I spent a quiet afternoon trying out some new kit and practising a little woodcraft over the weekend. I went to a local valley that has a nice bit of mixed woodland (a relative scarcity round here).
Spring was most definitely in the air and the birdsong was tremendous.
I slipped off the popular main road/path and into the woods to a lesser used area
Unfortunately due to the terrain there isn't a particularly wide stretch of usable woodland to set up in but it's close enough to home and a very pleasant part of the world.
I am very much the beginner when it comes to bushcraft and am definitely time poor also. So whatever opportunities I get I grab with both hands. This trip I wanted to try out my little hobo stove and a new BCB cup with hanger and lid. I also received a Mora knife at Christmas and wanted to test this against my old Helle model. It was also going to be nice to use the Bacho saw outside the garden for once!
So I rolled a convenient log into place and had a sit down to begin some carving
Once done, gathered up some wood
and got a cosy little fire going
And then got some soup on the go to compliment the fine handmade sandwiches I had with me
A very simple afternoon in the woods, but a first for me with pothook cooking etc.
A few lessons I learned and I'd appreciate any feedback or thoughts;
Spring was most definitely in the air and the birdsong was tremendous.
I slipped off the popular main road/path and into the woods to a lesser used area
Unfortunately due to the terrain there isn't a particularly wide stretch of usable woodland to set up in but it's close enough to home and a very pleasant part of the world.
I am very much the beginner when it comes to bushcraft and am definitely time poor also. So whatever opportunities I get I grab with both hands. This trip I wanted to try out my little hobo stove and a new BCB cup with hanger and lid. I also received a Mora knife at Christmas and wanted to test this against my old Helle model. It was also going to be nice to use the Bacho saw outside the garden for once!
So I rolled a convenient log into place and had a sit down to begin some carving
Once done, gathered up some wood
and got a cosy little fire going
And then got some soup on the go to compliment the fine handmade sandwiches I had with me
A very simple afternoon in the woods, but a first for me with pothook cooking etc.
A few lessons I learned and I'd appreciate any feedback or thoughts;
- My Mora was factory sharp and this was better than my previous efforts with the helle. It demonstrated very effectively the value of having a very sharp blade when it comes to carving.
- I had the Bahco saw and this proved very good and much quieter than an axe which was useful being in relatively close proximity to a path.
- The BCB Crusader Cup makes a passable billy-can but the lid kept falling into the soup, so a 10cm billy would be infinitely better.
- The hobo stove is a great little companion, but would be easier to use if raised off the ground by a foot or so.
- The Norwegian surplus bag is fine for the price, the straps squeak a little when walking. But the size means the flap makes a great table for resting a knife and other light things within hand reach.
- For the hobo stove you can't have enough thumb thickness wood available to keep it going, it's easy to focus on the smaller stuff to get things going, but in dry weather this doesn't take long.
