bush craft without a knife
- Thread starter hardr004
- Start date
-
Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
I find that cutting tools just make life easier - a hell of a lot easier - but it's possible to do most everything without one if you put your mind to it.
There are things that you can do without a knife, but i find that having a good knife shortens most jobs considerably. I don't like to spend time knapping flint into shape to gut and fillet fish for instance. When I want to wrestle a bear, the knife comes in handy in case anything goes ary 
. As well as the SAKs, I would recommend a Leatherman, most of those are brilliant., and as they are multi-tools, it may be easier to convince your parents to buy you one.
. As well as the SAKs, I would recommend a Leatherman, most of those are brilliant., and as they are multi-tools, it may be easier to convince your parents to buy you one.I sure can't. What I mean is that there is too much focus on cutting tools in bushcraft today and I am part of that though
.
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I often go for bimbles with nothing. i have just as a intellectual exercise looked about to see if I can improvise a cutting edge. There is a flint pit left from the bone china industry on a local hillside, but more communally there bits of disgarded metal. Beer cans, food tins, burned out cars some work for some tasks but not for others. I tend not need a knife generally (i forage) so don't carry one as part of my kit, so the brain exercise could be useful.
Make flint tools?
Yup - made a couple now, plus bone tools.
A day with Karl Lee taught me the basics of knapping flint and - given some decent flint - I reckon I could produce usable, if crude, tools.
I have also made knives from slate...short lived but usable!
Some seashells can also be adapted for cutting tools.
Mind you , I never go antwhere without a decent knife anyway!
Yup - made a couple now, plus bone tools.
A day with Karl Lee taught me the basics of knapping flint and - given some decent flint - I reckon I could produce usable, if crude, tools.
I have also made knives from slate...short lived but usable!
Some seashells can also be adapted for cutting tools.
Mind you , I never go antwhere without a decent knife anyway!
P
Pcwizme
Guest
out of flint i have made, a scraper, an arrow head and a rudimentery knife, and of course a hammer, dunno if i fancy using a knife (made out of flint) to gut or skin a rabbit or deer....
I used to know a rabbit shooter who used the rabbits own claw to start the cut for skinning and gutting the bunnies...he used nothing but the claw and his hands to do the whole jod...litterally ripped the head and feet off!
Mind youhe had very strong hands!
forestwalker
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
A few years ago some US based primitive tech people tried living for 2 months totally stone age (the Kootenai River Project, led by Lynx Vilden). One of the things they noticed was that modern "bushy" people are very knife-focussed, and that there was an interesting change in mind-set when the metal knife was no longer available.
I've been out without a knife as well (but only for 10 days), and it *is* a change in perspective. We are so used to "just cut some poles" (etc), so being limited in cutting (no flint where I was; a shard from an old beer bottle and some smashed granite bits was the best we had) was a quite an eye-opener. Break, bend, tear, adapt, subsitute. Abrade things with sharp rocks (can you make a bowdrill set with no metal tools? it is possible and a damn usefull skil...), work around the problem, etc.
* Make a bowl, kuksa and spoon by abrading a found chunk of wood with "random" rocks and then coal-burn the hollow bits.
* Cook your dinner without any brought tools or implements.
* Make a shelter.
* Weave a cattail sunvisor.
* Make a basket or bark container and fill it with edibles.
* Do some simple pottery.
* Braintan a deerhide.
* Make a simple carrying basket from some willow and spruce roots. Use it as a pack to the moot.
* Work bone.
* Make a fat lamp from a piece of limestone.
* Make a celt or a grooved axe.
* Make a simple bow and arrow set, and practice until you could kill a small animal.
* How are you on traps?
* With the throwing stick? The sling?
* Buy a couple of Goodwill furcoats, cut into strips and try to make a faked "rabbit robe".
If you do without a knife for four more years you could be a source of envy at the bushmoots. Imagine turning up at the moot with a home-made packbasket, sleeping in a "rabbit robe" and cooking your food in a pit, making no-tools bowdrill fires, etc. With a deer-rib knife at your belt, in an Ötzi style sheet.
I've been out without a knife as well (but only for 10 days), and it *is* a change in perspective. We are so used to "just cut some poles" (etc), so being limited in cutting (no flint where I was; a shard from an old beer bottle and some smashed granite bits was the best we had) was a quite an eye-opener. Break, bend, tear, adapt, subsitute. Abrade things with sharp rocks (can you make a bowdrill set with no metal tools? it is possible and a damn usefull skil...), work around the problem, etc.
