What is bushcraft ?

[Bluffer]

The question is like asking 'what is driving'

Whether you drive 100 miles a year in a Reliant or 50,000 miles a year in a Bentley, you are still labelled as a 'driver'

So, anytime you use wilderness skills, techniques, procedures or any associated equipment you can be described as doing bushcraft. Even if you are in your backyard or a campsite.

It would be divisive and elitist to suggest otherwise. Obviously anyone who owns or uses a spork must be ridiculed, it goes without saying that sporkies are not bushies.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

To me what you carry doesn't define the term Bushcraft.
I think for me rg598 hit it on the head as a set of wilderness skills which we practice, they can be modern camping skills all the way back to primitive living skills as well as knowledge of what's about us.

 

[sandbender]

"...For me bushcraft is a set of wilderness skills, not a separate activity..."

+1 to this.

"...So come on guys ultimate basic kit list..."

An ultimate basic kit list would be what is in my head, I'd like to take my jacket but I could walk out the door after breakfast tomorrow morning, walk about ten miles and by nightfall I'd have a shelter to sleep under, a fire and I might even have a bedtime snack, I'd need no tools to do this. However my knowledge (craft) is local to the landscape (bush) around here or in some other parts of Europe, if I tried the same thing in Namibia or the Arctic Sweden I'd likely die.

If I could take a basic kit rather than an 'ultimate basic kit' I'd choose suitable clothing and footwear, my fire making pouch, my billy can, a knife and maybe some cord.

 

[Bowlander]

Difficult, if not impossible to better that as a description of kit - I don't think I've ever left the house twice with the same stuff, it's always fitted that set of parameters though.......

I'd add:

Something to dig a hole with.

Something to wipe your bum with.



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[John Fenna]

I'd add:

Something to dig a hole with.

Something to wipe your bum with.



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covered in tools and keeping clean....

 

[wingstoo]

Hmmmm, let me think about this... It's a label, so we can put it in a box and call it something.

In the military they might call it "Field craft", which is about the craft of living and working in the field.

Do we have any places in the UK we can call "the Bush" (Clean and sensible answers only please Ladies and gentlemen) which sadly is where most people practice the art unless they are fortunate enough to be able to pay for or live in "the bush".

YMMV

 

[British Red]

Its a hobby and it covers relaxing ways to spend time away from "civilisation" in a low tech manner. That may be as part of another reason to be out and about (hunting, fishing, photography, bird watching etc.) or it may be just to play dens in the woods.

It is no more and no less worthy than playing with train sets or breeding budgerigars,

Occasionally some poor naive soul comes along intending to live in the non existent British Wilderness by hunting the scarce and protected game animals and foraging the far from abundant wild plants. They usually provide much amusement and then grow up. Some are determined enough to die trying sadly.

It is, just a hobby.

 

[THOaken]

Its a hobby and it covers relaxing ways to spend time away from "civilisation" in a low tech manner. That may be as part of another reason to be out and about (hunting, fishing, photography, bird watching etc.) or it may be just to play dens in the woods.

It is no more and no less worthy than playing with train sets or breeding budgerigars,

Occasionally some poor naive soul comes along intending to live in the non existent British Wilderness by hunting the scarce and protected game animals and foraging the far from abundant wild plants. They usually provide much amusement and then grow up. Some are determined enough to die trying sadly.

It is, just a hobby.

I don't know of any of those people, BR. Do you have sources? I'm only aware of Americans such as Chris Mccandless and the like. Thanks.

And Bushcraft is just a hobby, though it isn't a word that has a strict definition as it covers too many topics and disciplines. As such there's not much point in asking what is Bushcraft. Some of us are craftsmen, bird watchers, wild campers, fishermen, orienteers, etc. But we're all outdoorsmen and women.

 

[John Fenna]

Nah - not a hobby for me...
My life revolves around the skills I lump under that huge title "Bushcraft".
Bushcraft instruction, selling gear to others for "Bushcrafting", reviewing gear suitable for practicing Bushcrafting etc are major parts of my income stream.
"Bushcraft" is such a vague and amorphous term that it can cover everything from reloading for black powder firearms to selecting the herbs to have on your Sunday roast at home ... living off the land in the wild is just one part of it - a wildly romanticised part

My other work is just make-weight...

