hi guys/girls
last year i attended 3 woodsmoke courses namely,wildfoods, axe workshop, and bowyer, and my 2 cents are as follows :
Bowyer :
our chief instructor was Werner Pfeifer, with ben and lisa working as backups
now Werner Pfeifer is an ex professional hunter from Namibia, and he looks the part too
.
we started making out the outlines of a long bow on a huge chunk of ash, and started taking the excess wood
make sure you have the best axe you can afford, its Gransfors Hunter's axe for me,
i bought it from wealddown mueseum
, and got Arkansas honing Stones
from J&P Arkansas Stones, on ebay,
learnt about honing axes and knives from Mors Kochanski's book
second day we made out arrows, and third day we practiced in the morning, and mid day went on our little own shooting trip on the estate land. no animals were killed but Werner Pfeifer was in his element, a hunter to the core
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Axe workshop :
chief instructor was Ben Orford, with our Ben and lisa working as backups
i said our Ben and lisa, reason being, they dont act like instructors but they both become your friends, and teach you like thety know us for a longtime
first day starts with axe usage and sharpening, followed by spoon making, u are shown how to select wood too, followed by making a backwoods wooden saw and then we jump into making bowls and plates
in between Ben is all around checking out your axe safety, no compromise there and he wont let you go till you are using your axe the correct way
usage of other wooden tools is also taught, that we will be using the next 2 days
On the last day, we go into felling trees, and Steve Smith, who by the way is an ex forestry employee, takes you through the process. The you get to fell a couple of trees and actually limbing, splinting and sectioning
we carved fire sticks, and were taught how to split the wood into 36 sections, Ray Mears style, by Ben Mcnutt
again make sure you have the best axe and honing stones you can get, and reading Mors Kochanski would be a great help
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Wildfoods :
our instructors were ben and lisa
ben is and encyclopedia on wildfoods, and how to cook them, amongst other things
first night, he puts down the rules of the camp, and takes you around the site.
they have 2 campsite, a lower and upper site, i like the upper site, its next to a tiny lake with plenty of tout in it, take your spinning or fly rod, and ask ben before you cast your fly. they work on a catch and release policy
i always camped next to the lake and the waking up early morning is a pleasure
second day, we went on a short walk, ben started with plant identification and their uses, if possible have "Food for free" by richard mabey with you, and we gathered wild onions, mustard, thime etc
when we were back lisa had brought tons of fresh trouts, mackerels, crabs, linchientiens, sols and a huge salmon,
ben showed us how to clean/prepare them and then we got our own fishes crabs etc to cook
the trouts were prepared with the wild onions and mustard that we cooked in a hangee
and the day went on
second day again wild plant identification, preparing bannocks and soking a salmon, and skining and roasting eels
make sure you ask as many question from ben and lisa, and just dig in, these 2 are the nicest souls i have ever met.
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one last thing i started applying surgical spirit on my hands 2 weeks before the course, to harden the skin on my palms, and take a thick felt tip marker for marking on the wood
Only one left for Plantlore now
