Limited-edition Ray Mears Explorer Map giveaway

2 Replies

At the beginning of 2011, Ray gave two talks at the ExCel Centre in London as part of The Outdoors Show. To coincide with this appearance, the Ordnance Survey group produced a limited run of Ray Mears Explorer Maps, covering an area of Britain of Ray’s choosing.

Ray chose the New Forest, a favourite area of his, and one which he visited as part of his latest Wild Britain series.

Limited-edition Ray Mears OS Explorer Map - The New Forest

Limited-edition Ray Mears OS Explorer Map - The New Forest

Nearly all of these maps were given away to attendees of The Outdoors Show; however, we were able to get our hands on the last three! If you’d like to get hold of one of these maps, we’ll be giving them away with the next three purchases of the Silva Expedition 15TDCL Compass.

If you’d like to take us up on this offer, what you’ll need to do is e-mail us with your name and address. If you are one of the first three people to get in touch, we will reply with a confirmation to say that you can now go ahead and place your compass order, and your free map will simply be included in your parcel.

Update: Congratulations to Dave, Simon and Mark, who got in there first and nabbed the three remaining maps.

That coat saved my life!

5 Replies

The following post was kindly sent in this past winter by Woodlore customer Chris Rusby:

The Swazi/Ray Mears Tahr Anorak

The Swazi/Ray Mears Tahr Anorak

Dear Ray Mears team, a little ditty for your day:

I recently purchased the excellent Swazi/Ray Mears Tahr Anorak and started to piece together a bare essentials bush-craft kit, after weeks of YouTube research. It all fits into a small satchel, plus, due to a forecast of 2 degrees, I took two sheep skins and a wool blanket in a water-proofed back pack.

The big day, I set off on an 18 km hike across a torrentially lashed, gale-force, foggy North Yorkshire Moors to an isolated woodland, where I was to rendezvous with a friend. Plans were flawed and this never came to pass, and after hours of EXHAUSTIVE searching for my friend in non-stop rain and wind in the dark, my self-preservation kicked in; tired, cold, drenched from the legs down and inexperienced (first time bush-crafter!) I set up a tarp/hammock camp and fire with the last of my strength. Everything then went well and I emerged bright and breezy the next morning. Sun-shine and everything!

It turns out my friend who came in a car (so I knew he would be OK) alerted Search and Rescue, but after my wife told them just HOW MUCH! Ray Mears I have been watching and that I had the Swazi coat they let me be. This all sounds irresponsible of me, and it was. I now have a deeply humbled view of nature and our fragile place on this planet. I thought this feeling, which Ray and others speak of, would slowly grow inside me as I made the transition from armchair bush-crafter, to hands-on practitioner, but it hit me in the face like a giant cosmic slap!

I guess this is kind of a confession and I do feel silly, but that coat saved my life! It was faultless in the most savior conditions! I’m humbled, inspired and cannot wait to get back into nature, I think I’ll drive next time!

On a serious note, I do understand the dangers, very, very much so.

Chris Rusby

Woodlore announce the 2012 UK course dates

1 Reply

We are pleased to announce the release of Woodlore’s UK course dates for 2012.  These long-awaited dates include our usual range of bushcraft courses, as well as some new and exciting courses that have been in development this winter.

Fallow Deer

Fallow Deer

The new courses we are now offering include:

The existing courses still on offer for 2012 include:

Please visit the Woodlore website or call the office on 01580 819668. for more details or to book. Please note that we will be releasing the 2012 overseas course dates at the end of May this year.

Nick Murphy’s Julius Pettersson Knife

4 Replies

The following post was kindly sent in by Woodlore customer Nick, who purchased the Julius Pettersson Knife Blade:

Hello Woodlore,

Having a look at the blog I noticed that there were a few pictures of completed knives and I thought I would send in a couple of mine:

Nick Murphy's Julius Pettersson knife

Nick Murphy’s Julius Pettersson knife

Continue reading →

The Woodlore course season is underway!

