Bushcraft or re-enactment

[Hoodoo]

Yup, everyone should feel guilty. Especially those of you with Dutch ovens. Don't you know there are people out there that might laugh at you??? And that is SUCH a scary thought.

 

[Grooveski]

Guess I'm the sort that's giving bushcraft a bad name. Horn bowls and leather water bottles, baggy trews and jacobite shirts all loaded into a poncy wooden boat.

It's not re-encatment though. It's all just stuff that I like, sometimes I just pick something up and like it. It's all fit for purpose and ok they cost more than the plastic cup, plate and bottle they replaced but my justification of worth shouldn't be of interest to anyone but me.

Just got a le-prevo order delivered, about to go into poncification overdrive. Leather packs for the boat, some kinda saddlebag-like for round the cockpit but others just capped tubes for slipping through the hatches. Could have got a length of pipe and a bunch of caps from a pal buckshee but I fancy leather......

Is it worth the sixty quid in materials and the time it'll take?
Is to me.
Is it re-enactment?
Not insomuch as I'm setting out to re-enact anything but I'd admit there may be a harking after simpler times element. Natural materials - natural feel.
Is it bushcraft?
Beats me.
Does it matter?

 

[rik_uk3]

Well now Rik,

as far as I recall to you its all "just camping" anyway?

Surely "Just camping" involves carrying things from the car? I've certainly seen photos of your pot stands and enormous pots, your references to tinned foods,etc.

Cart all that for thirty miles in your pack did you?

Thought not!

Red

LOL Red, I can't walk 3 miles with my knees these days, I'm a car camper now for sure and enjoy my comfort.

The question is a serious one, not meat to flame, perhaps more to reflect. I've been camping like this since the Scouts some 40+ years ago but it was just going camping for the weekend. We used tents, tarps, open fires etc.

But this bushcraft thing, I don't know what to make of it anymore. What to some is called a lifestyle was just a hobby in the past. You don't need a £100 shirt to camp 100 yards from your car, thats the sort of thing I can't get my head round.

Hi Ho, I'll just plod on camping for as long as I can.

 

[Ruvio]

I dont care what it is
it's a bit of fun
a hobby
and a great way to stay fit, dont complain about it

 

[sargey]

well you know what? i reckon the "deal with it" comment works both ways. for 99.9% of us, bushcraft really is just a hobby. next we'll be getting, who do you think you are then? bear grylls?

i find it both amusing and irritating when some boys and girls try to make bushcraft into some sort of religon, or just for one reason or another, it all starts to get very serious. the little micro-cosm that illustrates this very well is your average tobacco tin survival kit thread. one bloke says you should always have such a kit. someone else says you must never carry this type of kit, because you have a mobile phone, and anyway, you're never more than 3.7* miles from a road. *(or whatever the numbers are)

so, if the situation can never arise where you might need a "wilderness support package" why would you bother learning and training in wilderness living skills (sometimes called bushcraft) at all? it's a little bit contradictory isn't it?

we study bushcraft because it's enthralling. it's rewarding, and occaisionally we get treated to sights that many people will never witness, or even have the ability to comprehend, some of them anyway. one of the golden moments for me, was peering round the end of my shelter to see what the rustling noise was, and watching a stoat darting in and out some tree roots about ten feet away hunting something or other. it was amazing. i'm sure that a train spotter who once saw the flying scotsman come tearing out of a tunnel in a huge plume of smoke on a speed trial might feel the same. so yeah, it's great, but that doesn't honestly make it any more worthy than stamp collecting or building model railways.

i once heard a quote about someone who was talking about bushcraft and stuff, the resident smart-alec sarcasticly asked if he was planning on getting into a survival situation. to which the bushcrafter replied, no, and i'm not planning on crashing my car either, but i still wear a seatbelt.

i have to agree with the comments about meetups. best not to confuse a bushmoot or a wilderness gathering type event with bushcraft. they are a social event where you expect boys and girls to dress up with all their finest and nattiest accoutrements. actual bushcraft is best done in very small groups.

what does confuse me, is the guy who got his fire going reasonably well, then decided it was time for tea. so he got his uber gucci titanium petro-chemical fueled stove out to heat the water up. i just don't get that at all!

cheers, and.

 

[Sniper]

I don't have the "uniform", I wear and use either what I have made myself or made by others, as well as the stuff I can afford. I can never understand these trains of thought, some say bushcraft and uniform, I say wild camping with appropriate gear. When someone finds a bit o kit that does a good job, then as in other things in life others with the same interest will be drawn to use the same item if it is any good at all. Isn't it the same thing with stoves Rik, where a particular type or style of stove is sought after because it is either esthetically pleasing or particularly good at heating water and food, so I presume all the "stovie's will be drawn to get one? Not having a dig mate just expanding on my thoughts as to why folks tend to go for a similar type or design of kit, be it a jacket, or a stove, the same processes are at work.
I think the way the question was worded in your original post that has got folks hackles up Rik, rather than the content.

 

[jungle_re]

I don't think it would really matter too much what i wear you wouldn't be able to tell after a couple of hours as i tend to be covered head to toe in crap; im one of life's muck monsters. My expensive stuff looks the same as my cheap things once its caked in a combination of mud and dog hair.

 

[TeeDee]

So is there a difference between Camping and Bushcraft?

 

[He' s left the building]

i have to agree, buying a ventile jacket worth £200 just to walk a short distance from the car just to sit under a tarp. spending £50 on an axe just to split some wood. spending £150 on a knife just to carve a spoon. getting all this top notch kit then using it on such a small scale in my opinion is pointless and a bit sad im not saying i dont do those things but i get the impression that people are just buying stuff just for the sake of it. but hey, its not my money their wasting!

