bushcraft courses

[halo]

hi all,

can anyone help me decide who to go with for a fundamental bushcraft course as i have found four different companies
woodlore
woodsmoke
bearclaw
bison
has/does anyone have experience with any of these,this is somthing i've been wanting to do for a long time now but never had the time i do spend a lot of time out shooting and fishing though so i'm always out where i enjoy being most so thought i'd ask the opion of you guys.

thanks,halo

 

[Fallow Way]

Well I can only speak for Woodlore, but I dont think you will ever find a greater example of Bushcraft as you will in Juha.

 

[mbatham]

I have done Fundemental with Woodlore last year, absolutly superb time but it really is fundementals. Coming from Scouting I kenw the basics, don't get wrong I learned loads but if you are out all the time, then is it the right one for you?

I am off to do Campcraft Monday, untill friday so will post how I get on.

Woodsmoke is run by a bloke who was trained by Ray Mears I believe - Ben McNut? This school looks realy well run, I considered it for Fundemental but followed the crowd to Woodlore instead.

 

[shinobi]

hi all,

can anyone help me decide who to go with for a fundamental bushcraft course as i have found four different companies
woodlore
woodsmoke
bearclaw
bison

Hiya,
A lot of it depends on the length of course you want to go for, not forgetting geographic location. Woodlore is a week course, where as the Bearclaw is a weekend. But then again, the woodlore is £500 and Bearclaw is £100. Horses for courses really.
I recently went on the bearclaw "Greenhorn" course and wrote a review for this site. You can find it here

Hope that helps?

Martin

 

[Ahjno]

Had a great time and learnt a lot on my Woodlore Fundamental course!!!

I know there's a course review from:
- Woodlore (Fundamental, by Chris Claycombe overhere on BCUK - including an article about the kitlist)
- Woodsmoke (Aboriginal?) on outdoorsmagazine.com
- Bearclaw (Greenhorn, by Shinobi overhere on BCUK)
EDIT: Martin beat me to it
- Survivalschool, overhere on BCUK by Outdoorgirl

Maybe those reviews are of some help to decide ...

Hope this helps!

 

[Neil1]

The Woodcraft School has an excellent reputation (John Ryder - Former senior instructor with Woodlore I think) or Woodland Survival Crafts run by Dave Watson who is superb at teaching friction firelighting.
Roger Harrington has been running courses (Bison Bushcraft) for many years and has many happy customers.
If you can get to Wilderness Gathering you can see many of the schools as this is a bit of a "shop-window" for the industry.
Neil

 

[Cyclingrelf]

I've just been on the Woodlore Fundamentals course. They teach you shelter building, lighting fires by match, chemicals, sunlight, magnesium rod thing, flint and steel and friction. You also learn rabbit, squirrel and bird snares, how to use a knife for carving, splitting et.c. How to sharpen the knife, knots for putting up a hoochie, water purification, plant uses of a variety of UK plants, making rope from nettles and pine roots, how to make a fishing reel, how to skin and gut a rabbit, how to prepare a fish, methods of navigation um...I'm running out of memory now.

It was great - I feel it was worth every penny. Juha is an expert on a par with Ray (but not as famous), and the other leaders also have many years experience.



I can't speak for the other courses.

Hope that helps.

 

[Justin Time]

three years ago I did the Woodsmoke fundamental course and got a lot out of it. Well run, with a very knowledgeable and likeable team. Of course I can't compare it with other schools cause I haven't been to other courses.

 

[charliefox]

I attended Woodsmoke's "Trailbreaker" course a few months ago and I can't speak highly enough of them. You would be hard pressed to find a more helpful and knowledgable group of people.

Both Ben & Lisa apprenticed under RM. The course covered all the basics you would expect and the itinery is on their site. I found that I'd already covered a lot of the theory but Ben was very flexible in his approach to course content, even breaking off to do a spoon carving demo with his SFA at a moment's notice.

Before the course, I did wonder how much value for money I'd get from £200 over 2 days. Considering we were learning from 08:00 to after 22:00, the instructors where happy to answer questions and demo skills when asked and we had unrestricted access to mixed woodland for shelter building, fire lighting etc. I think it was excellent VFM.

