Outdoor Show NEC....Fantastic

[maddave]

Just spent a day at the Bushcraft 'enclave' at the NEC and finally met some of the excellent bods that make BushcraftUK the most welcoming and down to earth place to be for bushcrafters on the web. I met many characters, Tony, Jack,Stuart of Kellam and his better half (her words not his lol) Jamie, Adi007 and his lovely family and many more. We had a good chat, played with all the toys (axes, knives, blast matches, Flint and charcloth, Hennesey hammocks) and perhaps gave a few members of the public an insight into the fascinating world of bushcraft. DG was there giving friction firelighting demo's (which he conned me into doing too after lulling me into a false sense of security by letting me sit in his nice comfy wheelbarrow!). I had that much fun it was only when I was tearing down the M6 on my bike to go home that I realised I hadn't eaten all day but Jules came to the rescue with a steak dinner when I got home :-D

All in all a cracking day out with good laughs, no issues and great people,

GREAT TO MEET Y'ALL BCUK ROCKS!!:super:

 

[Adi007]

It was great to meet up with you too Maddave! :biggthump

 

[Kath]

Great to meet you, Mad Dave!! (loved your bow drill demo/talk by the way!)

And what a cool bunch of people in our little community! Great way to spend a weekend - let's do it again soon, everyone!

Rest of the show was very busy & packed, but the BCUK enclave was like a little island of tranquility among the madness...

:-D

 

[Lithril]

Had a great day at the show, shame it took so long to find the BCUK enclave as that had to be the highlight. Got to say there are some great people on this forum, definately looking foward to meeting up again.

Maddave definately lives up to his name although I think Jack could be a contender for that title too - MadderJack perhaps???

Cheers to everyone for helping with my first Bowdrill fire (even if it did take about an hour and a half :shock: ).

All I can say is Roll on the Wilderness Gathering!!!! :-D

 

[Womble]

I absolutley loved the show, and it was great meeting Jack, Tony, Stuart (again!) Chris Claycombe and anyone else I missed

Apologies to Adi for not getting around to chat to you - sorry mate!

I managed to pick up a Gransfors axe, some mapping software (the whole of southern Britain in OS 1:50,000 on 3d rendering software) and some 2-way radios, but most of all I had fun!

 

[Jamie]

It really was fantastic meeting so many people at the show and thank you all for coming to support us in our little bit of ancient woodland (bluebells and all!) slap bang in the middle of the NEC site!

You're all nutters, but then I guess that makes me one as well - and happy to be so! Lith, you're right .....Jack is a nutter does that make him a nutterjack or a natterjack????

Great to see you all.....and hope to see you all soon!

Jamie

 

[MartiniDave]

I got to the show on sunday as threatened. It was great to meet Tony, Jamie, Stuart, Jack, Dave and Roving Rich over at the little enclave. Sorry I missed those of you who were there on the other 2 days. My lad Michael was more than impressed by Stuarts demonstration of a puuko on Roving Rich's air hair, and he just loved the Hennesey hammock. In all the excitement I clean forgot to compare the Wetterling and GB axes Jack had on display!

Cheers guys

Dave

 

[EdS]

Went on the Friday - had a great time.

Nice tp put a few faces to names.

 

[C_Claycomb]

As has been said, it was great to put faces with names and posts. Jack was about the only person that looked remotely like I thought he would!!!

I think that Dave deserves some kind of medal :notworthy for all that effort on the bow-drill! I am sure that many of the people were attracted by the billowing clouds of smoke

Actually I am full of respect :ekt: for everyone who stuck it out for the whole 3 days! I had had a stressful week, but was only there on the Saturday and was totally knackered on Sunday! :-?

Thanks to everyone for making my "chauffeur" feel so welcome, she really enjoyed meeting everyone. On the way home she commented that it was really nice to get to meet such a normal group of people!! :rolmao:

Chris

 

[Kath]

Thanks to everyone for making my "chauffeur" feel so welcome, she really enjoyed meeting everyone. On the way home she commented that it was really nice to get to meet such a normal group of people!! :rolmao:

Chris

What a lovely lady your mum is! Full of great stories! You should get her to sign up to the forum!

