bushcraft as a hobby or in everyday life?

[robin wood]

I have a nephew who has recently got into bushcraft amongst many other hobbies. When I saw him last weekend he had recently learnt to make fire with a bow drill and was clearly fairly well chuffed and happy to tell me how using ferro rods or even flint and steel was "cheating". Then he popped off with the rest of the kids to toast marshmallow over the fire on nice wooden skewers from Tesco.

It made me think about how I enjoy playing with fire by bow and flint and steel but the bits of bushcraft that I really love are the things that I use in my everyday life. This picture was taken several years ago in the evening of a woodcraft course I was teaching at the national handcraft school in Sweden. It is near to Fallun so they don't toast marshmallows but "Fallukorv" sausages (pick one up next time the Mrs drags you round IKEA they are great, and get some "lingonsilt" wild cranberry sauce to go with it)

The point is, when someone turned up with the Fallukorve without a word everyone just slopped off into the bushes, whipped out their belt knife cut a green stick and peeled and pointed it, far better than a Tesco skewer.

 

[Toddy]

Nice, but in the UK kids are taught not to carry knives and that the trees all belong to someone else

Sorry to be so cynical Robin, I do agree with your sentiments on this kind of thing.
I wonder what the airmiles are on the bamboo skewers, too

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Tony]

I have to go with every day, it's a way of looking at things and using skills to overcome little obstacles, make situations better and enjoy ourselves. What you've described Robin is how it is for us. Although we're lucky to live where we do that allows us to do most things we want to.

I hear what you're saying Mary and there's definitely some restrictions but I think there's a place for a mindset that helps overcome things and makes the best of what situation we're in.

I think my kids have respect for knives because of the stuff we've done outside (and the grizzly stories!) I think it helps create practical people that are comfortable in a variety of circumstances, but that's how i always describe bushcraft for me.

 

[Toddy]

I think I'm just getting a little fed up of decent ordinary sensible people constantly being haranged not to carry, use, teach, or work with knives ( and other tools) in public places

I know why the restrictions are in place, and I understand the concerns, but sometimes I want to go back to simpler times, with practical guidelines and simple courtesies.

atb,
M

 

[Tony]

Absolutely

 

[zorro]

Ah, the golden days of childhood...............the local bobby slapping me up the back of my head and taking my catapult into protective custody.....................................a farmer throwing me into a stream for trespassing................................a gamekeeper threatening to shoot my dog which was on the lead...............................they were indeed simpler times.

 

[jungle_re]

dont forget getting shot at with rock salt for scrumping. Nostalgia, not what it used to be .

I would say it depends very much on your mind set. Bushcraft lends it self very well with simple living. Not everyone wants to live like that and lead normal modern lives with bushcraft being a separate thing you do in your spare time. Others try to live as frugal as possible using natural methods and hand tools for all the things they do turning away from all modern links. These are the extreme poles with must of us i guess falling somewhere in the middle.

me personally, i say i live with it being a feature of everyday i guess even if its not a term i use; lets face it bushcraft is a huge umbrella. I have always gained must of my meat from shooting and hunting and now grow a high percentage of my own veg; I spend at least 2-3 days a week making things be it woodwork/construction, knife making, leather work and pyrography. Working in the woods, teaching nav with the occasional freelance surveying and normal work in between. I dont tend to think of it being bushcraft unless im doing it solely for fun like with the SWB. I enjoy doing all the other things but its not solely done just for enjoyment

 

[jungle_re]

Would you consider when your teaching your carving courses as bushcraft or work or both?

 

[John Fenna]

I would love to live in simpler times...it is all too complicated for me these days!
On the days I am not working for Mencap I try to get something Bushy or Crafty done - I sometimes get the two combined as well!
I try and get up to my patch of woods every day...
Sample days Sat and Sun - working as a support worker for Mencap. Sharpened and stropped a knife I have handled and made a sheath for. Sorted leather for sewing pouches.
Mon - sewed leather pouches, went for a 4 mile walk collecting fallen wood for our fire, IDing some plants, watching Buzzards, eating wild strawberries out of the hedge, visitted my wood, took photos of some trees, ID-ed a dead shrew
I like to think that I live the Bushy life with odd excursions into the real world.....

 

[robin wood]

Would you consider when your teaching your carving courses as bushcraft or work or both?

That's just fun wouldn't do it otherwise.

 

[walkaboutman]

got to agree the PC brigade have ruined life for people who want to enjoy the outdoors and to pass along their information to the younger crowd or even us grown ups by what you can and cant carry...

 

[firecrest]

I would love to live in simpler times...it is all too complicated for me these days!
On the days I am not working for Mencap I try to get something Bushy or Crafty done - I sometimes get the two combined as well!
I try and get up to my patch of woods every day...
Sample days Sat and Sun - working as a support worker for Mencap. Sharpened and stropped a knife I have handled and made a sheath for. Sorted leather for sewing pouches.
Mon - sewed leather pouches, went for a 4 mile walk collecting fallen wood for our fire, IDing some plants, watching Buzzards, eating wild strawberries out of the hedge, visitted my wood, took photos of some trees, ID-ed a dead shrew
I like to think that I live the Bushy life with odd excursions into the real world.....

My partner works for Mencap now. I work as a support worker with the National Autistic Society. I wonder what the connect is between working in the mental health services and running off into the woods every weekend to light fires and play with pointy sharp things

 

[Tadpole]

got to agree the PC brigade have ruined life for people who want to enjoy the outdoors and to pass along their information to the younger crowd or even us grown ups by what you can and cant carry...

Other than an increase of paper work, and outside of the daily wail and Scum, have you actually had ‘your’ own personal enjoyment ruined by the mythical PC brigade? I’m 46 and never had any problems doing what I want to do, Ok so I can’t take a huge blade in to my local pub or my kid’s school, but why would I want to? Ok an old headmaster didn’t like parents taking photos of the school plays, but that was more to do with the £15 he charged for his, rather than any thoughts to paedophiles infiltrating the school.

Reading the red tops rubbish rags is more damaging to your mental health, than living a normal life.
Take a look at the rampant paranoia that brought down a reputable cell phone directory to see how quick most ‘normal’ folk are willing to abandon reason for media created panic.

 

[caliban]

"have you actually had ‘your’ own personal enjoyment ruined by the mythical PC brigade"

PC doesn't work by targeting specific and precise areas of your life, it impinges on many areas of your life in an insidious and demoralizing way, as indeed it was designed to do by the Marxist theoreticians that invented it. Could you please bear in mind that many people are as offended by the Guardian worldview as you are by the Daily Mail worldview?

Edit: Just re-read my post and I sound a bit of a pompous git, sorry!