Recent content by fireman sam

You've lost me here a bit with this "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and "if I was you" talk. Christ alive, I only posted it for the ref to fire, thought it might instigate some interesting discussion. Won't bother next time.

Thought this might interest a few of you, apparently two indigenous cultures had zero ability to create fire and so had to rely on natural fire caused by lightning strikes which was then kept going. These were, supposedly, the Jarawa of the Andaman islands...

Hi Leo, I've been a training partner of Dale's for many a year now and you're right, he does make it look too easy. We both started to learn floating at the same time and it took me far longer than him to get it. As such, there are a few tricks I've learnt along the way that may be...

Hi all, I'm going to respectfully disagree with Walnut I.D. and go for Ash. If you zoom in (as I just have) on the third pic you can see the distinctive black buds. In the same pic the younger branches have the distinctive smooth greenish grey colour - also indicative of a young Ash branch...

I’m afraid I don’t quite follow your point. Some people out there have done all you’ve done ‘contact’ wise in your illustrious career, in addition to taking the time to make some videos. I just think there are some excellent vids out there and much can be learnt from them. And I, for one...

There are two types of people in the world - doers and critics. Those who are so critical of the standard of videos on YouTube should maybe get off their bums and upload some instructional vids of their own, if they have anything unique to offer that is, instead of criticising those who’ve...

I'd probably go for a very dried up Jew's ear. It's on an Elm tree, which although less common to find there than on an Elder, they do still grow there. Possibly effected in some way by the Dutch Elm Disease?

Absolutely love the post Randy, it’s top….notch! oh dear, I’ve waded into the notch debate. Oh well, here goes. In a perfect world it’s probably better to have a dead centre 1/8th notch hitting the bullseye, or just before it, but it’s really not necessary at all. If you know what...

For me personally, the biggest ‘innovation’ is the ‘floating hands’ technique for the hand drill. Whether this is a relatively new development or not I don’t know, but I have never seen a reference to it in ‘old’ bushcraft survival material, so I suspect...

A good friend of mine has been working on how to make a fire in the field on a rainy day using a hand drill. Not a pre seasoned hand drill but one prepared that instant out in the wet. Here's how he does it, on a wet wintry and blustery day in the Midlands...

A good friend of mine has been working on how to make a fire in the field on a rainy day using a hand drill. Not a pre seasoned hand drill but one prepared that instant out in the wet. Here's how he does it, on a wet wintry and blustery day in the Midlands...

Am I allowed to recommend my own book, Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Iranian-Rappers-Persian-Porn-Hitchhikers/dp/1602397910/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260093230&sr=8-1 It's an adventure travel book about my recent hitchhiking from Essex to and then around...

Don't worry about the mold, mine had this too, just get rid of the offending flowers, if that's what it's growing on, or get rid of it when you filter it through muslin or whatever else you're planning to use for this - I used a couple of t-shirts! Best of luck!

Just opened my first bottle and it was fantastic, although a tad sweet for my taste. I used the River Cottage recipe but halved the sugar (after reading the River Cottage forum comments that the quantity described on the web page contained a typo) and as mentioned, even then it was a little...

I'm not so sure that it's not a willow, in particular one of the sallow willows which have much broader leaves and don't look particularly like your more common varieties of willow. The grey sallow willow looks quite similar especially when young. Got some images of grey sallow willows...