It was really great to meet you both!

 

[Adi007]

Thanks to everyone for making my "chauffeur" feel so welcome, she really enjoyed meeting everyone. On the way home she commented that it was really nice to get to meet such a normal group of people!! :rolmao:

Obviously we hid out true selves very well then! :rolmao:
Wonderful to meet you both! Your hand made knives and bows were a real crowd-pleaser!
:biggthump

 

[C_Claycomb]

Dang! I was so busy talking bows and showing knives that I totally forgot to go talk to Adi about his flint and steel! grrrr :-x heh heh

Yeah, my mum does have her uses I can send her out, get her to chat with everyone, then I can have her tell me all about the people she meets! I would try to get her signed up, maybe this year, she is still only slowly getting to grips with the computer. Email is okay, but she hasn't worked out the internet yet :-D

Kath, Adi, you have a smashing family! Hope you all got back home without incident.

Same goes for everyone else that was there.

 

[Adi007]

Dang! I was so busy talking bows and showing knives that I totally forgot to go talk to Adi about his flint and steel! grrrr :-x heh heh

No kidding - I was seeing that flint and steel and embers on char cloth in my sleep Saturday night ... over the Fri-Sat I must have used it well over a hundred times! :-D
I thought that the Pot Permang/antifreeze fire and the wire wool and battery demos went down well too.

 

[claireabelle]

Hi I'm Claire and I came to the show on Friday with Tony. It was good to eventually meet up with people I have heard Tony talking about:

Jack and Jamie, it was a real pleasure. Hope you get lots of interest in the hammocks followng my "hard sell" of them to people. Don't forget my % cut will you?

Adi and Kath, you have lovely children. Say hi to Amy and Tina for me. They both loved the hammocks and both separately said to me that Ray Mears had one of them and did I know that their Dad had a DVD of Ray Mears?

Stuart and Cindy, it was good to meet you. My husband is really interested in a Wolverine so I might have to contact you about buying one? also I'm interested in a reindeer skin so I'll be in touch.

DG your fire by friction demos were amazing. It was good to sit and chill with you while stuffing leaflets into your brouchures. Hope you got rid of loads of them and that your courses go well. Also all the best for the future.

All in all I had a great time on Friday, thanks for making me feel so welcome - even though I am a complete bushcraft novice. If you are at the show next year I am sure I will see you as Tony has already got me lined up for postcard distribution.

All the best,
Claire

 

[SteveUK]

I was very glad to finaly meet up with many of you on Saturday. Stuart, love the Wolverine and where did you get your smock ?,
Addi lovley to meet you and your other half, Chris great bows and knives, Tony thanks for the info. and to everybody else who I spoke to thanks for making it a great day. :-D

Stephen

 

[Stuart]

Hello everyone

I've just gotten in and i'm exhusted!

Great to meet you all I had a wonderfull dinner with adi and his fantastic family, Jamie, Jack and Dave during which we discovered that we collectivley had 11 knives at the table :shock:

I got to meet Chris again and marvle at his incredable knives and bows
and cindy loves your mum :-D

Stuart, love the Wolverine and where did you get your smock ?

The smock was a custom made by snowsled

Thanks everyone for making it such a great show!!!

 

[Jack]

Stuart.
Just like to say that you are a star! The show wouldn’t of happened if it wasn’t for your hard work and dedication. Thank you my friend.

Tone.
I hope the weekend leaves you with feeling of pride because it should do, you have built a community that has truly transformed people’s lives and not many people have the pleasure of doing that.