 

[Mandos]

but as uncle ray has often said bushcraft is what native people use to stay alive and is a dying art form anybody agree with that one ?

 

[British Red]

Ahh but people make a living from most hobbies John - Hornby made a fortune out of train sets - there are train set magazines, model shops, model manufacturers all offering employment to people. I think we can all agree that playing with train sets is a hobby. Very few people need to make debris shelters or carve spoons to stay alive.

I'm not belittling it, and there are livings to be made from it - but that doesn't alter the fact that its a hobby - albeit that you, and others, can make a living from supplying items and services

 

[THOaken]

Nah - not a hobby for me...
My life revolves around the skills I lump under that huge title "Bushcraft".
Bushcraft instruction, selling gear to others for "Bushcrafting", reviewing gear suitable for practicing Bushcrafting etc are major parts of my income stream.
"Bushcraft" is such a vague and amorphous term that it can cover everything from reloading for black powder firearms to selecting the herbs to have on your Sunday roast at home ... living off the land in the wild is just one part of it - a wildly romanticised part

My other work is just make-weight...

You're right, John. I would say it is the same for me. It is a hobby, true, but it can enrich people's lives. It has enriched my life so much and transformed it that I don't think of it as a hobby. My life revolves around it.

Edit: British Red is right in that it technically is a hobby.

 

[John Fenna]

I used to make money making miniature figurines as well
Not many people need to go canoeing to stay alive but for years my JOB not a "hobby" was working for a charity that amongst other stuff, taught people to canoe.
A hobby is something you enjoy doing - and some days I hated having to act as "riot control" while trying to teach thugs how to move a canoe from one point to another! - that was a JOB!
I guess that is why I gave up working for that charity in the end!
I maintain that I have not really had a JOB since I was 20 - I have just managed to get paid to have fun
I guess we need to define the difference between a JOB and getting money for doing something you (and others) would try to do even if they had to pay to do it

 

[santaman2000]

"Bushcraft" is the art of crafting bushes:

 

[wingstoo]

That's topiary...

 

[santaman2000]

Yes. It is indeed. LOL

 

[GordonM]

Its a hobby and it covers relaxing ways to spend time away from "civilisation" in a low tech manner. That may be as part of another reason to be out and about (hunting, fishing, photography, bird watching etc.) or it may be just to play dens in the woods.

It is no more and no less worthy than playing with train sets or breeding budgerigars,

Occasionally some poor naive soul comes along intending to live in the non existent British Wilderness by hunting the scarce and protected game animals and foraging the far from abundant wild plants. They usually provide much amusement and then grow up. Some are determined enough to die trying sadly.

It is, just a hobby.

Well said, BR. I too have made a very personally rewarding career as part of the 'outdoor recreation industry' as a parks and recreation professional. This video, though long, points to many a person's dream of testing themselves in the wild but reality can be somewhat harsh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPbz5TDy6fs

 

[British Red]

many a person's dream of testing themselves in the wild but reality can be somewhat harsh.

Indeed - the naive come unstuck all too fast - always a shame that someone dies (however childish and foolhardy). I suspect some people who cannot function in the modern world try to live in their fantasies - until reality stops them

http://www.scotsman.com/news/advent...s-in-scottish-wilderness-found-dead-1-2069431

 

[Hibrion]

'Bushcraft' is a word someone invented in the '80s so people in the future could argue about it on the internet.

 

[georann]

In my book, survival is just a small part of bushcraft. As many people here will tell you, plenty of bushcrafters take as much kit as they can -who says you have to rough it, as long as you enjoy it surely?! And yes people have lots of different sets of kit depending on what they're aiming to achieve from their outing. Its a very different set for a survivalist overnighter to a week canoeing!

Bushcraft is what brings us together, and that's what is important!