When does Bushcraft stop being Bushcraft?

[Doc]

Bushcraft has many facets.

At it's heart is the longing to get away from modern life and get down to the woods and 'reconnect'. A wiser man than I explained it like this:

"In some men, the need of unbroken country, primitive conditions and intimate contact with the earth is a deeply rooted cancer gnawing forever at the illusion of contentment with things as they are. For months or years this hidden longing may go unnoticed and then, without warning, flare forth in an all consuming passion that will not bear denial. Perhaps it is the passing of a flock of wild geese in the spring, perhaps the sound of running water, or the smell of thawing earth that brings the transformation. Whatever it is, the need is more than can be borne with fortitude, and for the good of their families and friends, and their own particular restless souls, they head toward the last frontiers and escape"

Secondly, it is about reducing (or just being able to reduce) dependency on technology. "Know more, carry less". Carrying a tent does not mean you are a failure at bushcraft, but knowing what to do if it is lost....that is what bushcraft is about.

Thirdly, it is a different way of looking at things. I still go hillwalking, but am now less concerned by distance covered, or summits reached. If I feel like sitting under a tree, and just watching and thinking, I do exactly that. Instead of seeing 'trees' I see larch, alder, beech etc and what the differences between them are.


Just my thoughts.

 

[TheViking]

Secondly, it is about reducing (or just being able to reduce) dependency on technology.

Not necessarily. You could call it primitive technology.

 

[Snufkin]

It has already been said that it isn't about the kit you carry and I'll agree. Bushcraft is a world view, it is for those who wish to fully embrace the fact that they are participants in nature rather than perpetuate the delusion that they are merely observers. Learning to make a bow drill fire with natural cordage doesn't mean you are more of a bushcrafter than if you use a lighter, but it will teach you just what a gift fire is.

 

[Abbe Osram]

According to Tom brown Jr, to be totally at one with nature you should be able to walk into the wilderness naked and carrying nothing and be able to not only survive but actually thrive and live happily knowing that nature will provide everything you need or want.
At the other end of the scale you get people driving into the wilderness in massive camper vans and RV's kitted out with fridges, TVs, DVD players, microwaves and central heating...
In the middle you have what I would call bushcrafters, people with minimal kit, a knife, a basha tarp, maybe a billy can and possibly an axe and whatever clothing they choose to wear....
Then you have the lightweight campers/backpackers and moving on to the more heavily equiped campers with big gas stoves etc...

I'd love to hear your opinions on when and carrying what you cease to be a bushcrafter and move up to the next step.
We all talk about what kit we prefer, do we use bow drills to start fire, do we carry matches or do we use a fire steel...is the user of the bow drill the only true bushcrafter or are even they only a bushcrafter if the bow has natural cordage on it rather than paracord?
Is the person with the flint knapped knife a bushcrafter or can we include those with a small clasp knife too...do we need a £200 woodlore knife to be a bushcrafter or is having a knife like that actually stopping us from being a true bushcrafter?
Is the person in the sleeping bag under the basha a bushcrafter or do they become one under a basha but without the sleeping bag....or maybe only if using a debris shelter or similar with no bag or tarp?
Is the true bushcrafter the one boiling water in a birchbark container with hot rocks moved with wooden tongs or is the person with the small billy can hanging on a stick also a true bushcrafter?
Does a true bushcrafter forage/hunt for all their food or can they take minimal rations with them to supliment their foraging, can a bushcrafter take all the food needed with them albeit freeze dried or fresh....at what quantity/type of food taken do they become happy campers....is it up to the point where they take a small solar powered fridge with them, before that point or are they still a bushcrafter with their fridge if they power it with a small water wheel in a fast flowing stream etc?


I don't think there is any definative answer to all of the above and I personally think my ideal (in reality) fits in with most others on this site..."minimal gear and maximun knowledge" but in my heart Tom Brown's ideal is where I'd like to get to one day.

I certainly wouldn't want to "diss" anyone for using anything that helps them while out in the woods (I'm a bit of a kit junky myself and often can't resist a shiney new item of outdoor kit but tend to use it once or twice and then try to work out if I really need to carry it and if I can find a natural alternative..sometime I can and sometimes I can't) but we all seem to look less favourately at the RV brigade whether we admit it or not.
Are we any closer to nature than they are? Certainly it could be claimed that we cause less damage to the enviroment than they do but is that why we are bushcrafters and not just campers? In scouts years ago campcraft was great fun and quite important but just because we built a wooden bridge over a stream with logs found laying around does that make us more bushcrafty than building a stone bridge or even an iron bridge or does that just make us more rustic?