1 Reply

The 2011 UK bushcraft course season is now underway at Woodlore.  This year’s season started off with two Fundamental Bushcraft courses, a Wilderness Navigation course and a Camp Craft course.  All of the courses so far have been a great success and the weather has been fantastic; we haven’t had a drop of rain!  So plenty of happy, tanned students around the campfire! It’s also been fantastic to see the field team back out in the woods again.

This week sees the start of the Introduction to Bushcraft courses over the Easter weekend, which is forecast for even more sun and higher temperatures.

Di and Steven from the office popped up to visit the Camp Craft course last week, where the groups were putting the finishing touches to their own shave horses, as well as working on other carving projects:

Shaping a wooden peg for a shave horse

Shaping a wooden peg for a shave horse

Continue reading →

Gumnut Fire Stick Handles

2 Replies

Richard Spencer, a Woodlore customer from Australia, kindly sent in the following post:

Dear Woodlore Team,

Having received the Fire Stick Rods from you, I had a bit of fun making handles for them:

Richard Spencer's Fire Stick

Richard Spencer's Fire Stick, complete with gumnut handle

I used spent gumnuts. These things lie in their countless millions on the ground, in the woods and on the side of the roads where the gumnut trees grow. You’ve probably heard of them. They’re light, they float and they’re very tough yet easy to work with few tools. I used one tiny flat file and a bit of sandpaper to make this handle. There’s a small brass picture hook for a lanyard.

The gumnuts contain seeds which drop out, leaving these tough, smooth shells, which just beg to be used for other things.

They can be stuffed with cotton wool and after a few drops of aromatic oil, they’ll keep the car smelling fresh. If you soak them in paraffin then fill them up with melted candle wax, they make great firelighters.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Spencer

‘Wild Britain with Ray Mears’ now available on DVD

6 Replies
Wild Britain with Ray Mears DVD

Wild Britain with Ray Mears on DVD

The brand new DVD of Ray’s latest series, Wild Britain with Ray Mears, is now in stock and ready for dispatch from Woodlore. This DVD contains the extended versions of all six episodes, which until now were only available on the Sky channel Eden.

Click here to order your copy now

Woodlore’s Staff Training Week

6 Replies

On the 18th – 20th March this year, Woodlore held an induction weekend for the new field staff whom we recruited in the winter.

The new staff were put through their paces learning the ropes of setting up and taking down camp, learning where the sites are that we use for courses, as well as the routes to local supermarkets and hospitals.

On this note, we would like to welcome Rob Bashford, Mark Booton, Ross Burt, Steve Corbyn, Iain Gair and Susan Hipkin to the team this year, and we wish them all the best for the forthcoming season.  Some of you may remember Rob from a few years ago, who has now returned to Woodlore after a couple of years pursuing other avenues.

With the Induction weekend over, the new hands were then joined by the rest of the outdoor team for the annual Training Week.  As well as a good chance to catch up, the week offers valuable training and refreshers in vital areas such as first aid:

Just one of the first aid scenarios

Just one of the first aid scenarios

Continue reading →

Wild Britain with Ray Mears: Exclusive, hour-long episodes to be shown on Eden

5 Replies
Wild Britain with Ray Mears

Ray Mears on location during the filming of Wild Britain

Exclusive, hour-long episodes of Ray’s most recent series, Wild Britain with Ray Mears, are to be shown shortly on the Sky channel Eden. The series, which was originally aired on ITV 1 last year in 30 minute slots, will now be shown on Eden with additional, never-seen-before footage on each episode.

The series begins this coming Monday, 4th April; for exact showing times, please visit the following link:

When is it on?

Jonathan Aballi’s Julius Pettersson Knife

4 Replies

It seems as though Julius Pettersson’s reputation is spreading worldwide, with Californian customer Jonathan Aballi getting hold of one his knife blades and kindly sending in these pictures:

Hello Woodlore,

I wanted to send pictures of my finished knife. The handle is made from giraffe bone, leather and stabilized black ash burl:

Jonathan Aballi's Julius Pettersson Knife #3

The finished article

Continue reading →