Lifting the lid on Woodlore!

[Eric_Methven]

Caltrops were devices for disabling cavalry in the past. They would be blacksmith made and designed to land with a sharp spike uppermost whichever way they landed. They were especially effective in shallow puddles where riders wouldn't be able to see them until the poor horse had one embedded in the base of it's hoof. They didn't need to be placed, just scattered as you fled.

Middle English calketrappe, from Norman French and from Old English calcatrippe, thistle, both from Medieval Latin calcatrippa, thistle : possibly from Latin calcāre, to tread on; see calque + trappa, trap (of Germanic origin).

Modern caltrops are made from hollow tube with each end sharpened to a point and are designed to puncture vehicle tyres by embedding themselves in the tyre an letting all the air out through the hollow tube instantly.

Nasty bits of kit, but historically fascinating.

Eric

 

[clcuckow]

I made my own lid lifter a few months ago and use it all the time at home but it weld broke on Saturday (it was my first bit of arc welding)

It was dirt cheap to make out of some 8mm rod from B&Q and only need another couple of welds to make it as good as new. it does not double as stand though.

I don't think that is bottom daft a piece of kit as all that, Dutch oven lid's can get bloody hot and that is without piling burning coal's onto it and every Dutch oven cook book I have seen has shown lid lifters.

 

[Sickboy]

Caltrop's were used by ninja's aswell if Tenchu stealth assasin on the playstation is to be believed!
I really can't believe that they sell lid lifters on the RM site, surely the hole ethos of master smears is that you carry as little as you can and still be comfortable?

 

[Squidders]

I think the lid lifter and stand idea is a good one because...

If you've already heaved in a bloody heavy cast iron dutch oven, anything else you take should be thought of as "light"

Really, if you're travelling with just a pack on your back you're not going to be taking a big cast iron pot anyway so you don't need to fuss about how OTT the lifter is.

If you have a very hot cast iron lid and you accidentally put it down in a muddy puddle, not only will it be covered in mud but there is a cood chance that fast localised cooling will cause the cast iron to crack

Obviously, this is for base camp or group use and not for hiking around with... just as making knives is considered bushcrafty but I wouldn't want to carry an anvil around.

 

[clcuckow]

I think the lid lifter and stand idea is a good one because...

If you've already heaved in a bloody heavy cast iron dutch oven, anything else you take should be thought of as "light"

Really, if you're travelling with just a pack on your back you're not going to be taking a big cast iron pot anyway so you don't need to fuss about how OTT the lifter is.

If you have a very hot cast iron lid and you accidentally put it down in a muddy puddle, not only will it be covered in mud but there is a cood chance that fast localised cooling will cause the cast iron to crack

Obviously, this is for base camp or group use and not for hiking around with... just as making knives is considered bushcrafty but I wouldn't want to carry an anvil around.

Spot on!:You_Rock_

Iron pot are for base camps, 4x4 and canoe trips. Ti Mugs, micro stoves and dried meals backpacking.

 

[Wayland]

Alternately lift the lid with a shemagh and put the lid on the ground shemagh first...Works for me....

 

[Squidders]

Oh, so now you're going to make me spend money on a shemagh... geeesh!

(Kidding)

It does hilight that one persons method may not suit everyone... that's why I don't understand the whole whinging about a pot lifter being sold, I mean, you have to use something to lift the hot lid and set it down... why not a pot lifter? other things can be pushed in to service, sure... why not a dirty great big stick driven in to the ground? why not just ask your slow mate to lift it off for you hehehehe

My point was that you shouldn't expect a visit from the "bushcraft police" for using a pot lifter.

 

[clcuckow]

Alternately lift the lid with a shemagh and put the lid on the ground shemagh first...Works for me....

Even if you are baking in it with direct heat on top (the lid get a lot, lot hotter than the pot)? I have scorched leather welding gauntlets before with mine I would have though a shemagh would go the same way. Not to mention the burnt fingers

 

[Wayland]

Hasn't burnt mine yet. I don't usually lift the lid until I've finished cooking by which time it should have cooled to somewhere in the region of 100 - 150 c.

I guess if you're going to lift it with a pile of embers still on it you might need something else but if you do that you're also likely to get a pot full of ash too.

On the rare occasions I do lift a really hot lid I use a pot hook and then hang it from the tripod.

Seems like the solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I've bought too many of them in the past.

