Monthly Archives: June 2012

David Jack’s Julius Pettersson Knife

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The following entry was kindly provided by Woodlore customer David Jack:

Dear Woodlore,

I finished the handle for my Julius Pettersson Knife Blade a couple of weeks ago, and thought I would share the results. I took the knife out for the weekend and it’s a real step up from my Mora Clipper Knife. It’s the traditional Saami design with antler and birch bark spacers, however I used Alder root instead of curly Birch for the wood.

David Jack's Julius Pettersson Knife

David Jack's Julius Pettersson Knife

It was over a year from deciding to make it to completing it, but it was a constant little project I spent my spare time on when I liked, and a really great way of bringing some bushcraft inside (without making too much mess!).

I’ve already started to make my firesteel out of some of the leftover Alder, and recently received my Large Crooked Knife Blade, so I don’t feel lost when I can’t get outside to do bushcraft (although hopefully that won’t happen too much considering what the weather has been like!) .

Many thanks to all the Woodlore team for the inspiration and the usual outstanding service!

David Jack

They Filled up Our Heads to Spare Us Our Backs

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Here are some lovely words and pictures from Woodlore student Tom Wilson, who attended the Woodlore Fundamental Bushcraft course on 27th May this year. He felt inspired on the train on his way home to write the following:

A leaf litter shelter built on the Fundamental Bushcraft course

A leaf litter shelter built on the Fundamental Bushcraft course

From the tarps and the shelters we did rise,

With stretches and yawns, our smiles reached to the eyes,

And so one by one we all made our way,

Back to where last night our fire was laid,

Awoken the embers from their ashen bed,

To their breakfast of wood, good, dry, wholesome and dead.

So soon was the kettle put on for a brew,

Talk began on what we were to do,

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Wildlife Encounters (Why I love tarps)

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No stranger to spending her nights outdoors, Woodlore Aspirant Instructor and regular blogger Sarah Day shares her love of camping out under a tarp:

Woodlore Aspirant Instructor Sarah Day

Sarah Day

Sleeping under a tarp is a daunting experience to the uninitiated – we are so used to having four walls and a floor (even when camping!) that going without seems ridiculous. However, most of the Woodlore Field Team camp out under tarps/ hootchies for at least some of the season, and they do bring several benefits.

I often find it difficult to sleep in a tent now; they can seem a bit airless after a tarp and, although on cold mornings the prospect of leaving a toasty warm sleeping bag is uninviting, once I’m up the cold is generally invigorating. I love lying in my sleeping bag, warm and comfortable breathing the sweet smelling air you only get after a night of gentle rain.

Tarps also force you to be organised with your kit. I always bring too much stuff with me – I’m often out for weeks at a time, but much of it is half-finished projects, books and examples of things for lectures. Being under a tarp makes it essential not only to be organised but to form out some sort of routine. At the end of a day I always put my kit in the same places, my fire flash and certain things from my pockets go into my hiking boots which have the insoles pulled out so they can air. My clothes are folded and put back in my rucksack and my head torch is looped round the drying line strung under the tarp. My Swannie is folded into a pillow with a shirt wrapped around it like a pillow case and my rucksack is propped up against a stick, purposely driven into the ground with my Swazi draped over it as a rain cover (especially if it’s still damp from a day of April showers). Because I follow the same pattern every evening, I know that my kit will be fine, whatever the weather. So, when I’m woken up in the middle of the night to the first pitter-patterings of a rain shower, I can lie there warm and smug, allowing the rain to lull me back to sleep.

A squirrel pup found at the course site

A squirrel pup found at the course site

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