Keen to get on the Hunter gatherer course, run by Joe over at Wilderness Survival Skills, we needed to produce a few projects to prove our worth! On the list to provide was;
''something made from flint, something made from buckskin/animal hide, something carved from wood and something woven from natural plant fibres''
Lucky for me I had previously attended the wilderness awakening advanced course, where we learnt a lot of green wood carving skills, allowing me to produce a half passable Kuksa cup carved from the traditional Birch ( Although having never heard of a kuksa or knowing its purpose apart from it being a kind of bowl cup ) I proceeded to carve a monster on a thing! more suitable for a breakfast bowl than a traditional coffee cup! anyway that was one thing off the list.
Something made from flint...well again on the Wilderness awakening course, we where lucky to have some flint knapping tuition from the Legendary John Lord! Having never tried this before, i was a complete novice, but as John set up and started to show us the basics, whacking sliver upon sliver of flint away from the nodule he was holding with such skill, it almost came across as looking like an easy task! How I was Wrong!! I sat upon my tree stump with a large piece of flint in one gloved hand, and a hammer stone in the other I proceeded to slam one into the other! slowly but surely the piece of flint got smaller and smaller, and the pile of rubble around my feet got larger! but nothing really worth while was being produced, John stepped in and with a few pointers we managed to salvage a few decent shards from the last bit of flint! and it was with this and once home and following some guidance from an issue of Buschcraft and survival skills Mag, I made a Lester spear head. Box two ticked!
This Left the something woven from plant fibres and Buckskin....well to the point of this post! After a few days with the guys at Wilderness survival skills i had turned a fresh dear hide into a nice piece of buckskin! We had to de flesh the hide, de-hair it and then brain/egg tan it following with a decent session in the smoke house over some punky wood. It took so much hard work and effort that it took me 5 months to decide what to do with it as i really didnt want to cut it up! But after a few emails back and forth with Joe, i decided upon a sheath for my Bahco folding saw and a kind of possibles pouch.
Joe was great with helpful and detailed tips being fired over, So i decided upon a cross type stitch using the buckskin on the sheath and wet moulding it, and then making the pouch with Faux sinew and im so chuffed i thought i post them on here...........
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62329690@N07/6691216939/in/photostream
''something made from flint, something made from buckskin/animal hide, something carved from wood and something woven from natural plant fibres''
Lucky for me I had previously attended the wilderness awakening advanced course, where we learnt a lot of green wood carving skills, allowing me to produce a half passable Kuksa cup carved from the traditional Birch ( Although having never heard of a kuksa or knowing its purpose apart from it being a kind of bowl cup ) I proceeded to carve a monster on a thing! more suitable for a breakfast bowl than a traditional coffee cup! anyway that was one thing off the list.
Something made from flint...well again on the Wilderness awakening course, we where lucky to have some flint knapping tuition from the Legendary John Lord! Having never tried this before, i was a complete novice, but as John set up and started to show us the basics, whacking sliver upon sliver of flint away from the nodule he was holding with such skill, it almost came across as looking like an easy task! How I was Wrong!! I sat upon my tree stump with a large piece of flint in one gloved hand, and a hammer stone in the other I proceeded to slam one into the other! slowly but surely the piece of flint got smaller and smaller, and the pile of rubble around my feet got larger! but nothing really worth while was being produced, John stepped in and with a few pointers we managed to salvage a few decent shards from the last bit of flint! and it was with this and once home and following some guidance from an issue of Buschcraft and survival skills Mag, I made a Lester spear head. Box two ticked!
This Left the something woven from plant fibres and Buckskin....well to the point of this post! After a few days with the guys at Wilderness survival skills i had turned a fresh dear hide into a nice piece of buckskin! We had to de flesh the hide, de-hair it and then brain/egg tan it following with a decent session in the smoke house over some punky wood. It took so much hard work and effort that it took me 5 months to decide what to do with it as i really didnt want to cut it up! But after a few emails back and forth with Joe, i decided upon a sheath for my Bahco folding saw and a kind of possibles pouch.
Joe was great with helpful and detailed tips being fired over, So i decided upon a cross type stitch using the buckskin on the sheath and wet moulding it, and then making the pouch with Faux sinew and im so chuffed i thought i post them on here...........
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62329690@N07/6691216939/in/photostream
