What have you learned recently?
- Thread starter Stringmaker
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Bacon Jerky is awesome......got a dehydrator and just happened to have some bacon in the fridge, 24 hours later.....heaven, will marinade it next time 
I learned yesterday that if you don't cool a fresh batch of charcloth properly it will smoulder its way through your bag and ignite your tinder behind your back whilst you are running a session with youngsters!
I've been there. Burnt hands from from fresh charcloth.
Not had a smoking Bergen from charcloth though.
touched by nature
I learned yesterday a great natural laxitive.
Take a large tree trunk with a fork and start cutting it into two straight pieces for sectioning.
Find that the heart has rotted out and one large limb suddenly lets go over the saw when making the relief cut and hits the top of the blade and goes skidding away.
I have also found that chainsaw trousers are waterproof
Take a large tree trunk with a fork and start cutting it into two straight pieces for sectioning.
Find that the heart has rotted out and one large limb suddenly lets go over the saw when making the relief cut and hits the top of the blade and goes skidding away.
I have also found that chainsaw trousers are waterproof
how to use a mora 164 spoon knife without loosing a thumb
LOL....
I learned that baking bread by hand is easy and gives delicious results.
I learned that deer can quickly get used to human presence. Having 5 deer coming within a 10 meter distance each day should make easy hunting.
I learned to see deer differently after having had a head and skin in my hands.
I learned I still suck at knots.
I learned that there's still so much to learn that i do not know where to start learning.....
off track hi john I've got all the earth children series of books im on book 4 the shelters of stone good books gonna try that iron pyrite and flint when i can get some oh and i learned that when you have a spinal tap you really can't feel your legs regards dave
Never!! Never!!! Never!!! under any circumstance take a sleeping pill and a laxative at the same time!
I've learned that having a pile of her stored up in the displeases the wife. Having a pile of gear stores in the outhouse doesn't make one a bushcrafter.
I learned to sharpen freehand 
Of course I've always been able to sharpen a scandi, nothing to it. But I think fear of ruining my knives and laziness induced by the Spyderco Sharpmaker always stopped me with full flat grinds/sabres. All it took was a SAK, a Spyderco Double Stuff, good lighting, and persistence. Didn't even ruin the knife cosmetically.
I'm well proud
Of course I've always been able to sharpen a scandi, nothing to it. But I think fear of ruining my knives and laziness induced by the Spyderco Sharpmaker always stopped me with full flat grinds/sabres. All it took was a SAK, a Spyderco Double Stuff, good lighting, and persistence. Didn't even ruin the knife cosmetically.
I'm well proud
I just learned that flintknapping uses muscles that do not get toned in a regular workout ... and that my hands have become as soft as an officeworkers since I last did any knapping!
Four arrowheads in one morning = sore arms and a huge blister on my index finger.
To add insult to injury... I attatched one arrowhead to a knacked old arrow and had a shoot at some soft targets in the garden using my Bhutanees style bow (about 40lbs pull) - the effect was devestating - and I learned that flint tanged and barbed arrows are truely effective... then one shot went astray (the fights are battered on this particular arrow, having passed through my hardboard target) and it missed the bag of composting leaves I was aiming at (from about 10m) and pierced the council issue heavy duty plastic compost bin next to it. Naturally, being barbed the head would not pull out so I had to pull the arrow out by brute force, leaving the head at the bottom of the compost bin - which will not be emptied until next year!
Four arrowheads in one morning = sore arms and a huge blister on my index finger.
To add insult to injury... I attatched one arrowhead to a knacked old arrow and had a shoot at some soft targets in the garden using my Bhutanees style bow (about 40lbs pull) - the effect was devestating - and I learned that flint tanged and barbed arrows are truely effective... then one shot went astray (the fights are battered on this particular arrow, having passed through my hardboard target) and it missed the bag of composting leaves I was aiming at (from about 10m) and pierced the council issue heavy duty plastic compost bin next to it. Naturally, being barbed the head would not pull out so I had to pull the arrow out by brute force, leaving the head at the bottom of the compost bin - which will not be emptied until next year!
If I may quickly summarise:
John Fenna posted: "I am a rotten shot with a bow and arrow"
Scots_Charles_River
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
How to Assess DofE expeditions, Golds are quite tough.
Made me think how/why I do trips away for a few days and comfort zones are relative.
Made me think how/why I do trips away for a few days and comfort zones are relative.
I recently learnt a new technique for catching hillstream loaches in a river about 1,500m up in the mountains of northern Sumatra. I've caught plenty of the same species much further down the same river, at an elevation of about 450m, using a large net. But we didn't have a net with us, so one of the guys dug up a couple of dozen earthworms, made a small needle out of some wood and used the needle to thread about a dozen earthworms onto a piece of cotton thread. He then wrapped the worms into a few loops, tied them up, then tied the whole thing to the end of a stick.
The baited stick was then jammed under likely looking rocks, at night, and any loaches that bit the worm bundle were quickly lifted out of the water and dropped into a bag. A typical haul for an hour or so fishing like this was about 30-50 loaches (about 4" to 6" in length).
The baited stick was then jammed under likely looking rocks, at night, and any loaches that bit the worm bundle were quickly lifted out of the water and dropped into a bag. A typical haul for an hour or so fishing like this was about 30-50 loaches (about 4" to 6" in length).
Ouch!If I may quickly summarise:
John Fenna posted: "I am a rotten shot with a bow and arrow"
But true ... that time!
