What are the fundamental skills?

[Scottishwanderer]

Obviously the Food, fire, shelter and water is a big one.

In bushcraft what would you consider fundamental skills outwith the big 4?

Making cordage with local materials
Carving a try stick
Bowdrill
Knowledge of how to make effective shelter, i differentiate between ability to make one and ability to make it effective. Anyone can build a lean to not many can make it effective
Fire as a tool

 

[armie]

First aid is a useful skill

 

[Jinsin456]

I would say being able to use use your tools properly, most importantly for me is that I like to keep my axes and knives sharp and know how to use them effectively but most of all safely. A lot of skills involve the use of edged tools and being confident is using and maintaining them is an essential skill in my book. I could be wrong but imho this is important

Hope this helps.

 

[Retired Member southey]

for me at the moment, they are

comfort = pack weight, clothes, bedding, ease of use for kit,

water = carrying it and collecting\processing it either chemicals or heat both after filtration,

staying dry = While walking or sheltering either under a shelter i have carried\made of found,

food = either collecting while out or brining with me and how best to cook it,

 

[Scottishwanderer]

I would say being able to use use your tools properly, most importantly for me is that I like to keep my axes and knives sharp and know how to use them effectively but most of all safely. A lot of skills involve the use of edged tools and being confident is using and maintaining them is an essential skill in my book. I could be wrong but imho this is important

Hope this helps.

True thats why i mentioned the try stick as it seems to be the marker of competent knife use and if your knife ain't sharp you can't carve one.

As a friend always say's " If you can't shave with your knife, it's blunt"

 

[ged]

Improvisation. Navigation. Communication.

 

[rik_uk3]

Obviously the Food, fire, shelter and water is a big one.

In bushcraft what would you consider fundamental skills outwith the big 4?

Making cordage with local materials
Carving a try stick
Bowdrill
Knowledge of how to make effective shelter, i differentiate between ability to make one and ability to make it effective. Anyone can build a lean to not many can make it effective
Fire as a tool

Campcraft is vital, remember you have to live in it so get it right. This is before you start flaffing about making cordage or carving sticks and trying a bowdrill. Good campcraft will help dictate the equipment you take on a trip, the way you organise and plan your trip. Learn to set your shelter right first, shelter from the elements is in some respect more important than fire; your not going to have a fire in a howling gale unless its sheltered.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Food is always mentioned but how do people think they're going to get it?
Tracking, hunting, fishing and knowledge of nature is my number one. You're not going to get lucky and stumble across a tasty animal that doesn't want to run away from you.

No good being able to carve a spoon if you've got nothing to eat.

 

[Maggot]

Surely navigation must be the top of the rest. If you don't know where you are, where you are going, or how you are going to get there, you're knackered.

 

[billybob0987]

You're not going to get lucky and stumble across a tasty animal that doesn't want to run away from you.

cody lundin could, he just needs to walk along a stream and dead fish just flop at his feet

bodgeries a good skill to have, the ability to repair or make things with what ever you can find is a handy skill to have in any situation, infact the other day i had a rad hose blow on my car, and i managed to bofge it back together with super glue, a ranger band and some insulation tape, which managed to hold together just long enough for me to get home, and has had no i'll effect on the car which i have since properly repaired

 

[Maggot]

I could go with bodgery as an essential skill. I was involved in an overnight bike ride on Saturday night, Bristol to Exmouth. One chaps tyre blew, the side wall not the innertube, and he carried on his way (70 miles to go) after the application of grass, gaffer tape and a strip from a lemonade bottle! Top Bodgery there!

 

[Swallow]

I could go with bodgery as an essential skill. I was involved in an overnight bike ride on Saturday night, Bristol to Exmouth. One chaps tyre blew, the side wall not the innertube, and he carried on his way (70 miles to go) after the application of grass, gaffer tape and a strip from a lemonade bottle! Top Bodgery there!

I've got to know how the grass was used. I can kind of figure the gaffer tape and the lemonade bottle.