Favourite Schraftin book

[nigelp]

@Brizzlebush
At least the books come from independent shops directly. Shame it’s now a subsidiary but I guess I can solice myself by not having prime membership. I will check that other list out.
cheers Nig

 

[Barney Rubble]

Some good books have been mentioned already, but I enjoyed Joe O'Leary's Wilderness Survival Guide. Covers similar ground to the Mearsy books but I enjoyed the slight less formal style of writing

 

[Dougster]

As I have spent more time in 'Bushcraft ' I find my interest has evolved like so many others. I still really like Ray Mears, but I am now less interested in survival than permaculture and traditional skills. Next to the bed are 'We are nature' sundqvists carving techniques and Mike Abbotts green woodwork amongst others.
Bushcraft is such a broad church and so much based around nature, skills and crafts the book list is extensive, certainly more than the several hundred books I have AROUND the subject. None of them bought from amazon, but I am shocked about abe!

 

[Robson Valley]

If I had to pick one book of skills just for the sake of pure entertainment, it would have to be Des Pawson's KNOTS, The Complete Visual Guide. I have another exclusive to the fishing industry and sports. You won't have a lot of use for a Bimini Hitch.

Ellsworth Jaeger was a faculty member of the Buffalo Museum of Science and an authority on American Indian lore and camping. First published in 1945 with 400+ line drawing illustrations, Wildwood Wisdom is the dictionary of outdoor living and camping skills. Reprinted in 1992, 491 pages of useful stuff for many nights of camp reading. As books go, $17.95 ( approx . L 12) isn't asking much.

What you will notice is that the birch bark of the UK and Europe is not the natural quality of the bark from our Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera.)Much more difficult to manipulate to create the birch bark containers.

 

[nigelp]

My latest set of books have been focussed around tracking and nature awareness. Bedside reading has included; What the robin knows by Jon Young, Tom Brown’s Field guide to living with the earth and I have ordered two more Tom Brown books from Canada (via Abe books - because they still come from actual book shops). The local library has a order online and pick up service so I’ve borrowed several books on mammal and bird ID.

 

[oldtimer]

Ray's first book, The Survival Handbook is very good.
The Conover's Snow Walkers Companion is also excellent but for different things.
I have a soft spot for Colin Fletcher's The Complete Walker.

It's good to see another admirer of Fletcher and Interesting that his book should have lasted so well. I have had it since the mid 1960s and come back to it every once in a while. I guess it is the way he balances the problem of the minimum with the safe amount of kit for long periods in the wild that interests me most. Although kit has technically moved on since his time, the basic issues remain

Whether or not is a "bushcrafting" book may be debatable, but I'm not sure whether I'm a bushcrafter. The term didn't exist when I started travelling with the minimum of kit.

I still treasure the RAF survival pamphlets I acquired back in the 60s too. Over the years I have read an awful lot of books on our subject over the years and it seems to me that the majority are rehashings of the wisdom of the early practitioners like Nessmuck et al.

 

[C_Claycomb]

It's good to see another admirer of Fletcher and Interesting that his book should have lasted so well. I have had it since the mid 1960s and come back to it every once in a while. I guess it is the way he balances the problem of the minimum with the safe amount of kit for long periods in the wild that interests me most. Although kit has technically moved on since his time, the basic issues remain

Whether or not is a "bushcrafting" book may be debatable, but I'm not sure whether I'm a bushcrafter. The term didn't exist when I started travelling with the minimum of kit.

...

Hmmm. That sounds like you might have had the first version. I grew up with version III, then bought version IV some 10 or 12 years ago. It was published in 2002, so still rather out dated but a big step forward from the 1984 version III. An enjoyable update of III, so I would recommend it to you.

 

[oldtimer]

Yes, mine's the 1968 edition. I didn't know there had been later editions, so thanks for the info.

 

[Tengu]

I buy my books from bookshops.

My Latest? £10, (inc post)

On Amazon? Probably three figures

 

[C_Claycomb]

Compromise....Abe books

 

[demographic]

Australian Traditional Bushcrafts by Ron Edwards.

More of a make do and mend for farmers in Australia than sitting ten foot off the A6 and carving a spoon type book.