Adi007.
Wonderful to of meet you and even better to meet your wife!! ( better looking than you mate, sorry).
Your children are a credit to you both. I wish you could of stayed longer but hopefully we will meet up again soon. If you need any giffs, just drop us a line! And thank you for keeping everyone laughing.......and I didn’t know that you have written so many books and I am amazed at how many gadgets one man can carry!

Kath.
Pleasure. Didn’t know a lady could carry so many gadgets!

Kate 688.

Please be understanding with your Mum with your placement to Iraq, it isn’t easy being a parent and I wish you well.

Bow Drill Dave.

Dave, I hope you are having an easy day mate, you deserve it.

Dave work tirelessly through the whole of the 3 days demonstrating fire by friction ( apart from when Mad Dave took over, and we will get on to him in the minute! And when the Rove turned up and sat in the wheel barrow all day.) Again, for me, it is always a pleasure to watch and admire a skilled man at work and this was what I watched over the 3 days. I always have respect for someone who is willing to share their own hard earned skills with other people, for nothing. You inspired, maybe over a thousand people this weekend and I hope that you are inundated for course’s. You hit the nail on the head.

MadDave.

Well. What can be said about MD. He was everything I wasn’t expecting. He has an electric personality and when you meet him you will know why. He must be the star of the show, he was only with us for a day but he left his mark. He wowed the public with his fire by friction demos and holding the fort while Dave had a break ( not in his land rover by the way). I believe Stuart shaved his head with a Wolverine!

Dave told his wife that he was just nipping out to see someone and ended up at the NEC! How did that happen then? He lives in Manchester. He does however ride a 1100cc bike so perhaps that is just nipping out, as it does take long to get anywhere on one of them.

This may help sum up MD:

Dave had said his goodbyes and was walking away from us when Jamie shouted ‘ take care on that bike Dave’............Dave shouted back ‘ why’.........says it all really.



Claire.
Thanks for your sales techniques on the Hennessy, they went down a storm and Jamie and I seem to spend half the weekend in them, demonstrating them of course! Yep, you are on a % and we will be doing your good man a good deal!......but book early to avoid disappointment! Was wonderful to meet you as well.

Something that I must tell everyone thou. Tone reckons that you both gave out about a thousand cards on Friday. But after you left, Tone only manage to give out about 2 over the rest of the weekend........why was that then Tone? Was it the shorts you had on or was it something else? :shock:

Sargey.
Good to meet you and as always, full of wisdom and thank you for the beer and I will get a hook up to you!


Chris C.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the only man I have ever meet that has left ‘Kellam’ Stuart speechless. Chris your skill and craftsmanship is of the highest calibre and it was a privilege to meet you and your ‘chauffeur’. Your are a credit and an inspiration the bushcraft world. As I have already said, you have gain a special place in this community not only with you skill and your etiquette but also by being the first man to render Stuart speechless..........I dare say Cindy would pay a lot of money for that!

Rove.

As always mate. Like your style and your binos!


And to a big thank you to everyone one else who took the time to come and see us and spend some time with us including, Womble, Lithril, Eds, Dave, Martin, and Jamie and I are sorry if we looked a bit blank on Sunday but we hadn’t stopped since 6.30am Friday morning!


Jack.

Dare say I will write some more on the subject!

 

[Womble]

Now: about these girly artificial flints...!

 

[Adi007]

Yes, Jack is right about Dave who worked on the fire by friction tirelessly for the whole three days. He must have done the demo literally dozens of times over the two days I was there and folks were mightly impressed with his show. He worked hard and his efforts will be well rewarded by many new customers coming his way. A very knowledgable guy, a great educator and an absolute gent. Very kind of him to give both his time and knowledge.
It was a pleasure to meet him!

 

[EdS]

Jack,

Liked the tool kit roll.

As I said it a better version of one I've been using. Certainly keeps kit together and makes it look more "respectable"/ workman like.

Helps stop people way the back of works pick up if full of axe, saw, knife etc. well you got to do something on your lunch break when your in the middle of a field.


Keep me informed on the design progress as I'd be up for one.