marketing is getting them to unnecessarily buy products they don't need and won't use. Everything we buy contributes to pollution and depletion of natural resources. No need to do it unnecessary.

I am a tree huger. So I am very anti consumerism. My philosophy is to buy durable kit and locally produced if possible. However that does not mean brand name stuff is bad. I have found some brand name kit that so outlast the cheap counter parts that it makes the brand name the best value.

 

[Tadpole]

As a person who doesn’t do Bushcraft, I’m amazed that most replies seem as if you’ve been caught doing something ‘wrong’ and are seeking to excuse yourself. I don’t feel guilty about my hobby. I’m happy to cook using the Dutch at home and just as happy to brew up using my hobo in a car park in Welsh Wales.
Having not done anything wrong I’ve got no reason to apologise for it.
It’s my hobby and if’n you don’t like it, that’s your problem not mine

 

[John Fenna]

I am afraid I do have to apologise - not for my hobby (bushcraft) but for my work, which is as a paid gear reviewer in a couple of mags.
It would seem that by testing the good stuff, and praising it, I am contributing to the "uniform" apearance of the outdoors fraternity - sorry!
Also by writing my book on making your own budget bushcrafting gear I have promoted the "uniform" again!
Darn - this hobby is a mine field!
Al these people using and making practical kit in the woods - it makes you dispair at times......
Ah well - as long as they dont use titanium sporks it cant be all bad .....I hope!

 

[Humpback]

Can we have a poll?

(Just to make this an official circular argument)

 

[durulz]

An interesting question. Like many, I essentially see where this has come from, but am a little dumbfounded as to why anyone would let it bother them.
To be honest, it tells me more about the questioner than the subject. Bit of insecurity or jealousy, perhaps?
If you find people who have to show off all the latest kit to be tiresome then...well, don't go near them. Leave them to their thing and you get on with yours.
Do you get annoyed with people driving the latest BMW? People who live in a big posh house? People who wear designer labels?
I presume not.
Instead you probably ignore then and humbly get on with your own life.
If you waste your time comparing yourself to others you end up either vain or bitter.

 

[locum76]

I propose an international federation of bushcraft. there shall be olympic standard competitions like:

1) build and light a fire by friction an then boil a crusader mug full of water

2) speed spoon carving

3) knife sharpening

Non-compliance with the rules of the federation renders you an amateur and you shall be banished from the woods and forced to camp in the middle of roundabouts. wearing of the bushcraft uniform shall be mandatory.

Further ideas for competions welcome.

Rob

 

[Prawnster]

To be honest, it tells me more about the questioner than the subject. Bit of insecurity or jealousy, perhaps?
/

I was thinking that. It could be a lack of tolerance as well. An inability to accept that other people think and act differently to him. Because of this he has a negative attitude to those that engage in a hobby in a way that is different to how he goes about it.
Why is he worried about what others do or don't do?
Why can't he be happy to practice his hobby in the way that he wants to?
If he 'doesn't know about this bushcraft thing' anymore why does he carry on? More to the point why does he bother posting about it?

To put the shoe on my foot though, maybe I should accept that there will always be people like him and just ignore his threads from now on

 

[John Fenna]

To put the shoe on my foot though, maybe I should accept that there will always be people like him and just ignore his threads from now on

"Judge not, lest ye be judged"

Or have I just committed the sin of bringing in religion?

Oh well - got to go now...into the woods then down town to search out leather, stainless cans, wood oil and "useful bits" for yet more DIY bushyness.
Naturally I will be wearing my Fjallraven Trousers, Ventile Smock, Possibles Pouch and Tilley hat and toting an Olive green daysac, containing a FAK, SAK and Survival Tin plus a small torch (so I can see the light...)......comfy and practical for shopping and playing in the woods