Something like trekker's theorem #3: Always know where you are and look cool, if you haven't the faintest at least look cool.
What are the aims & purpose of Bushcrafting?
- Thread starter Le Loup
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But you're only a youngster
Unfortunately, I've lived a carefree life which has started to catch up with me.
Si
No, "tactical" is stuff that looks like military equipment, but never ever would be bought by an army.
Bushcraft is a civil thing, that's called in military circles "survival".
Bushcraft is a civil thing, that's called in military circles "survival".
No, no, no; let's not start mixing bushcraft skills and practices with survival skills and practices - there is overlap I agree but they are not the same thing. I learn, practice and teach wilderness skills (bushcraft) because I want to be there (in the wilderness); I learn, practice and teach survival skills because I don't want to be there - subtle difference IMHO.
OK, I agree.
Bushcraft is a way into the forest.
Survival is the way out of the forest.
Both look in the first view pretty similar but aren't the same.
Bushcraft is a way into the forest.
Survival is the way out of the forest.
Both look in the first view pretty similar but aren't the same.
No, no, no
Survivial is get out asap.
Bushcraft is chill out asap.
Survivial is get out asap.
Bushcraft is chill out asap.
I think bushcraft is a catch-all for many things, perhaps even survival. It can be what you want it to be.
Ah but, Survivalists claim that bushcraft is a subset of survival, while bushcrafters feel that survival is just an interesting aside to the 'crafting
I'm inclined to think of bushcraft as being able to start from nothing and be comfortable. You don't need to carry a survival kit, iimmc ?
I like the seasonality to my bush crafting, I like the way I know I will never know it all, that if I even manage to know how to find and use what's around me here then I'll be doing well. I like the skill set and the resources I find and use. It greatly enriches my life
I'm inclined to think of bushcraft as being able to start from nothing and be comfortable. You don't need to carry a survival kit, iimmc ?
I like the seasonality to my bush crafting, I like the way I know I will never know it all, that if I even manage to know how to find and use what's around me here then I'll be doing well. I like the skill set and the resources I find and use. It greatly enriches my life
I find it connects to self sufficiency.
Enhancing my life. Instead of buying something (or not being able to afford something) I can make it.
When you sometimes struggle with independence (As I can do) then that is a big deal.
Enhancing my life. Instead of buying something (or not being able to afford something) I can make it.
When you sometimes struggle with independence (As I can do) then that is a big deal.
But surely 'survival' is what results from an accident over which you have no control and when you are not entirely prepared for it; with 'bushcraft', you choose to be there and equip yourself appropriately with skills and, ideally, minimal gear.
Ooooh...... survivalist vs bushcrafter! Who's who?
I sometimes day dream about 'what if I found myself dislocated and alone in the wilderness'.... well, Id go through the 'shelter, fire, water, food, return' stuff, with the situation dictating which has most priority. That's survival mode. But I would use mostly bushcraft skill and knowledge to enable me to do that. Tricky isn't it?
If I stayed purely in 'survival' mode, with the emphasis on 'return' I'd come out looking like a really really beaten up version of Bear Grylls (sans cool hair cut and splat of dried mud on my face). But if I concentrate and use my bushcraft skill I will still return, but the experience would of been more agreeable!
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I sometimes day dream about 'what if I found myself dislocated and alone in the wilderness'.... well, Id go through the 'shelter, fire, water, food, return' stuff, with the situation dictating which has most priority. That's survival mode. But I would use mostly bushcraft skill and knowledge to enable me to do that. Tricky isn't it?
If I stayed purely in 'survival' mode, with the emphasis on 'return' I'd come out looking like a really really beaten up version of Bear Grylls (sans cool hair cut and splat of dried mud on my face). But if I concentrate and use my bushcraft skill I will still return, but the experience would of been more agreeable!
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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:
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!
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.
If done appropriately, the latter to home, the former to a hotel...If I stayed purely in 'survival' mode, with the emphasis on 'return' I'd come out looking like a really really beaten up version of Bear Grylls (sans cool hair cut and splat of dried mud on my face). But if I concentrate and use my bushcraft skill I will still return, but the experience would of been more agreeable!
This analogy reminds me of a true story where a bloke and his girlfriend were caught out in the wilderness and survived. Their vehicle was stuck in sand and they left it to find help.
Brit lost in Outback survived due to Bear Grylls tip - but it almost killed him
Anthony Collis buried himself in the sand to keep warm as he saw the TV star do - but this meant heat detection search equipment couldn't find him
www.mirror.co.uk
Looks more that he totally fluked it despite claiming to have used a Ted Grylls' "survival technique". If they'd watched Ray Mears instead, they'd have known to stay with the car - and they should have had an easier time of things...
I'm not impressed that he dumped his girlfriend in the middle of nowhere during such a crisis. She seems to have more of the "survivor instinct" that Grylls is always going on about - he should have stayed with her for his own good, I'm embarrassed for him!
Ferrocium or ferrocerium ? .....in which case it's; fer-ro-ce-ri-um.
In classical Latin yes, later in vulgar Latin etc. it changed in front of e and i. The element is apparently pronounced with an "s". The name seems to originate from a Roman goddess via an asteroid.
To pronounce that we are old school classical campers we probably should call it
Ferro Kerrium?
Klassikal Kotta Kamping kum Kniv, Kordage, Kerium, Kup, Kochgeschirr, Kuillère, Knapsack, Koat, Kili kum Karne!
Ferro Kerrium?
Klassikal Kotta Kamping kum Kniv, Kordage, Kerium, Kup, Kochgeschirr, Kuillère, Knapsack, Koat, Kili kum Karne!
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Whatever it's called it's much more useful than the deceptively named amazon fire stick
Yep, I never could get a spark out of mine even with fresh batteries!
