I'm not a bushcrafter.

[Bodge]

We're just misunderstood.

Spoken in jest I know Gary but I think all the troubles our world encounters is due to misunderstandings. It's what makes us what we are. I can understand your dissapointment with the other thread but I know you'll let it pass you by.
See you at Middlewood.
Oatcakes anyone????

 

[Northern Giant UK]

Wayland you are a Cybercrafter!! There I said it!

But you are (at least in my opinion) also a shining example of a Bushcrafter.

You see you have "Crafted" something in Cyberspace, "Wayland's World" and a very good site it is too. You also bring the past to life for those you teach which I think is a big part of Bushcraft.

By your own admission you make things from materials you find in the woods etc. so you have crafted not to mention the gear you have made and shared with the rest of us.

So yes you Are a Cybercrafter AS WELL so be proud mate.

Kev

 

[gzornenplat]

If you look only at the “end result” then I would agree with you, but the journey is the point, not the destination. The spoon is not the point, the making of the spoon is. The action is not the point, the skill set is, the learning, and all that entails, the walking in the woods, the looking listening, the selecting, and the sharpening and caring for the tools, the practice, and of course the mistakes. The whole point is not the end result, the whole of the journey is reward. I have learnt craft 'skills' that I can put in to practice in everyday life, be them directly applicable, like repairing a pair of leather gloves or just a new way of looking at things.
Unlike the “average footie/lager/curry type” at the end of the day I will have achieved something tangible (other than a fat gut) even if it is just another spoon.

As for saving lives, it depends. Being able to escape the rat race to sit quietly for a few hours making wooden/leather/metal things has saved my sanity, and that of my wife.

I'm with you completely, I was just trying to pay devil's egg-nog and see how bushcrafters
seem to people from the outside.

I think it's a 'sales pitch' problem. If people in a pub overhear a conversation about how to
skin and cook a squirrel or the best way to light a fire in the pouring rain,then they have a
problem relating to it.

But the majority of men (and it is mostly men I think) can relate to a bonfire and a sausage
on a stick and insist on being in charge of the barbecue in the garden. If you were talking
about sitting around a camp fire on a summer night with a beer or two telling stories and
jokes while the food cooks, they'd be asking to go along too.

You have to work up to the squirrel

 

[SimonM]

Spoken in jest I know Gary but I think all the troubles our world encounters is due to misunderstandings. It's what makes us what we are. I can understand your dissapointment with the other thread but I know you'll let it pass you by.
See you at Middlewood.
Oatcakes anyone????[/QUOTE]

Me, me , me! :You_Rock_

Thats breakfast sorted... who's cooking tea?

Simon

 

[Rod]

Let's face it, most people need to label you and put you into some sort of mental box. It gives them boundaries and parameters. It's their weakness: both mental & emotional. You get categorized by what brand of wool shirt you wear, knife you use, billy can you have, tarp you sleep under, ground dweller vs. hammocker. etc I could go on, but I think you get my drift... :aargh4:

The sense I have got from reading this thread is that folks are happy finding their own way to what makes them feel comfortable: which I think is good news! I offer the analogy to guys I know that there are a dozen different ways to make a bannock. All get (hopefully) the same tasty result, but you get there by the method & ingredients that works best for you. Too much of society is about conforming to the herd mentality.

To me what matters: - is that you are true to yourself, and that you do no harm to others, or the environment you find yourself in.

I, for my sins, am happiest when I'm tracking. (I know there are some who have labeled me a tracker: and not a bushcrafter: yet I have a developed bushcraft skill-set). I track instinctively, whether I'm in the woods, on a canal towpath, on a street corner, or coming through the front door. Can't help it. Whatever I'm doing and whatever environment I'm in, I use whatever of my skills are required where necessary: be it mountaineering, rock climbing, fording a river, wilderness traveling, shelter building, firelighting etc.

 

[Shewie]

But the majority of men (and it is mostly men I think) can relate to a bonfire and a sausage on a stick and insist on being in charge of the barbecue in the garden. If you were talking about sitting around a camp fire on a summer night with a beer or two telling stories and jokes while the food cooks, they'd be asking to go along too.

Nowt wrong with sausages on a stick, staple diet for me when I`m out

 

[Stew]

It's just snobbery showing through.

I's like fashion.

First of all you're not 'in' unless you are a bushcrafter/whatever then when it gets to a state where too many people are interested, you get the super snobs that are 'beyond bushcraft' and fel that it's wrong/unfashionable to use the term.

 

[Wayland]

It's just snobbery showing through.

I's like fashion.

First of all you're not 'in' unless you are a bushcrafter/whatever then when it gets to a state where too many people are interested, you get the super snobs that are 'beyond bushcraft' and fel that it's wrong/unfashionable to use the term.

So does that mean I'm in, out or just wandering about?

Hope I'm not a super snob, I guess I'd have to wear merino undercrackers outside my trousers.

 

[Stew]

No, I wouldn't say you were because you're just happy with your lot.

 

[Ahjno]

I find it quite hilarious. Those people who comment people aren't bushcrafters or need to go out more - like they do ... Are for some reason online at all times of the day If they go out that much, why are they online?

I'm a cybercrafter, and I'm proud of it
I have another live besides bushcraft / BCUK - that also takes up a considerable amount of time! When I'm out I enjoy it as much as all others do, if not more - and that is what it's all about.

Label: I don't care - I know better and am way above it

 

[Mooseman1]

I am like most of you on here, would love to be out all the time but work demands we spend it in front of the PC more often than not. I have worked hard late last year and intend to get better at making more time for me, all of which i intend on spending in the bush. I have two courses booked and have joined a bi monthly moot so things are on the up and up.

