I guess most of you have read Gary´s signature "Back to Basics - bushcraft before brand names". This got me thinking what I did before I knew of the name bushcraft and all the books videos and special kit I did not know I needed.
I guess I started with bushcraft when I was only 5 or 6 years old. The older guys took me with them to the forest to build build shelters as we would call it today. We made some really good lean to´s and other shelters we even made a small village with 3-4 tipis once. Of course we were at war with other kids so we had to make spears, bows and arrows and other things. My father taught me how to make a bow wich wood to use and what to think of while making the bow. If I was to today, it would be a very complicated thing, becasue now I have read a lot on making bows. So instead of making that simple bow I once learned I start to complicate the whole thing
The only tool I had as a young boy was an mora knife, but because they were cheap you often bought a new one and all mates was very impressed by the new knife. But with simple tools like this we learned to cut down pretty large tree´s. We had our own technique that worked really good. We often got cuts in our hands but we never had first aid kit so we always used diffrent leaves as plasters. We did´nt even have waterproofs, so when the rain came we sat under a spruce tree while watching the rain falling down.
This was when I was a little kid, back then I had all the time in the world and we could do alot with very little. Today I have to have a rucksack with me when I am going to the woods, it´s very likely I will have spent a lot of money on the equipment lying in my rucksack and I will not have much time to get out using it all. Maybe it´s time to look back, instead of looking forward to the next piece of kit I must have. Maybe it´s time to read the first book about survival I read. The swedish army survival handbook, this is probably one of the best I have read about the subject, the few bits of kit you have you should be able to use for a lot of things.
What do you think, have we forgotten what bushcraft is all about...?
I guess I started with bushcraft when I was only 5 or 6 years old. The older guys took me with them to the forest to build build shelters as we would call it today. We made some really good lean to´s and other shelters we even made a small village with 3-4 tipis once. Of course we were at war with other kids so we had to make spears, bows and arrows and other things. My father taught me how to make a bow wich wood to use and what to think of while making the bow. If I was to today, it would be a very complicated thing, becasue now I have read a lot on making bows. So instead of making that simple bow I once learned I start to complicate the whole thing
The only tool I had as a young boy was an mora knife, but because they were cheap you often bought a new one and all mates was very impressed by the new knife. But with simple tools like this we learned to cut down pretty large tree´s. We had our own technique that worked really good. We often got cuts in our hands but we never had first aid kit so we always used diffrent leaves as plasters. We did´nt even have waterproofs, so when the rain came we sat under a spruce tree while watching the rain falling down.
This was when I was a little kid, back then I had all the time in the world and we could do alot with very little. Today I have to have a rucksack with me when I am going to the woods, it´s very likely I will have spent a lot of money on the equipment lying in my rucksack and I will not have much time to get out using it all. Maybe it´s time to look back, instead of looking forward to the next piece of kit I must have. Maybe it´s time to read the first book about survival I read. The swedish army survival handbook, this is probably one of the best I have read about the subject, the few bits of kit you have you should be able to use for a lot of things.
What do you think, have we forgotten what bushcraft is all about...?
:biggthump 
