my bushcraft community on you tube. As you all might
know I am interested in the primitive ways such as fire
starting,food preservation and cooking methods and being
able to make do with little tools. If fact Bushcrafting is
the art of making items you need from natural materials
using only limited tools and supplies.
I am not a die hard purist myself . However I do try as much
as possible to stick to the concept when I can. If only for my
own satisfaction. There are no 'Bushcraft police' I do
hand pick my flint from nature.. Forge my own strikers from
old discarded steel, use natural tinder for my fires and cook
over open fire sometimes without utensils. Yea.. I cheat at
times.. I have a fascination with ferro rods and although they
aren't really primitive.. they can be a challenge in fire starting
if one doesn't know how to select the proper tinder and build
a proper fire lay. But I'm drifting from the subject........
What gets me is when I watch these videos on You Tube and
I see people using these engraved , very ornate flint strikers
and their four hundred dollar custom made knives to start fires
with their twenty dollar Wet Fire fire starter cubes from Cabelas
It makes me wonder just how long they would last in a true
SHTF situation. I rely on my homemade flint and steel that I
fashioned from an old file, hand picked flint and char cloth that
I made from old worn out blue jeans.. works just fine for me...
If needed I always carry a back up striker in the form of a patch knife I made
out of, once again, an old worn out file. It has a hardened ninety degree spine
which will spark a piece of flint very well.........
As one can tell from the header photo on some of my social media pages
I enjoy making many kinds of primitive items and use them often. Now..
do I use them exclusively? Absolutely not. They are fun to play with and
I think it is important to learn primitive skills to pass on. In fact most of my
primitive items get the most use teaching younger kids at camp about the old
ways. Yes .. there are some kids still willing to learn. And surprisingly quite
a few adults who have never started a primitive fire and such that are amazed
that they too can smack a rock with a chunk of metal and make a fire.
Another You tube thing that amazes me is in these communities is a lot of us
like to share items that may not be available in certain regions with fellow
You tubers. I have sent many boxes of flint and such across the country to
friends that don't have access to it where they live. Usually when we do this
they will post a 'Mail Call' video showing them opening the package and
giving credit to the channel that sent it to encourage more creators to sub that
particular channel. Personally I am not interested in building a big channel
and monetizing my channel for profit as a lot of people are .. I just enjoy the
friendship of the community. The one thing i do see as funny is when people
get these packages or maybe cook a meal in their kitchen or anything they always
make it a point to use their bushcraft knives to open them or cut a piece of meat.
Nothing like using your $250 Jeff White bushcraft knife to cut a chunk of spam
at your kitchen table..hahahaha. And we all know how important it is to have
that razor sharp carbon steel Mora to cut that sometimes nasty packing tape when
opening a mailer envelope ! But I guess it's the nature of the animal.. after all
that might be the only time those knives ever get used. Come to think of it I've
only done a couple mail call unboxings videos and I followed one of them up
with another video about the knife I used to open one of them... My bad ! lol
I guess the point I'm trying to get across is in every hobby there are many levels
of participation. Some would love to live in the woods..and some will never set
foot in the woods. Me? I'm a 'tweener'.. I love the primitive skill set.. I love the
solitude of the woods but I'm sure not leaving my Bic lighter and cell phone at
home when I go out. I love building fires with flint and steel or ferrocerium rods
and cat tail fluff.. but.. when I get hungry I'm pulling out my butane camp stove
and getting a meal on in a hurry..lol Even though my pack always has at least
five methods of starting fires packed in it.. If I'm wet and cold you can bet I'm
not going to try and rub sticks together to get a fire going. It's storm proof matches
or a Bic lighters to the rescue.
One other quick mention. This community seems to have an obsession with
M.R.E.'s . (meals ready to eat) Everyone is buying all of these old military
surplus packaged meals and doing taste test videos (reviews) on them. I have
a real problem setting down to a meal that some Polish or German soldier
complained about having to eat fifteen years ago. If it wasn't good then.. let
me guess what it's going to taste like now. And they are paying big bucks for
them too. That being said years ago I used to buy U.S. ration packs at the Army
Nave Surplus store and keep them in my Jeep during hunting season. I must
admit some of them were almost edible. Especially after a morning hunt. I can
remember some weird combinations though. (spaghetti with hot dogs comes to mind)
But there was this really compressed/condensed chocolate cake disc that came in
a tuna type can that was terrific ! It was like someone took a seven layer dark
chocolate cake and crammed it in that little can...mmmmm Now that would stick
with ya for a while. Plus you got a packet with instant coffee..creamer..sugar..
gum.. toilet paper.. matches and a pack of three cigarettes In case you felt like
misbehaving. Point is in today's world of freeze dried foods and dehydrated meals
in a pouch, why would I pay big bucks for twenty year old food ? To each his
own I guess. I do make up some dehydrated meals of my own and vacuum pack
them just for kicks. Hey I even have some parched corn and Hardtack (ships biscuits)
that I made three or four years ago that is still edible. I also have some pemmican
that is about two years old but to be honest it was barely edible when I made it. But..
If push comes to shove.. I've got it !!!!!!
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