 

[ForgeCorvus]

I'm often asked "What exactly is it you do?" I usually answer "I'm a Viking" because it's as wrong as any other answer would be but it's not the answer they expect.

I don't think that you are wrong mate.
You are a Viking in the original sense of the word, ie 'One who goes adventuring'
Why do I think that? because anyone who departs from the norm (lager/pub/footie as someone said) is on an adventure......and why the hell not?

As for me, I'm too much of a Luddite to make a cybercrafter (read my sig if you need proof )

So to all of you, what ever paths you walk and what ever title you use, thank you for being part of my adventure :You_Rock_ . Lets see where we go from here

H.

 

[oldsoldier]

Here in the US, the label is worse; they term some of us "survivalists", which is a fancy way of saying you are someone who is crazy, wants total chaos, and has hordes of guns & ammo waiting for "the call to overthrow the government". Which, sadly is the exact oposite of how most of us are. Me, I am a hiker, first & foremost; although, I do posess outdoor skills. I geocache, hike, camp (car camping), fish, track, have hunted, used to be a climber & a mountaineer. These activities, over the course of my lifetime, have given me certain skills, some more practiced than others. I see myself as an outdoorsman, first & foremost; I am comfortable outside, and have acquired enough skills (accidentally or otherwise) to survive outside with nothing other than what I normally carry in my pockets. I am not a grizzled old timer, nor am I an overweight "survivalist" (this is what is most commonly portrayed here). What I am is a 9 to 5 desk jockey, that likes spending his free time outside. Yes, I can light a fire without matches. Yes, I can fashion a shelter using nothing but natural material. Yes, I can identify a few crucial plants in my neck of the woods. Yes, I can skin an animal (but, honestly, have no need to do it). Am I GOOD at any of this? Well, how does one get GOOD at firemaking for instance? I CAN do it, I HAVE done it, thats proof enough for me. I abhor titles, but, if someone were to label me, I would have to go with outdoorsman.
Alhough, I am a bagpiper too, and have been labeled as a "musician". I gotta correct those people too!

 

[Broch]

Alhough, I am a bagpiper too, and have been labeled as a "musician". I gotta correct those people too!

Oh no, let's not get into that old is a Bagpiper a musician discussion - there'll be tears

In reality everyone on this forum will have a different reason for doing this 'outdoors' stuff, will have different levels of skill and experience, and different amounts of time they can spend doing it.

I can fully understand that if a person can only get out a few times a year the last thing they want to do is be miserable trying to rub two sticks together. At the same time those that are out most of the year have picked up a level of skill that makes them what would be called in any other craft 'Masters'. But, like the rest of us, they're still learning!

 

[Opal]

Couple of years ago, I was chattin' to a chap at an airport coming home from holiday, we were chattin' about me wanting to buy a m/bike cos all I ever did was ride around on scooters abroad, I told him did he go on any biker sites, his face changed and snarled..." No! I go out and ride the bloody thing"

What a star eh?

 

[Wayland]

Here in the US, the label is worse; they term some of us "survivalists", which is a fancy way of saying you are someone who is crazy, wants total chaos, and has hordes of guns & ammo waiting for "the call to overthrow the government". Which, sadly is the exact oposite of how most of us are. Me, I am a hiker, first & foremost; although, I do posess outdoor skills. I geocache, hike, camp (car camping), fish, track, have hunted, used to be a climber & a mountaineer. These activities, over the course of my lifetime, have given me certain skills, some more practiced than others. I see myself as an outdoorsman, first & foremost; I am comfortable outside, and have acquired enough skills (accidentally or otherwise) to survive outside with nothing other than what I normally carry in my pockets. I am not a grizzled old timer, nor am I an overweight "survivalist" (this is what is most commonly portrayed here). What I am is a 9 to 5 desk jockey, that likes spending his free time outside. Yes, I can light a fire without matches. Yes, I can fashion a shelter using nothing but natural material. Yes, I can identify a few crucial plants in my neck of the woods. Yes, I can skin an animal (but, honestly, have no need to do it). Am I GOOD at any of this? Well, how does one get GOOD at firemaking for instance? I CAN do it, I HAVE done it, thats proof enough for me. I abhor titles, but, if someone were to label me, I would have to go with outdoorsman.
Alhough, I am a bagpiper too, and have been labelled as a "musician". I gotta correct those people too!

That's a label I'm quite happy with too, sufficiently vague and sort of old school.

 

[xpolex]

if we gotta have a label that'll do me...on a lighter note in a recent conversation with my mother about the current social climate she stated she worries about my youngest brother and sister ...tounge firmly in cheek i asked what about me? the reply was youll be fine with all the stuff you get up to.......serves me right..anyone for a mad max screening?:lmao

 

[Klenchblaize]

Wayland

You are clearly a Photo Camper! Only way to get those shots of course.

K

 

[Wayland]

Aye, but sometimes I camp out and never even take the camera.

I think this is the problem, we're the sort of people that are not easy to pigeon hole and that upsets some folk because they like things to fit in nice little boxes that they can understand.

 

[dwardo]

I enjoy, minimal camping, cooking over a fire, carving, canoeing, leather work, tool making, learning about wild foods, learning about nature generally, learning to appreciate whats around me. If someone prefers another word besides "bushcraft" that includes the above ill take it, its only a label and people seem so caught up with it.

I visit ""The Dark side"" as much as here and maybe they do have a more hands on approach but there are also a lot of people there who dont get out as much as they would like either.

Cant think how many times this and other "bushcraft" label related posts have come out. I will take my own advice on this one and stop reading them

Lets all call it Outdoors stuff, and indoor crafts if it makes people happier