Bushcraft equipment

[Ex-member EagleOwl]

Doesn't exist.

A sleeping bag, tent, rucksack, paracord, knifes, axes etc are not bushcraft equipment. Bushcraft equipment is mud, leaves,sticks, stones your body and mind.

Tents, Tarps etc that you carry in is a lame bottom attempt at car camping without the car.

Going in armed to the teath with equipment and carving a spoon and cooking on a fire is the same but with elements of a totally different hobby.

Few weeks ago i went out for a week with a kilo of bacon and some flower. We were fine but miserable the first few days until we utilized more bushcraft equipment and by the end of the week we got to a decent stage of comfort.

Just my thoughts.

Will say though i have a lot of gear but thats for my other hobby.

 

[Barn Owl]

Bushcraft is really an all encompassing adjective, which covers a multitude of outdoor activities.

It's just a label given to what we've all been doing one way or another for years.

E.g. Going out fishing or rabbiting and building a wee shelter when a boy,with practically nothing but a pocket knife,snare, cat gut and string.

I like the label though.

 

[Ex-member EagleOwl]

True it doesn't have a firm meaning but thats my opinion. Just seems right, Bushcraft- The craft of living in and from the bush.

 

[Roe Ring]

I'd say its getting out there and enjoying being outdoors with whatever equipment you have available. The whole survival vs. bushcraft has been covered without much success before. Going out without a knife will be more challenging than having even the most basic knife with you, but carrying a knife or a tarp or a stove shouldnt make you a lame car camper. Bushcraft covers many skills and I like the fact that I can decide how many I want to put into practice and what comforts I want to take with me. Even our ancestors would have carried tools and other items to make life easier, skins instead of tarps etc. They would have also traded for items that perhaps couldnt be found or made locally. This is much like we do today except we have new technology. When someone first discovered that they could Knap flint to make all sorts of sharp tools, that would have been the modern technology of the time. Would they have left it behind to challenge themselves? probably not. When we practice bushcraft today we have the luxury of deciding how challenging we want to make the experience, but more or less challenging doesnt make it lame, as long as we are getting some enjoyment from doing it.

Personally, I'd enjoy having a go at bushcraft with only the most basic items, to learn different skills. But I'd also enjoy waking up in my hammock, firing up my honey stove with my ferro rod, having a coffee and some breakfast that I carried in with me. Its all the same to me; I just like to be out there.

ATB

Mark

 

[Ex-member EagleOwl]

Survival skills in Britain are minimal. Survival skills in Britain comprise blowing like hell on a whistle and waiting for somoene to reply or walking to the nearest road which 99.99999% of the time you could reach with two broken legs and no eyeballs.

People had tools 10000 years ago and i suppose what i like to do is more befitting what they would have done. Usually called "primitive skills" which is a really stupid name.

 

[Martti]

Survival skills in Britain comprise blowing like hell on a whistle and waiting for somoene to reply or walking to the nearest road which 99.99999% of the time you could reach with two broken legs and no eyeballs.

Oh, I'm sorry to heard that. Here in Finland we just call the helicopter to pick us up and drop to the nearest road some hundred meters away.
Lynxes mistaken for bears appear in Nuuksio National Park

 

[Large Sack]

Tents, Tarps etc that you carry in is a lame bottom attempt at car camping without the car.

Or it could possibly be called backpacking...or just...camping....

Just a thought

Sack

 

[Ex-member EagleOwl]

Or it could possibly be called backpacking...or just...camping....

Just a thought

Sack

Or that, i Have a tarp etc for backpacking.

 

[Siberianfury]

Yes i could and do somtimes make a natural shelter, light fire by friction, make a blade from striking a peice of flint, build a long fire and a raised bed to keep my body warm without a sleeping bag, yes i could make snares with nettle or willow bark cordage and gather bush vetch, sorrel ect as wild wood... But, i have a tarp, a hammock, a sleeping bag, a strong sharp knife, an axe, a ferro rod, some billy cans, so why not use them? after all they make life out in the woods easier and more enjoyable, thats what bushcraft is all about. yes i could test myself, but the majority of time i just like to get out there with a couple of mates, do somthing constructive, mabye go hunting and enjoy myself.

 

[Humpback]

Please don't get worked up about this! "You say tomato, I say tom..... lets call the whole thing off." Its not what you label it its what you get out of it that matters, surely?

 

[locum76]

Tents, Tarps etc that you carry in is a lame bottom attempt at car camping without the car.

It's all just playing in the woods really, I'm sure the hardcore 'elite' can survive naked in the woods with no kit but perhaps others like comfort, fun and just a little of the craft. It still counts.

 

[Ex-member EagleOwl]

I wasn't trying to start an argument was just giving my opinion of what bushcraft is.

I'm not hardcore and i don't have that great knowledge of what i call bushcraft.

 

[Xunil]

Labels and definitions are tough - I used to write about and teach what we call bushcraft today, but twenty odd years ago I was allowed to call it survival and nobody bated an eye; although there were some paramilitary overtones with certain individuals and groups, most of the focus was about wilderness training.

The whole concept and notion of weapons/supplies caches and bunkers stems from the most extreme of extremists and adversely affected everyone else. That said, there could be circumstances where that kit could be of great value...