 

[spamel]

Just get a bit of wire bent into a C shape. You hook the lid with the lower hook from the C and hang it from a branch with the upper part of the C. It is stowed at the bottom of the pot. If you lose it, you make another. It doesn't cost 12 quid.

 

[clcuckow]

Just get a bit of wire bent into a C shape. You hook the lid with the lower hook from the C and hang it from a branch with the upper part of the C. It is stowed at the bottom of the pot. If you lose it, you make another. It doesn't cost 12 quid.

No nether did mine and since it is about 18" long it can be used as pot hook, to support a 10cm zeb with a Y and peg stick and I use it all the time as a fire poker.

I will post some pics to show you what I mean when I fix it.

 

[Eric_Methven]

Not everyone who's interested in bushcraft has the skills or imagination to fashion one for themselves. Sometimes I take it for granted that the stuff I know and can do, everyone else knows and can do, but I realise they can't. I showed a wooden spoon to one guy as he said he fancied making one (I'd just whittled it on the spot from a half log). I handed it to him and he pulled out a notebook and a dressmakers tape measure and proceeded to measure it length, diameter, circumference round the handle, he drew cross sections and had a load of calculations written down before handing it back to me. He asked me where my plans were. I said "Just grab a log and bloody well make it". He couldn't. Didn't have a clue unless it was from a blueprint.

So it's not surprising to find something for sale that most people here could knock up in a couple of minutes. Mearsy is a businessman, first and foremost. He's there to make money. He just does it in a format that most of us do as a hobby. Good luck to him I say. He knows, and I know that there's people out there with more money than sense and he's just doing his bit to part them from some of it.

I wouldn't pay what he asks for gear from his website, simply because I can make most of it myself, and what I can't make I can do without. But if I were in his shoes, and had built up a reputation like he has through hard work and credibility, I'd do the self same thing.

Eric

 

[Squidders]

Eric, that's very true... but...

While there are a lot of things I could make, sometimes, I just can't be bothered. I find i'm taking more and more stuff with me when I go out because before, I would make tent pegs on site, spoons, spatulas, tripods, pot hangers... loads of stuff.

These days, i'm just happy to be in the woods and listen to the wind in the trees and check out the deer and other animals.

This whole thing seems to me like it's coming back to skills in specific areas that we feel are important because we have them... people who have best plant knowledge always think it's more important than wood working knowledge. It's just specialisation and I imagine there are a lot of very skilled people in other areas that aren't interested in my skills in making ad-hoc utensils.

I feel very awkward when I hear people say things aren't very bushcrafty or are a bad example of bushcraft because none of us have successfully defined bushcraft. I can define what it means to me easily enough but I am happy to have no authority on the subject and The only things I try to push are to be happy, be safe and don't screw things up for others.

Also, aren't we giving a little too much time to a pot hanger?

 

[clcuckow]

No nether did mine and since it is about 18" long it can be used as pot hook, to support a 10cm zeb with a Y and peg stick and I use it all the time as a fire poker.

I will post some pics to show you what I mean when I fix it.

Well I fixed it, sort of anyway

And before you say it I know I need to cut the grass but I live near Manchester and have only had 2 dry days in over 2 months. Enough said!

For scale that is a 10" lid and a 10cm Zeb and there is a lot more ground clearance under that Zeb and all that grass than it looks

 

[Aliwren]

Now thats ingenious! though it does remind me of an victorian shoe horn to help people take boots off - please dont tell me it works for that as well!!

 

[clcuckow]

Now thats ingenious! though it does remind me of an victorian shoe horn to help people take boots off - please dont tell me it works for that as well!!

Not unless you have very, very small feet The hooked prongs are just over an inch apart.

 

[Aliwren]

Ahh would only work for bushcrafters in stilletos then!!!

 

[Greg]

Whats wrong with just using a branch?

 

[clcuckow]

Whats wrong with just using a branch?

Stability.

Because it makes contact with the lid at three point you can keep the lid dead steady even with the coals still on it (I do blow the ash off first). That way you can lift it off to take a quick shufty and put it straight back without letting to much heat out and you are look straight down on it from above. You cannot do this with a stick.

 

[maddave]

Wow !!! Turn your dutch oven lid into a satellite up-link dish so you can remotely contact the CIA spy satellites that are in a geo synchronous orbit above your bannock !!

It's got my vote