As I say, I don't think there is one line that can be drawn to show when bushcraft stops being bushcraft but I'd love to hear what you guys think on the subject.

Happy camping all....

Phil.
:chill: ack:

Hi Phil,
thanks for opening up this very interesting thread. For me its very simple, I don't want to be trapped with anything and weighted down while swimming in this ocean called life. If I carry to much stuff with me I dump it. Today it might be ok to sleep in a house, tomorrow I might sell it and move in my tipi, after that I might dump the tipi or move back into the house.

I am not only talking about material possessions weighting me down but views about life, religion, culture or moral. Freedom is foremost a thing of the mind but there too is the aspect of material enslavement. If you need expensive gear, need an expensive survival course, need a computer to be on the bushcraft forum.....you will need a house and and and. That means you will need a good job to pay for all of that, meaning you cant be in the forest a lot. I think that is quite wired to me and I believe that in the long run getting simpler and simpler is the art to aim for. Where it stops is where you find your freedom. Maybe you are there, I am still walking and don't know where I will stop.

cheers mate
Abbe

 

[zen]

Excellent question Bambodoggy

:You_Rock_

For me it comes down to this..........

"The wisdom to discern that which is good to do, in whatever situation we place or find ourselves in, with the willingness and fortitude to take that step."

 

[Tony]

This is a great thread guys, with some well considered words written by people that obviously love bushcraft with all its many aspects. Even though some only get to participate in a few aspects, or even one, they’re still practicing bushcraft and still expressing their love for it. This sort of thread helps portray to the wider public the great feelings and the satisfaction that can come from a little sojourn into the natural world, the descriptions in here allow people that feel on the fringes (because of what they get up to at the weekend) to feel like they’re not weird after all and that many like minded people are available and willing to share their dreams and aspirations.

For many this sort of thread helps them realize that they’re bushcrafters…
:super:

 

[arctic hobo]

Personally my bushcraft is from a survival based end of hiking and climbing. I used to be a hyper long distance walker and mountaineer/ice climber, but I got frustrated at how much kit I carried and yet how unprepared I was nonetheless for anything to go wrong. So in a triple attempt to a) try and survive in any situation without problems, enabling me to go on more dangerous/isolated expeditions, and b) try and cut down dramataically on the kit I needed, and c) get 'closer to nature' which sounds clichéd but I like to have as minimal impact as possible on the environment and live like prehistoric man, reduce dependancy on technology.
So while I come from a very gear-ful synthetic background, I aim to get closer and closer to the boiling-water-in-a-birchbark-container-with-stones ideal, and try to make sure I do so every time I go out.
The one way I suppose I'm not like most others here is that I don't just go out of an evening, light a fire, and be bushcrafty, rather I use the skills on long planned expeditions. ack: :chill:

 

[R-Bowskill]

It's impossible to say, All our technology has developed from bushcraft origins. In some places I could start out with nothing and within a year or two be working metal I'd mined and smelted myself to make a gun to hunt with and also making the powder to fire it from the natural ingredients because that knowledge is 'out there'. Would such a gun be a product of bushcraft / primitive technology of modern?

If I take a dome tent into the hills is that more or less bushcraft than useing the rocks, trees and turf to build a shelter (or small cottage)?

Maybe it's something to do with respecting the rest of nature / creation / the environment or whatever you choose to call it.

 

[Paganwolf]

:notworthy

This is a great thread guys, with some well considered words written by people that obviously love bushcraft with all its many aspects. Even though some only get to participate in a few aspects, or even one, they’re still practicing bushcraft and still expressing their love for it. This sort of thread helps portray to the wider public the great feelings and the satisfaction that can come from a little sojourn into the natural world, the descriptions in here allow people that feel on the fringes (because of what they get up to at the weekend) to feel like they’re not weird after all and that many like minded people are available and willing to share their dreams and aspirations.

For many this sort of thread helps them realize that they’re bushcrafters…
:super:

most excellently said

 

[bambodoggy]

Thanks Tony, Up until a little while ago I was one of those wierd people that went up the woods on my own to wonder about and one of my main wonderings was "Am I the only nutter out doing this on their own right now?"

I still mainly go out on my own (well with the failthful hound too) but I am no longer worried that I'm a nutter ):

Thanks to everyone else for joining in, it's really interesting to hear what you all think...it's odd but although you all have slightly different ideas I am finding, almost as I expected to and certainly as I hoped to, that I agree in some way with what every single one of you have said.

