Bushcraft shelters in winter - no tent/sleeping bag

[n00b]

What have mouse traps or steel needles got to do with anything?

 

[n00b]

It’s a difficult discussion to have using a mobile phone network isn’t it?

Yeah if it weren't for mobile phones and the rest of civilisation we might be doing something nourishing, like talking to each other in person. We wouldn't be having this conversation about whether planetary enslavement has its perks, that's for sure!

 

[TLM]

What have mouse traps or steel needles got to do with anything?

You apparently do not get the reference to "better mousetrap".

So you think that steel knives and axes are worse than flint ones and bone needles are better than steel ones. Slightly strange.

 

[n00b]

I didn't say that but yeah I do. Here's why:
- no requirement for heavy industry, wage labour and all that bad stuff
- flintknapping our own tools and handcarving bone needles fulfil the psychological need for autonomy
- passing on these skills gives us a sense of community and continuity between the generations - again vital for our mental health

 

[n00b]

What are you even into bushcraft for if you don't value autonomy and harmony with your planet?

 

[TLM]

I have seen an axes worth of iron made in 3 hours, no child labour required though some renfair passersby were slightly utilised.

While flintknapping is an interesting skill, I much prefer making iron or steel. As far as I can see so have all cultures who have come across it.

 

[n00b]

Sounds good! Did you mine and smelt the ore?

 

[n00b]

Primitive Technology does. I'd do it too if I felt I could get away with it at my wild camp on the margins of a city.

 

[n00b]

Maybe I can. I'll look into this.

 

[TLM]

Sounds good! Did you mine and smelt the ore?

I did not but the guy who did this collected it from lake bottom or from bogs. It is a crumbly deep red mixture of iron oxide and hydroxide (if not heated).

He then mixed that with charcoal and some lime (he actually used crushed marble, we have locally). He built the oven with some stones and clay (about a meter high, after that it just needs somebody to operate the bellows. The result was about 1.5 kg iron bloom that needed some hammering to get all the slag out, carbon content was highly variable but usually high enough for hardening.

 

[n00b]

That's great.
I've yet to even make a stone axe.

 

[Pattree]

….. or a pair of boots

 

[n00b]

Or boots yeah. I could make some moccasins easily enough. But the fact I'm dependent is exactly what I have a problem with. Can boots be made in the wild? Of course. Can I? Well, actually, I don't see why not. If I was shown how.

 

[Tengu]

People are better off with Archives, surely?

 

[Poacherman]

The indigenous groups that I'm referring to, the ones that survive today by continuing to resist domestication, do not eagerly take industrial products. Either they learned not to from what happened to their neighbours who did or they just know to refuse.
Many are examples of post-collapse societies, groups whose ancestors were civilised. The native Americans were, for example, so they had that knowledge of how **** an idea civilisation is passed down in their folklore and knew exactly what they were dealing with when Europeans arrived. Some Amazonian tribes may be descendants of humans domesticated as the Inca. They're not naive.

The sentinelese still shun outside contact and kill outsiders they also don’t use fire that’s 1 example.

 

[n00b]

Yeah good example

 

[TLM]

The sentinelese still shun outside contact and kill outsiders they also don’t use fire that’s 1 example.

According to WP they have fire and also use metals.

So not total dummies.

 

[Tengu]

I thought so. But I read somewhere that the Andaman islanders (ie the group who the Sentinelese belong to) kept fires but did not know how to make it)

(Like a good many folk).

Anyhow; arent they people we should not be like?

 

[TLM]

arent they people we should not be like?

Good guestion, the less one needs in a survival situation the better but during "normal" camping and trekking I think we should use what we have. That does not mean I have a Bandvagn behind me carrying everything.

 

[n00b]

I didn't think the Sentilese didn't have fire, the point is they fiercely resist the domestication process - like any wild animal.