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Best not to use clay because an axe head is a big chunk of metal and heated enough to burn out a handle, will dry out the layer of clay near to the metal. Adding water to the outer layer of clay will not penetrate to that near metal due to lack of permeability of clay. Some clays are good...

So my friend Steve went up into the mountains in Colorado with some newly handled axes to try and this was the result of having improperly seasoned wood in freezing conditions. It does illustrate just how easily hickory splits for those who haven't tried spitting any: The eye in an axe head is...

Hickory and ash are both straight grained easily split woods. so tapping a knife into the back of the broken handle will open splits into which wooden wedges can be driven to bend and break excess wood at the eye. It's trivial! Once the handle material left is same width as eye, simple tap...

I've always had much more fun when outdoors with grand-kids, so hopefully this becomes regular fun for you!

You need to keep the mix cooler or not add too much corn sugar to strengthen the brew.. Think how much fun your billion pets are having though!

That should be an interesting knife to practice sharpening with, due to the re-curved edge. I think it would be worth the effort to put it into shape then use it for some regular tasks, from peeling potatoes to working with wood. I don't believe the knife will become worthwhile, but what you...

I'd say that's my best answer, too - no matter how "bushcraft" is defined. I've been retired for some years and so my life now centers around whatever I choose as hobbies. I guess there is the point that I only get to collect my wonderful pensions and spoil the great grand-kids so long as I...

Wow, impressive!

Flying squirrels - but they're nocturnal and I've only seen ones which were trapped. Even porcupine will be up in the cut areas where food is more plentiful. All the various weasels will be passing through, but not so easily trapped. Many river otters choose a life in the ocean, but they come...

Sorry about that - I've been over here so long that now I only associate the tree (Tsuga) with the name hemlock. I don't think I'd ever bother trying conifer cambium unless in a survival situation like that, and I've drunk tea made from devil's club root scrapings in the spring. That's not a...

Great link! I enjoy sea peas, but they are pretty sparse on the W coast. I haven't seen any giant horsetails on the coast. Shore pine tend to be small and infrequent, but so far have evaded the pine beetle where I live. Alan ate hemlock cambium, but it's not efficient to gather in fall...

I was very happy with the last show and outcome! It was good that Sam made the choice to leave, as I found his lack of focus could have led to issues.

I believe the object of the show was to have everything wrapped in a couple of months, and so the timing. I guess care was taken not to drop them off on a clamming beach either. There are lots of places with few bivalves, or just as important, they are only available at low tide, which some of...

I'm figuring an October start and so now they are well into November. Lots of deciduous leaves around on bushes when they started, nothing now. That's the problem in that all of the plentiful food sources of summer are gone. Berries all done, salmon runs are over, so only by luck did they get a...

Our big one was last February - just over a metre in 24 hours but 170 cm total. The problem with measuring snowfall on the coast is that the snow is so wet and heavy, it packs down as it accumulates, so probably more fell than was measured. We had a power outage at the same time for days...

And any sensible person not having a good reason to be there would be wondering exactly what the fastest way out is! The hard core hikers who do the WCT other than in summer want the spectacular scenery during storms, but they have food, high tech tents and clothing - and they want to cover...

So far as I know no-one has ever stayed on a beach going hungry before, except the Wortman family after their boat sank. There's the book, "Almost Too Late" by Elmo Wortman and a neat Ray Mears show about the family's ordeal. Anyway while there are lots of ideas about how people with...

Same here: I much prefer the original handle design. As improbable as it looks, it was designed after a lot of input from trappers, and I don't see how it could be improved for use in processing small game, fur-bearers or skinning out heads for trophies where hand position is so varied. Even...

I have a few variants of this design, even a Mora copy from years back. Unfortunately the latter is laminated and so quite thick/heavy. I made the GR up from kits which included everything needed to handle the blade and set up the sheath. The knife has superb ergonomics and is incredibly well...

No, I was interested to see what I'd missed in terms of fire. "I must have missed stuff. Could you point me to the show and time, please? I saw no evidence of fire.". Lack of fire is a huge consideration if half the contestants failed due to lack of being able to start a fire. If that wasn't the...