Can we have a " i know i'm an idiot but... " thread?

[TheGreenMan]

...As with "energy" Life cannot be destroyed only transformed into another form of life...John

This is why I treasure the carbon in my bones, knowing that it was once part of a supernova.

I dedicate the following song to all bushcrafters, outdoorsmen, and woodsman everywhere, the owner and Moderators of BCUK:

Woodstock
Written by Joni Mitchell, performed by
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, 'Tell where are you going?'
This he told me
Said, 'I¹m going down to Yasgur's Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
'Well, then can I walk beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning.
And maybe it's the time of year,
Yes and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We caught in the devil¹s bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Best regards,
Paul

 

[TheGreenMan]

Hello Bilko,

I believe it is because cast iron distributes the heat very evenly throughout the vessel, and it retains the heat for a long while after it has been removed from the heat source.

Copper and aluminium also distribute the heat evenly too. How all three compare, I’m not sure (idiot ).

Best regards,
Paul.

 

[John Fenna]

My hair may be short, I work for a living, don't wear flowers in my hair or loons on my legs, but I do live in West Wales where old Hippies go to die!
I am also a qualified Aromatherapist, a nature lover and a committed (take that as you will) Spiritualist and comune with the "dead" so the words and ideals of the Woodstock Generation speak volumes to me.
Actually Woodstock is only a short drive south of where I live! - OK not THE Woodstock......
a Merry Xmas/solstice/whatever you wish to call this time of year to all the other confused inhabitants of this planet - may we get all the answers we need on this thread!
John

 

[TheGreenMan]

Not sure about the answers, John, but the questions are coming thick and fast (‘thick’ not being any kind of pun on the theme of idiocy).

Joni Mitchel may point the way to the answer of one question. It may be that what we, the members of these forums, are trying to do in one way or another, is to return to the ‘garden’ (The Garden of Eden?). And Joni is right about ‘we are stardust’ at least this is literally true of the carbon in our bones!

Mmm…not bad for 8.20am

Best regards,
Paul.

 

[WhichDoctor]

Wow isn't this getting metaphysical . I certainly do bushcraft in order to get closer to some sort of garden of eden type thing .

But any way, I've got a nether stupid question, when your fletching arrows how do you get the quills on the fletchings flat so they sit parallel to the shaft. Please help .

 

[TheGreenMan]

Wow isn't this getting metaphysical . I certainly do bushcraft in order to get closer to some sort of garden of eden type thing .

But any way, I've got a nether stupid question, when your fletching arrows how do you get the quills on the fletchings flat so they sit parallel to the shaft. Please help .

Hello WD,

Well, Adam and Eve might have chewed the bulbs of the woodland Bluebell and spat the resulting adhesive paste onto the shafts and then bound the fletchings with animal sinew, but then again, hunting for meat was probably not a kosher thing to do, as they were most likely on a strict diet of berries, nuts, leaves and roots, being the tripped-out hippies that they were (which brings us back to vegetarianism ).

But as we have a sh*t load more kit than the fig leaves they had, it’s probably OK to use Araldite to fix the fletchings in place <chuckle>

I know this won’t sit well with you, if you’re the type of bushcrafter that likes to weave your own underwear from Willow bark, but hey, that’s progress!


Paul.

 

[WhichDoctor]

Thanks GreenMan.

I've got a nether stupid question.

I keep hearing people talk about making tinder's (specially cotton wool) burn better by impregnating it with Vaseline. Well I've tried this and it didn't work, in-fact it made the cotton wool and char-cloth totally fire proof . I couldn't get them to burn at all even with a flameless lighter . What did I do wrong?

 

[TheGreenMan]

Thanks GreenMan.

I've got a nether stupid question.

I keep hearing people talk about making tinder's (specially cotton wool) burn better by impregnating it with Vaseline. Well I've tried this and it didn't work, in-fact it made the cotton wool and char-cloth totally fire proof . I couldn't get them to burn at all even with a flameless lighter . What did I do wrong?

Well, let me say straight away that I’ve never used cotton wool or char cloth to light a fire, but, instinct tells me that you may have overloaded the cotton wool with Vaseline, my guess is that you just need to massage enough of the Vaseline into the cotton wool to increase its ability to ignite (I think it’s the petroleum component in Vaseline that does the biz). If you saturate the cotton wool with Vaseline, then this might prevent oxygen from reaching the cotton wool fibres, which would suffocate any combustion process that should take place.

As I understand it, char cloth shouldn’t need any help with ignition, as the char cloth will begin to glow hot even when subjected to a cool spark, such as that produced with carbon steel and flint.

OK, your turn to enlighten me, what the heck is a flameless lighter!?

Best regards,
Paul.

 

[WhichDoctor]

Well, let me say straight away that I’ve never used cotton wool or char cloth to light a fire, but, instinct tells me that you may have overloaded the cotton wool with Vaseline, my guess is that you just need to massage enough of the Vaseline into the cotton wool to increase its ability to ignite (I think it’s the petroleum component in Vaseline that does the biz). If you saturate the cotton wool with Vaseline, then this might prevent oxygen from reaching the cotton wool fibres, which would suffocate any combustion process that should take place.

As I understand it, char cloth shouldn’t need any help with ignition, as the char cloth will begin to glow hot even when subjected to a cool spark, such as that produced with carbon steel and flint.

OK, your turn to enlighten me, what the heck is a flameless lighter!?

Best regards,
Paul.

Thanks that mite be it , I used it on the char-cloth because I sore it recommended on a website somewhere (apparently it was supposed to make it less liable to getting damp).

And flameless lighters are (what we call round here) the cigaret lighters with the very hot blue flame like this http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...lame+lighter&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N

I'll try again with just a little bit of Vaseline and see if thats any better.

Thanks for your time :You_Rock_ .

 

[TheGreenMan]

...And flameless lighters are (what we call round here) the cigaret lighters with the very hot blue flame like this http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...lame+lighter&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N....

Ah, now I'm with you, thanks.

......Thanks for your time :You_Rock_ .

It was time well spent, WD. Thank you.

Best regards,
Paul.

 

[oops56]

Here is a flameless one back in the old days no flame just a glow

 

[Zodiak]

I keep hearing people talk about making tinder's (specially cotton wool) burn better by impregnating it with Vaseline.

I use Drier lint lightly smeared with vaseline and stored in a 35mm film container. You pull a small ball out of the pot and tease it out like a srubbing pad and it will stay alight for many minutes, even in the wet.

One word of caution though the vasline sticks to your fingers so be sure to clean them off before going near a fire or you wil end up on fire and blowing doesn't put it out.

That has just made me realise I probably won't be getting any more film cannisters and they have been so useful. I have another one with spare maglite bulbs, another with spare gas washers for my big cooker and in th epast have used them for solid soap, swarfega, matches, foot powder... I guess I will have to go over to nalgene like normal folk

 

[WhichDoctor]

I tried out the cottonwool with just a tiny bit of Vaseline this-morning and it went up like a bomb . Thanks GreenMan and Zodiak for the advice :You_Rock_ .