The point is that some folks will vehemently deny having anything to do with survival, while other consider bushcraft to be a ridiculous term for our collective general interest in the outdoors.

Go out there, have fun, and be safe.

Let others wonder what to call you - believe me, they'll come up with quite a few names you probably hadn't even considered...

For my own part, I don't get or subscribe to the "I'm a this and not a that" or "This kit is acceptable while that kit isn't" approach. Take on what is useful (to you) and leave what isn't.

I think everyone interested in bushcraft (for want of a better term) should have at least a fundamental understanding of the kitless approach, if for no other reason that it puts an entirely different perspective onto the kit and techniques you decide to adopt. It's an incredibly hard challenge to undertake though, and a step too far for most.

I don't use firesteels, but I still carry one. The fire doesn't care how it was lit after all...

I make and hunt with simple longbows and my own arrows because it increases the challenge of an already difficult task, and gives me an almost tangible link (in my own head and heart) to our ancestors who managed for a very, very, very long time with simple stick bows.

The kit doesn't make the archer, or the bushcrafter, or...

Interestingly, the more immersed in an interest many of us become, the more 'primitive' our approach often gets. Think canvas and cedar canoes, handline/wood/bone hook fishing, stick bow archery, split cane and silk line specimen hunter fishermen, etc, etc.

Don't confuse personal challenge with all-encompassing handles and vague attempts at defining what means very different things to most who practice it.

My approach is not for everyone and the mainstream approach is certainly not for me - it doesn't make anyone right or wrong - we all do this for our own reasons and rewards after all.

Bottom line: I'm not shallow enough to give a fig what people want or choose to label themselves or others.

It's tempting to combine a couple of song titles here:

"I am what I am" and "I did it my way"

I'll get my coat, again

 

[durulz]

This one's got promise...

 

[beenn]

If everyone who enjoyed the outdoors went out and built and found what they needed how many resources would be here for future generations?
You can cut a tree that has taken years to grow down in minutes, using a tarp saves trees and natural cordage for when it is needed rather than wanter to make a stay more comfortable
Im not tree hugger and i dont haul a load of kit with me, and i am not a 'bushcrafter' i just like being outdoors and dont appreciate a stereotype

 

[demographic]

Doesn't exist.

A sleeping bag, tent, rucksack, paracord, knifes, axes etc are not bushcraft equipment. Bushcraft equipment is mud, leaves,sticks, stones your body and mind.

Tents, Tarps etc that you carry in is a lame bottom attempt at car camping without the car.

Going in armed to the teath with equipment and carving a spoon and cooking on a fire is the same but with elements of a totally different hobby.

Few weeks ago i went out for a week with a kilo of bacon and some flower. We were fine but miserable the first few days until we utilized more bushcraft equipment and by the end of the week we got to a decent stage of comfort.

Just my thoughts.

Will say though i have a lot of gear but thats for my other hobby.

Aye, but it could also be argued that nowhere in the UK is really "Bush" anyway, given that you can't get more than about seven miles away from a metalled road.
So you're not doing "Bushcraft" either.

Have fun doing Herbaceous Bordercraft though

 

[rik_uk3]

I wasn't trying to start an argument was just giving my opinion of what bushcraft is.

I'm not hardcore and i don't have that great knowledge of what i call bushcraft.

Bushcraft is just a name thats in fashion at the moment that covers aspects of outdoor living that has been going on for hundreds of years. I've not seen or read anything here or when camping that either I'd not done in the Boy Scouts 40+ years ago or read in a old book, there ain't nothing new in outdoor living, just modifications to old themes or kit ideas, as Locum76 said "It's all just playing in the woods really".

Once you left home with your bacon and flour you had gone camping, just camping with less kit; hi de hi.

 

[beenn]

Doesn't exist.

A sleeping bag, tent, rucksack, paracord, knifes, axes etc are not bushcraft equipment. Bushcraft equipment is mud, leaves,sticks, stones your body and mind.

Tents, Tarps etc that you carry in is a lame bottom attempt at car camping without the car.

Going in armed to the teath with equipment and carving a spoon and cooking on a fire is the same but with elements of a totally different hobby.

Few weeks ago i went out for a week with a kilo of bacon and some flower. We were fine but miserable the first few days until we utilized more bushcraft equipment and by the end of the week we got to a decent stage of comfort.

Just my thoughts.

Will say though i have a lot of gear but thats for my other hobby.

Clothes are not bushcraft equipment either, did you make your clothes ?

 

[Ex-member EagleOwl]

Clothes are not bushcraft equipment either, did you make your clothes ?

No but my wife did from wool from our own sheep. My jacket was made for me by a friend in America out of a deer he killed but my shoes were made in Japan.

This country doesn't have enough woodland to support all of us doing the primitive thing, hence why i'm moving to Canada next year!

 

[beenn]

No but my wife did from wool from our own sheep. My jacket was made for me by a friend in America out of a deer he killed but my shoes were made in Japan.

This country doesn't have enough woodland to support all of us doing the primitive thing, hence why i'm moving to Canada next year!

Good effort! I'd love to make that move
For me i go to have a nice day out so i take the equipment needed if its a full kit or just a knife