Unexpected wood supply, unsplittable

[Janne]

I was thinking more of the European nature tourists.

Did the trappers have a need for tools like augers?

As they lived for months in the wild, they must have been very well equipped.

 

[santaman2000]

I was thinking more of the European nature tourists.

Did the trappers have a need for tools like augers?

As they lived for months in the wild, they must have been very well equipped.

They often built rough cabins so I imagine they had some heavy (ish) tools. I s

I was thinking more of the European nature tourists.

Did the trappers have a need for tools like augers?

As they lived for months in the wild, they must have been very well equipped.

The trappers (mountain man era) often built crude cabins for a winter base so they must have carried heav(ish) tools. That said, i may have misunderstood Ken's comment about the kit people carried "back in the day" Your comment seems to infer he was talking about more or less modern (say mid 20th century onwards?) campers. I was thinking he meant small landholders from around the Great depression and backwards?

 

[Robson Valley]

I live in the west slope of the Rockies at 53N. This isn't the olden days = we still do have "mountain men" and "mountain women" too, for that matter.
Most of us know where they live. Going by, I would never point out the trails their main camps.
They come to town for supplies if and when they can get out in the winter but that's big time trapping season.
Trap lines create sustained yield and they are government licensed. Must be 3 or 4 lines in my part of the valley (side valleys).
The concept is to keep a breeding population and take just enough such that they never get into any resource compromise and begin to starve.
There are "line shacks" that each trapper maintains for overnight stops on long runs.

 

[Janne]

I was thinking the era mid 1700' to early 1900', before the modern materials and such. When city people started venturing into Nature.

We did not use mules in the mid 20th Century.....

 

[Janne]

Just thinking, the Op could not split those short logs. Can it be done using a hatchet ( or a piece of heavier wood) and a wedge made from a hard wood?

I have seen that online, but they used heavy mauls to hit the wedges.

 

[Robson Valley]

He couldn't split that fresh birch wood because he was out in a cold Wisconsin winter and the wood was frozen.
I'm guessing fresh since I see no cracks or checks in any end grain (should be lots if dry).

You can't get a 3.5lb axe into a round and you can't drive a wedge into any of it with an 8lb maul. I know, I've tried.
I use a maul and walk a set of wooden wedges down the sides of a cedar log for wood carving stock.

You can (and I did) bring 10 rounds of frozen birch into the house and split those 3 days later when they have thawed out.
Then, it's really easy.
Our trapping community can use gas engine transport. Most everybody uses a snowmobile and pulls a sled of supplies.
Then, if they can, they switch to a quad when the snow pack melts.
As of 2-3 weeks ago, we are sitting with 135% of normal with 300cm settled in most places.

 

[KenThis]

Regarding augers, I was thinking pre 20th century, I'm sure I read that for some frontiers people an auger was a standard tool in their kit. As mentioned some carried a lot of tools, all the tools necessary to build a house / log cabin. I don't know enough about it really but I assume there aren't a lot of ways to drill through a log otherwise.
Also I've seen augers of the same type as mine being used to make simple stools and chairs on YouTube.

Carrying an auger to a campsite might be overkill for some if not the majority, but I can see if someone were going to live in 'nature' rather than 'visit', tools like these would be necessary.
Just like it would be hard to improvise an awl or needle if needed, how else would someone drill holes...?

 

[Robson Valley]

The advantage of an auger here is jointing furniture and jointing beams in buildings.
If the tenon rots out of the mortise, clean the hole and start over.
The furniture shop down my street uses nothing but massive mortise and tenon joints.
Bed posts to 6-8" diameters.

Bear in mind that the Japan Current has been delivering Asian rubbish to the west coast of North America for many thousands of years.
One beach-combing prize is a glass fishing net float in a cord cage. Many break on the rocky coast and sink. I have a mint 6" example.
Some of that Asian trash has and had pieces of iron. What the coastal First Nations didn't need, they traded.
After the tsunami and Fukushima, we even got a motorcycle in Styrofoam!

Google UBC/MOA and select the online collection. Click on 'D' then click on "drill."
Scroll through the drill examples. Coastal First Nations had nephrite jade, a fibrous mineral that's remarkable hard
for adze blades and choppers. Blunt flint pieces will drill well, like a stumpy arrow. Lots of deposits of flint across the UK, yes?

 

[santaman2000]

Regarding augers, I was thinking pre 20th century, I'm sure I read that for some frontiers people an auger was a standard tool in their kit. As mentioned some carried a lot of tools, all the tools necessary to build a house / log cabin. I don't know enough about it really but I assume there aren't a lot of ways to drill through a log otherwise.
Also I've seen augers of the same type as mine being used to make simple stools and chairs on YouTube.

Carrying an auger to a campsite might be overkill for some if not the majority, but I can see if someone were going to live in 'nature' rather than 'visit', tools like these would be necessary.
Just like it would be hard to improvise an awl or needle if needed, how else would someone drill holes...?

Back in my early teens I remember seeing (in my BSA Fieldbook 1967 edition) how to make a dovetail joint with an hatchet and a small bow saw. Of course I had to try it, and it was reasonably easy with small logs (under 8 inches) I wish I still had that Fieldbook

Carrying an auger or any big(ish or heavy(ish) tool may seem like overkill to some, but so what? We mostly do our outdoor stuff for fun anyway now-a-days so why shouldn't we carry and use those items that give us enjoyment?

 

[Ascobis]

Just thinking, the Op could not split those short logs. Can it be done using a hatchet ( or a piece of heavier wood) and a wedge made from a hard wood?
I have seen that online, but they used heavy mauls to hit the wedges.

Tried that, didn't work. Banged on the embedded hatchet with another log and nothing useful happened. Wooden wedges, my usual techinque in this situation, just splintered.

Let's all calm down, this is an armchair exercise.

 

[Ascobis]

Back in my early teens I remember seeing (in my BSA Fieldbook 1967 edition) how to make a dovetail joint with an hatchet and a small bow saw. Of course I had to try it, and it was reasonably easy with small logs (under 8 inches) I wish I still had that Fieldbook

Carrying an auger or any big(ish or heavy(ish) tool may seem like overkill to some, but so what? We mostly do our outdoor stuff for fun anyway now-a-days so why shouldn't we carry and use those items that give us enjoyment?

My copy looks just like yours. Some of the techniques seem quaint today. Some are still relevant.

 

[Janne]

Aha, I see!
I never liked to make camp in areas of frekvent human stay. Did not want to step into their poo, or pitch a tent where they might have let some urine out.
Plus, a lack of easily accessible, dry sticks and branches.

I am calm, trust me, lying down with 2 types of antibiotics, a couple of tablets AND sips of mucus releasant, two puffs of bronk dilatator....
And a cup of Fortnum & Mason Caravan tea with organic honey beside me!

 

[Ascobis]

Aha, I see!
I never liked to make camp in areas of frekvent human stay. Did not want to step into their poo, or pitch a tent where they might have let some urine out.

I'd like to go to those places but this is the only planet I can reach in my car. Even this 'new' continent has 20,000 years of footprints and coprolites. <snark intended >

 

[z_bumbi]

Late to the fire

For keeping warm a whole night I would make a upside down fire. In the morning I would make the fire burn faster to avoid leaving so much "trash".

 

[Ascobis]

Late to the fire

For keeping warm a whole night I would make a upside down fire. In the morning I would make the fire burn faster to avoid leaving so much "trash".

yes. That's what it was.