Money from Bushcraft

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Zodiak

Settler
Mar 6, 2006
664
8
Kent UK
I am in the interesting situation of having just been made redundant... :eek:

I need to make some money while I get myslef sorted out. It would be great tomake a living out of a hobby but to me bushcraft has always been about doing things yourself with a minimum of kit. ;)

Apart from starting a bushcraft school (I am no way good enough) can anybody know of ways that people are making money from this please? :confused:
 

Dave Budd

Gold Trader
Staff member
Jan 8, 2006
2,895
321
44
Dartmoor (Devon)
www.davebudd.com
that's all I could think of. Finding things that you can make well and selling them.

I would urge you to make sure that whatever you decide to make and sell is of the best quality and finish as there is a lot crap out there!

Otherwise you could go for the ultimate in making a living from bushcraft. Run away to the wilderness and live as a hermit :D
 
depending on your skills (obviously);

selling carved spoons, love spoons and kuksas go down well,

any birchbark or splint containers would probably go down well at craft fairs, alongside knives and leatherwork.

If you could get an agreement with a farmer/landowner, you could sell rabbits maybe to local farm/game shop (don't quote me on that, I'm thinking of ideas of the top of my head and don't know the laws surrounding that)

tools made out of coppiced timber are nice, such as bidged chairs rakes, brooms etc, but again depend on coppicing timber availability,

Make your own Bushcraft tv show... (I'm running out of ideas now)

hope that helps,

woodwalker
 

oops56

Need to contact Admin...
Sep 14, 2005
399
0
81
proctor vt.
Don't jump on someones patten rights mess with a new a impovment hobo stove real small no ones got a good one yet that i have seen they all work all to big
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Sell your time where minimal materials are required

I was surprised for example how little materials go into making really nice "firesteels". Firesteels from cam at a tiny amound, offcuts of exotic hardwoods, some 6mm tube for B&Q (a metre is enough for dozens). You could make £10 on a firesteel easy.

As others have said - bow drill and hand drill sets, prepped tinder etc,

Source some unusual products (it takes time, but its manageable - heck I should know). You could do this just surfing the web and taking your time

Red
 

falling rain

Native
Oct 17, 2003
1,737
29
Woodbury Devon
Car boot sales. Make stuff to sell and have THE most interesting stall at the car booter in between all the mothers selling off the old baby clothes and toys. Besom brooms, (REAL witches brooms :rolleyes: you know the routine) wishing or magic wands from wood. Harry potter has been popular so they may go down well, though of course you wouldn't be able to use the 'Harry potter' name to sell them.
Carve some wooden mushrooms for garden decoration. There was a thread a while ago about which tree are you depending on your birthday. (I was a maple) Make up a chart to show people which tree corresponds with their birthdays and sell them a 'Magic' wand made from the wood of that tree. I can't find the thread now but it's here somewhere.
I used to sell planters, bird tables, and pub style picnic benches at car boot sales and made a nice little bit of pocket money out of it thank you. One bloke at a car booter saw my planters and asked me to make him 2 planters specially for his couple of fir trees. They were enormous and I got a good price. My old work place asked me to make them 2 picnic pub garden type tables for the staff to sit outside on at lunchtime in nice weather. They were very solid and made from sturdy wood, woodstained and bolted together rather than the cheap thin plywood/pine rubbish screwed together you get from a certain garden centres. I got £250 a piece for them
There are loads of ideas. The secret is to think of what people really want. Lots of people love their gardens and I got a lot of design ideas from touring a few garden centres and making notes on the bird tables, planters etc. I had a right little production line going and with a few basic tools to make the work easier you're away. A circular saw was a godsend. Straight and very quick cuts.
 

Dave Budd

Gold Trader
Staff member
Jan 8, 2006
2,895
321
44
Dartmoor (Devon)
www.davebudd.com
Red's right, materials are cheap (relatively) but time is expensive. If I charged the same as a plumber for my work, I would never sell a knife even if I got the materials for free :(

Mind you, steel, copper and the like have rocketed over teh last few years and as I start to buy larger quanities of things it hits the posket harder each time. Ok, one £500 shipment of steel will last a year, but it's still £500 leaving the bank! :eek:
 

Chopper

Native
Sep 24, 2003
1,325
6
59
Kent.
Rent out BMP for bushcrafters, I went for a walk through there last week, everything still as it was when it was closed, no activity, no people, just untouched and going to waste, so make a killing while you can. :)
 

Zodiak

Settler
Mar 6, 2006
664
8
Kent UK
Chopper said:
Rent out BMP for bushcrafters, I went for a walk through there last week, everything still as it was when it was closed, no activity, no people, just untouched and going to waste, so make a killing while you can. :)
I havn't been there for years, but apparently it should be open again in May. Perhaps if they had hired it our more to non-scouts it would still be open now? Other sites such as Ross Wood have non-scout and scout only weekends. A few months ago I dropped #1 son of there for a Live Action Roleplay camp, there were over 200 people all laying over £30 for the weekend, not including food.

I actually looked at buying a few acres of woodland and renting out pitches to bushcrafters, but how much would people pay for one or two nights? Bearing in mind that a few acres would soon run out of brush for making shelters.

I estimated an average of 6 people per weekend at £5 each would only bring £1500 PA which after costs for getting running water laid on and some kind of bog (I wouldn't want poo everywhere!) would not be a very good return on the capital.

Plus most woodland sales are crippled by covennats that only let you make money from forrestry and nothing else.
 

spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
You can sell anything these days, take Clarkson for instance. They did a thing on top gear where they had to buy a Porsche, do a load of challenges and then sell it again. Clarkson had blown his engine and managed to sell it for more than he paid by breaking it at the scrappies and then turning the seats and engine block into some nice chairs and a coffee table! Pure genius! :D
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE