What are the aims & purpose of Bushcrafting?
I ask this question because I used to think that Bushcraft was like Woodscraft, where people would learn the old skills & crafts. But now I see Bushcrafters increasingly using modern gadgets, especially for fire lighting, they have even started calling the ferrocerium rod a flint & steel!!
I use an oilcloth because I like the feeling of being self reliant & self sufficient & using skills to keep me comfortable rather than carrying extra gear.
With respect & regards, Keith.
Keith, I hear you!
I've long understood "Bushcraft" to be a term used in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for what we (in the UK) used to call "Woodscraft", "Woodcraft" or "Woodlore". In the film "
Hunt For The Wilderpeople", they just casually call it "The Knack". I love that under-statedness.
I use a "ferro rod" (amongst other methods) and it's a pet peeve of mine when I hear people call it a "flint and steel" or "firesteel". When I explain the difference between a ferrocium* rod and a flint, steel and charcloth, they usually look at me as if I'm from another planet. I think the cause of that sort of problem is marketing and a TV showman who is considered an expert yet really isn't, imo.
{* Perhaps I pronounce "ferrocium" wrongly. Is it "Fe-Ro-Si-Um" or "Ferr-Osium"?}
As for gadgets, I've never understood the popularity of the type of ferro rod that springs into a handgrip to cause sparks. It's big and doesn't do more than what a simple rod does. It wouldn't fit into my wallet which my 8mm diameter ferro rod does and unobtrusively. There are so many gadgets out there labelled as "bushcraft" or "survival" tools - and most wouldn't be touched by anyone on this forum unless it was a gift to them and they're incredibly bored.
When I was a kid, we'd raid our parents' kitchens for kit to take out to go out and "make camp". I discovered that you could boil water in a glass jar if you hang it and are careful. Yet the teapot one friend put into the fire didn't fare so well - and neither did our fire...
You raise the question of technology versus "old ways"/knowledge. Reading the comments here, my dogmatic thoughts on this have relaxed. I think the principle should always be to develop wilderness skills and knowledge, whether you're going out with old tech or the latest superduper megabucks shiney kit. I think the problem can arise if all the bells and whistles distract you from learning the true bushcrafty stuff or when you become too reliant on its convenience.
What you've inferred, but no-one seems to have commented on, is the
conditioning that's required to use old technologies. To me, going out into the woods is partly about maintaining a mental/physical conditioning that enables me to feel self-assured and comfortable enough whatever I'm doing/facing. That self-assurance means that I can go out with very little kit and still know I'll get by.
I go out precisely because I want to be in nature but also I
want to reduce my creature comforts. The times that I've been unexpectedly stranded overnight in the middle of nowhere on a cold night, I've had next nothing in kit, just sometimes my Swiss Army knife (EDC) and (usually) my wallet which contains a can opener, salt sachets, ferro rod, Francis Barker button compass, flatish small spoon, Victorinox Swiss Card - and debit card(!). Sometimes I also have another tool in it - cash. (Sometimes)
I've learned to always also carry a space blanket where possible.
To me, though, using a cooker is definitely campcraft, not bushcraft. Sleeping under a shelter sheet is campcraft but I do this when I'm out.
As for true bushcraft, there should be minimal reliance on
synthetic technology. Kit you can make or mend/maintain more-or-less indefinitely in the woods is the "right" or "better" kit (arguable even in my own mind! I know that might be a red flag to a bull for many people but I don't mean it that way). What I'm getting at is that you might carry a bic lighter but should be able and comfortable using far more primitive methods of firelighting - and be practised. Just my opinion, I'm not the god of the woods.
The C Claycomb's Venn diagram link explains it so well:
Eight years on, and this is still the best description out there that I have seen.
As soon as I saw a Venn diagram involved, I rolled my eyes and thought "You can't be serious?!" But as I watched, I was greatly impressed and laughing at myself. I would not have thought it possible to describe bushcraft so well -
and using a Venn diagram!
A bushcrafter on the Montblanc is like a cowboy in New York..
You've never seen the TV series "McCloud"?
(That intro just gets crazier as it progresses...)
We have cowboys in London. One of them installed my parents' gas central heating boiler...
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Personally, "Bushcraft" is something that I sort of do. These days, I think about it
much more than I actually do it and then I only seem to do it for moments. Skills development and practise is an excuse to get out into the woods. Often, a lot of my "bushcrafting" is simply walking about identifying trees and plants, foraging to take home, etc. Usually, firebow practice is done in the garden (rightly can't have fires on Wimbledon Common) and knots practice done in the front room! Most people wouldn't call any of that bushcraft, I know!
One of the problems I have is that conflict of using natural resources against harming the environment I'm in (a universal problem in the UK). The only time to make a natural shelter using tree boughs is after Christmas when people put out their Christmas trees. We used to cut off the lower boughs, bunch them and ferry them to our basha in woodland - it takes a lot of trips but it makes sense. Once you've done it once, you don't bother again - too much work! But good experience.
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Although bushcraft seems to be a bit of a niche linked more to outdoor adventure, survivalism and the like, the hippie in me knows it has a very valid part to play in the global warming "pandemic". People don't know the value of the resources they over-use daily, often without an inkling or care other than how it affects their wallet. People tend to throw money (via gas or electricity bill) at the matter of over heating their homes but if they just had to keep a small fire going through the night, they'd begin to appreciate the work, basic organisation and resources it takes. The effort and fuel you need to feed such a fire puts fuel use into perspective.