Wonder what non-bushcrafty people think of bushcraft....I know my wife (more the prada type) still thinks I'm a raving loony when I come in from the shed and want to show her the new bow drill I've been working on which is odd as Ray Mears's TV shows are some of her favourite viewing....I can't work that out but am happy to be allowed to watch something other than East Enders!

Anyway, thanks all and let see what else our community has to say on the subject :super:

 

[greg2935]

According to Tom brown Jr, to be totally at one with nature you should be able to walk into the wilderness naked and carrying nothing and be able to not only survive but actually thrive and live happily knowing that nature will provide everything you need or want.
At the other end of the scale you get people driving into the wilderness in massive camper vans and RV's kitted out with fridges, TVs, DVD players, microwaves and central heating...
In the middle you have what I would call bushcrafters, people with minimal kit, a knife, a basha tarp, maybe a billy can and possibly an axe and whatever clothing they choose to wear....
Then you have the lightweight campers/backpackers and moving on to the more heavily equiped campers with big gas stoves etc...

I'd love to hear your opinions on when and carrying what you cease to be a bushcrafter and move up to the next step.
We all talk about what kit we prefer, do we use bow drills to start fire, do we carry matches or do we use a fire steel...is the user of the bow drill the only true bushcrafter or are even they only a bushcrafter if the bow has natural cordage on it rather than paracord?
Is the person with the flint knapped knife a bushcrafter or can we include those with a small clasp knife too...do we need a £200 woodlore knife to be a bushcrafter or is having a knife like that actually stopping us from being a true bushcrafter?
Is the person in the sleeping bag under the basha a bushcrafter or do they become one under a basha but without the sleeping bag....or maybe only if using a debris shelter or similar with no bag or tarp?
Is the true bushcrafter the one boiling water in a birchbark container with hot rocks moved with wooden tongs or is the person with the small billy can hanging on a stick also a true bushcrafter?
Does a true bushcrafter forage/hunt for all their food or can they take minimal rations with them to supliment their foraging, can a bushcrafter take all the food needed with them albeit freeze dried or fresh....at what quantity/type of food taken do they become happy campers....is it up to the point where they take a small solar powered fridge with them, before that point or are they still a bushcrafter with their fridge if they power it with a small water wheel in a fast flowing stream etc?


I don't think there is any definative answer to all of the above and I personally think my ideal (in reality) fits in with most others on this site..."minimal gear and maximun knowledge" but in my heart Tom Brown's ideal is where I'd like to get to one day.

I certainly wouldn't want to "diss" anyone for using anything that helps them while out in the woods (I'm a bit of a kit junky myself and often can't resist a shiney new item of outdoor kit but tend to use it once or twice and then try to work out if I really need to carry it and if I can find a natural alternative..sometime I can and sometimes I can't) but we all seem to look less favourately at the RV brigade whether we admit it or not.
Are we any closer to nature than they are? Certainly it could be claimed that we cause less damage to the enviroment than they do but is that why we are bushcrafters and not just campers? In scouts years ago campcraft was great fun and quite important but just because we built a wooden bridge over a stream with logs found laying around does that make us more bushcrafty than building a stone bridge or even an iron bridge or does that just make us more rustic?

As I say, I don't think there is one line that can be drawn to show when bushcraft stops being bushcraft but I'd love to hear what you guys think on the subject.

Happy camping all....

Phil.
:chill: ack:

For me personally, to rely on myself, and myself alone, to learn from, and see and to accept nature (for good or bad), and to rely on nothing else than what I carry, gives me a sense of confidence in my own abilities, of belonging to something much bigger than myself and a respect for both myself and my surroundings. Can someone who never goes for a walk claim to be a bushcrafter? Why not? if they aspire to the freedom, self reliance and belief in ones own abilities to not just survive, but to thrive in adverse conditions. This is something that is deep within us all I think.

Or maybe I'm being a little dramatic )

Greg

 

[woodrat]

I think it has nothing at all to do with your kit. It has everything to do with how you see the world aroud you. do you only see with your eyes or do you look with your heart and soul?, do you see yourself as a interactive part of nature? or apart from it as a spectator. are you only passing though like a tourist, or are you a active participant. do you only consider your own needs, or do you ponder the balance of your needs agianst those of your suroundings. these are thy types of questions that will lead you to the peace and contentment that we all desire in our pursuit of this place inside of us, bushcraft is but the path we take to get there, as someone once wrote," the path less traveled" for me it has been a route to greater enlightenment and of the many I have tried, it alone has brought me nearer my goal, every step along it is a personal victory, a success that has only benifit, that for me is "woodcraft" i hope that for each of you, it is this and more, your all welcome at my campfire, anyplace, anytime, I'll have the tea and kinship waiting for you there.