* Make a bowl, kuksa and spoon by abrading a found chunk of wood with "random" rocks and then coal-burn the hollow bits.
* Cook your dinner without any brought tools or implements.
* Make a shelter.
* Weave a cattail sunvisor.
* Make a basket or bark container and fill it with edibles.
* Do some simple pottery.
* Braintan a deerhide.
* Make a simple carrying basket from some willow and spruce roots. Use it as a pack to the moot.
* Work bone.
* Make a fat lamp from a piece of limestone.
* Make a celt or a grooved axe.
* Make a simple bow and arrow set, and practice until you could kill a small animal.
* How are you on traps?
* With the throwing stick? The sling?
* Buy a couple of Goodwill furcoats, cut into strips and try to make a faked "rabbit robe".
If you do without a knife for four more years you could be a source of envy at the bushmoots. Imagine turning up at the moot with a home-made packbasket, sleeping in a "rabbit robe" and cooking your food in a pit, making no-tools bowdrill fires, etc. With a deer-rib knife at your belt, in an Ötzi style sheet.
Hi there,
I think you can do lots of stuff without a knife. A lot of bushcrafters are obsessed with knives and in my opinion only do bushcraft so they can use them. I would say that if you had a swiss army knife you could do nearly everything someone with a bigger blades could do. I got my swiss champ when i was 8 and still have it in my pocket to this day, 24 years later.
I used my SAk for everything from building shelters to gutting fish. Its only in recent years I have started buying fixed blades and i hardly ever use them.
Learn to use skills, not knives.
I think you can do lots of stuff without a knife. A lot of bushcrafters are obsessed with knives and in my opinion only do bushcraft so they can use them. I would say that if you had a swiss army knife you could do nearly everything someone with a bigger blades could do. I got my swiss champ when i was 8 and still have it in my pocket to this day, 24 years later.
I used my SAk for everything from building shelters to gutting fish. Its only in recent years I have started buying fixed blades and i hardly ever use them.
Learn to use skills, not knives.
you might not be able to buy a knife, but there's no reason you cant make one, and thats nowhere near as hard as it might sound, you dont need a forge and all that, you can use all sorts of things to make a simple knife, ie. files, saw blades, chisels, old scraps of good steel. some of these can be made into knives with no tools required other than a file, an oven and and an oil stone, all of which can be bought at your local diy superstore (except maybe the oven but you probably already have one of those at home)
as far as carrying it with you nowhere does the law say you have to 18 to carry a knife, it basically says no one may carry a knife without a good reason, which turned around means anyone may carry a knife if they have a good reason. just dont be stupid with it, keep it concealed and hard to access (eg bottom of your pack) and don't get it out without good reason. it also helps to carry something to help prove that you have a reason, i personally like to take my little book of whittling and a few things i've whittled with me whenever i take a knife out with me.
hope what i've said helps a little bit,
ATB
TJ
as far as carrying it with you nowhere does the law say you have to 18 to carry a knife, it basically says no one may carry a knife without a good reason, which turned around means anyone may carry a knife if they have a good reason. just dont be stupid with it, keep it concealed and hard to access (eg bottom of your pack) and don't get it out without good reason. it also helps to carry something to help prove that you have a reason, i personally like to take my little book of whittling and a few things i've whittled with me whenever i take a knife out with me.
hope what i've said helps a little bit,
ATB
TJ
Hmmm, instead of one blade, you have 20? Is that what you call making do with less?
Learn to use one blade, not 20. 
Caring for, sharpening, and using a knife are part of bushcraft. It must be cuz it's in all the bushcraft books.
Last time I checked, a SAK is a knife too.
Hmmm, instead of one blade, you have 20? Is that what you call making do with less?
Caring for, sharpening, and using a knife are part of bushcraft. It must be cuz it's in all the bushcraft books.
Erm.. I may be missing something here, but where does it say he's using 20 knives?
Does anyone know how to work bone and antler? and is making knives out of flint very hard? doeos anyone know any good tutorials? Also does anyone know how to make big squares of cloth out of nettles to sew into clothes and bags etc.
not that much, knives make alot of things possible and with practice easy peasy, get yourself a mora 2010 if you can.
Similar threads