Same here, I respect the people who camp out under a £1 builders tarp in surplus shop clothes and use a self-made knife, but on the flip-side I don't let it worry me if others have the latest expensive gear either.

Different folk have differing comfort levels (physical and mental) and differing expectations/needs.

It's comparable to a millionaire who can't drive but who still has a Jag parked on the drive: sad but none of my business really!

 

[Psy23]

I'm really poor so I have to improvise everything, if I had the money I would buy the kit. So would most people. I wish I had a better jacket, I wish I had some decent walking boots, I would kill for a bigger stronger knife.... that's just the beginning!

Personally, I don't really care about other peoples perceptions of what I do. Isn't that part of the joy of getting away from it all in the first place? It's no different to peoples perceptions of martial arts.. or peace protesters... i.e. Not worth the steam off my ****.

 

[Prawnster]

But this bushcraft thing, I don't know what to make of it anymore. What to some is called a lifestyle was just a hobby in the past. You don't need a £100 shirt to camp 100 yards from your car, thats the sort of thing I can't get my head round.

.

Can I ask why you feel the need to 'get your head round it'?

If someone wants to buy an expensive bit of kit and then not test it to destruction what does it matter?

The key word in that sentence was 'wants'. If that is what a person 'wants' to do then why the binkle and flip shouldn't they?

I've recently bought a pair of Fjallraven trousers. Easily the most expensive trousers I've bought and strangely I don't feel the need to trek across Finland in them. But when I do wear them I'll have the satisfaction that I saved up to get what I wanted, they're more than capable of taking whatever the weather throws at them and they'll last longer than my craghopper kiwis which aren't anywhere near as comfortable.

Am I a joke? If so laugh it up. I don't give a flying .....

 

[John Fenna]

Yeah - I wear Ventile to camp 100m from the road...but then I also wear it to the shops, to church, to work (be it hill walking with a group of deprived kids or taking a Mencap client to a coffee morning), to the theatre and for strolls around the village.
If kit works - wear it!
I do not own a suit worth wearing - my lifestyle makes one an expensive irrelavence!
Who cares about what you wear as long as it is practical for the conditions you are in?
My avatar shows me in a home made blanket hoodie, which is great for around the campfire while Bushcrafting and which I have also worn while collecting firewood for home use when it was bitterly cold. Rather than risk wrecking a down jacket I wore my "el cheapo" blanket coat with matching 'bunnet'...
My leather "bushcrafting" hat - or one of my Tilley hats - is on my head whenever I am outdoors (unless one of my home made wooly hats is in place).....the kit works - so I wear it!
My "Bushcrafting" gear, although very much "the uniform" is also my street wear - laugh if you like but I am comfy and thats all I care about!
Because of what I do for a living I can get the pick of outdoor kit for free D) but somehow it all ends up looking "uniform" as that kit works in the environment I live, work and play in!
I enjoy making gear as well and much of my gear is homemade (despite having the oportunity to get top rate gear for free).
I do my thing, and see others doing theirs...and I try not to judge how others have their fun (as long as they are not doing harm to anyone or the planet...or use a titanium spork)...if anyone wants to judge me that is their perogative, but by jiminny ..they go down in my estimation if they do!

 

[Toddy]

Not the spork, man, not the spork

I really like mine and it's a pretty purple too

cheers,
Toddy

 

[British Red]

But this bushcraft thing, I don't know what to make of it anymore. What to some is called a lifestyle was just a hobby in the past. You don't need a £100 shirt to camp 100 yards from your car, thats the sort of thing I can't get my head round.

Hi Ho, I'll just plod on camping for as long as I can.

That's okay Rik. On some levels I agree with you in that "its just a hobby". On that level though, people like having nice stuff - in much the same way as you love all your stoves and lanterns I guess other people like having a nice shirt or knife or whatever.

Do they need it? No but they enjoy it

Do you need loads of different stoves? No but you enjoy them (and good luck to you)


Is it faintly ridiculous? Maybe. But no more so than the expense of golf, or stamp collecting or photography or big TVs or flash cars or all the other things people indulge themselves in.

I don't see it as re-enactment - thats a whole different (but ovelaping) way to spend money and time.

I have said in the past that cracking "bushcraft" up to be any more worthy than tiddlywinks is silly. But neither is it any less worthy than camping, or fishing or parachuting.

Its just a way to enjoy ourselves, something to think about when work is dull, and a way to spend time that we enjoy.

No harm, no foul in my book

Red

 

[John Fenna]

Not the spork, man, not the spork

I really like mine and it's a pretty purple too

cheers,
Toddy

PURPLE!!!!!!!
but then I guess it is plastic not titanium.........

 

[EdS]

PURPLE!!!!!!!
but then I guess it is plastic not titanium.........

I like my Ti chop sticks though. Pointless - no better than a "free" pair from the take away but I love gadgets.

 

[Toddy]

PURPLE!!!!!!!
but then I guess it is plastic not titanium.........

Nope it's Titanium
The lexan ones are blue though

I turned the blowtorch on my Ti mug and wrote my name with it....now that came out Pink and kind of irridescant green

cheers,
M

 

[Shewie]

PURPLE!!!!!!!
but then I guess it is plastic not titanium.........

I have a titanium spork, it was a gift from swmbo honest

I did buy a red one though, and a green one but I dropped that.

 

[John Fenna]

I DID IT!
I tottally derailed on pointless argument with an even more pointless one - that has also been done to death in previous threads!!!!!!
Do I get a special award?
A tin of Spam or a plastic troll seem aplicable......

 

[lou1661]

PM me your address John and your prize will be winging its way to you
Louis