HTH

 

[steve a]

If you are thinking with booking on the Woodlore Course check first who is running the course, I have attended a few courses ran by Juha and agree he is a top guy and very skilled and I would have no reservation in recommending him but I have noticed he is not always the instructor on the Fundemental courses any longer.

 

[mark a.]

I suppose one could make it easier by scrubbing Woodlore off the list. From what I can tell from the course calendar, the first available fundamentals course is probably sometime in 2010. Everything's booked up!

I might be interested into donig a Fundamentals course, so it's good to hear recommendations on non-RM courses that I could actually go on in my lifetime.

 

[Roving Rich]

Hi Mark, if you put your name on the Woodlore mailing list, then you recieve regular invitations to join courses where someone has dropped out. Obviously it can be quite short notice, but worth considering.
I have not done courses with any of the above, so cannot speak from experience.
But Woodsmoke come highly recommended to me, so if I manage to save enough pennies I will be doing a course with them.
Cheers
Rich

 

[Paganwolf]

Dont forget Geoff and Hannah from Natural Pathways http://www.naturalpathways.co.uk Geoffs a fantastic Guy and a very knowledgeable Bushcraft instructor/Naturalist/Birder..

 

[sandbender]

Hi halo

I was on a fundamental course run by Woodlore last year, the chief instructor was Lawrence rather than Juha, didn't feel that I'd lost out because of this.

As others have mentioned, get yourself on the Woodlore mailing list, there was a year and half wait for a place when I spoke to them, in the following three months I was offered five 'dropped' places at anything from a week to six months in the future, I ended up going on a course two months after I added myself to the list.

 

[redcollective]

I suppose one could make it easier by scrubbing Woodlore off the list. From what I can tell from the course calendar, the first available fundamentals course is probably sometime in 2010. Everything's booked up

Seriously, if you want to do a woodlore course get your name on their mailing list. Use an email address you can check all day so you have half a chance. I've put down the deposit on a woodlore course and there were places available for several days after they were announced. One thing I've noticed on their mailshots - not many dropouts on the fundamentals courses - but the more exped type courses seem to have places coming available again all the time... v.expensive though! Sigh

red

 

[mark a.]

Ah, that's good to know about the mailing list. I was wondering how people ever got to go on one of the courses otherwise - I barely know what I'm doing in a month's time, let along in 2 years!

Cheers,

Mark

 

[halo]

thanks for all the feedback guys,it's been a great help i think budget wise i'll be going with wood smoke not just because it's cheaper it's also one of my favourite parts of the country so when ive finished i can go wandering for a few days now just need to raise the funds and see what coures dates are available

just bought some new lowa combats so wont be for a while

thanks again

halo

 

[phantomlynx]

I've just come back from a 6 day Bushcraft course with the Woodcraft school and can certainly recommend it.

Nice location in Liphook, good instructors, lots of happy 'campers'

 

[Earth Mother]

Just got back yesterday from the Woodlore fundamental course. The instructors there said that the 3 companies they knew of to be excellent were their own (obviously!) Woodcraft and Woodsmoke. You'd probably be getting the same level of expertise from all 3. Having been on the Woodlore course though, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a more suitable location. It is based on extensive private land which means they can teach forms of lightweight camping. You move away from the basecamp on the second day and spend two nights under tarps in two different locations, both of which are spectacularly beautiful. There are plenty of fallow and sika deer en-route as well as a large badger sett at the basecamp if that is of interest to you. Ray tries to pop along to as many of the courses as possible and he came to see us on Thursday. I'm not sure what facilities are offered by the other courses but the food provided by Woodlore was superb, something that I think is really quite important.
As a tip, if you are interested in any Woodlore course I would be more inclined to keep checking the course calendar on their website as courses are generally avaiable there for a couple of days before they send out a mailshot.
I hope you find a course that you're happy with.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

i wholeheartedly reccomend
"woodland survival crafts"
in particular their NVQlevel2"GCSE" course

check out my thread "GCSE in Survival"