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These axes have had some good use for lopping small branches, clearing etc. They work well The Explorer Scouts made good use of these axes for making kindling and tinder with these axes recently. They thought that they looked good too.

I bought this S&J Neverblunt billhook on Ebay. Does anybody have any idea when it is likely to have been made? It was in reasonably good condition. There was a bit of pitting, but it is solid. There was still a bit of an edge on it. I gave it an initial rubbing down of the surface rust...

A little rubbing down, grinding off the lumps along the top, rust convertor, cold blueing, a few coats of Danish oil on the handle and sharpening the edge have improved the old billhook. The steel appears to be quite good quality. It is a Spear & Jackson Neverblunt. Unknown era.

Indeed. I have begun doing this.

This is how it was when I received it:

I bought an old one on Ebay to try. It has been delivered. I look forward to restoring it and trying it out.

At lunchtime yesterday I went for a walk that included a bit of woodland. It was raining so I took an umbrella. Walking under trees, even in the rain (I quite like it when dressed for it), was vastly more pleasant then just walking around an industrial area, as my colleagues do every lunchtime...

Starting work at 7am, in a windowless room, with a short lunch break (I make sure that I get outside) and finishing after 5pm means that I don't see a lot of daylight in winter. It's not great.

Merino is good, but it wears very quickly. A thin and a thick Wool jumper and a waxed jacket with a hood would be my choice. A pair of 5.11 ripstop cargo trousers. Non-membrane leather boots that can be re-soled. Aussie Leather bush hat and a wool beanie

It becomes more than a little academic

The Svord Peasant *Mini* is a great knife. Mine gets a lot of use. The full size one not very much.

Synthetics are good for some things. Having damaged various pairs with crampons etc. I do prefer canvas gaiters for resilience and ease of repair though.

Wool blanket bush shirts are great. I made one myself and use it.

You don't often. LEDs consume very little power at a useful light output. Maglites with bulbs ate batteries. Petzl headtorches with filament bulbs were rubbish compared with a modern LED One.

I made one as a DIY project. I really like it for the colder months.

It comes in very handy for all kinds of things.

A mountain guide in Corsica (a bit different to mainland France and they are big on guns and shooitng road signs) carried an Opinel No.12 (with locking ring) with a nice home-made juniper handle for chopping cheese bread, bread etc. Great knives, but the sort of thing that could be awkward to be...

A great find. I'll watch the rest of it later. I vaguely recall watching a TV programme with my Dad in the 1980s that had Lofty Wiseman teaching people survival skills. There must have been a bit of a fad for "survival" in the 1970/80s. My Dad has observed that in the 1960s many middle-aged...

Different skills are required for different eras. What is a shame is that there is a tendency towards requiring "specialists" (with certificates) to do everything. There is suspicion around the motives of people. Risk is often seen to be something to be removed entirely (often at great...

I have various hats. My favourite hat for summer is a Kakadu Traders Leather Australian bush hat. Leather is great. It is well worn in and stretched to fit snugly. It stays on in a breeze. It obviously keeps the sun off. It is comfortable even in hot weather when my head is sweating. I...