More traditional firecraft

 Well, a lot of people do keep telling me that there is no point in making fire the traditional way. You can just buy a BIC lighter, right? Fact is, I always carry one, together with a tin of matches and a ferro rod. I am not naive. It is not necessarily a "survival" technique, because, well, you know my stance on "survival" as it is marketed up and down in the media. 

It is a kind of alternative lifestyle these folks cannot understand.  

Thing is, I found a file on the road ages ago, while riding my bike to work. Lit up the forge and forged a striker from it, really fast and a bit sloppy.  

Applied for permission to try out sustainable methods of harvesting tinder conk, got that permission, made a fire brigade assistant permit, experimented with different historical recipes and finally succeeded with making fire. 

I had a beloved T-shirt I wore to rags, until you simply could no longer wear it  (not the cloth in the tin, by the way, this is some denim cloth I found by the roadside), made my first charcloth from it and started my first flint and steel fire.  

I do not need to tell you how to make charcloth, actually, because most of you guys know, but for those that don't, simply take a tin with a more or less tight- fitting lid. You can use the awl on your Swiss Army knife or even a pointy hardwood stick to punch a hole into the lid. Loosely put pure denim, linen or silk rags inside. Take care not to burn it completely. If it is not charred through, no harm done. I always carry the tin with me and you can make charcloth every time you make a fire.  

Like that, see? 

The point is, it is not about a survival situation or efficient super-light camping.  If you want utmost efficiency, sleep in a house, it saves you a lot of inconveniences. 

But it is about showing that sustainability can be fun. Knowledge can be fun. Our society wants you to be afraid, sick and helpless. Making stuff can be really empowering. 

All that stuff was junk. I found it in a place where it would keep polluting the natural world.  I took it and made something from it.  I am not the best smith there is, nor the best at traditional firecraft, and all this doesn't entitle me to anything. But it was junk, and now it is not, it is no longer.  That simple.  

Thing is, we need to heal. We need to remember what was taken from us. Not now, yesterday. Because our society is rampaging headlong off a cliff. That is not to say we should live like mountain people of the 18th century. On the other hand, there is some overwhelming scientific evidence that something along the lines is what we need to do in the future if we want to ensure that complex biological life on the Planet will be possible in the future.  Starting a fire with flint and steel or by friction will not necessarily be the big thing to save us all. It actually looks a bit counterintuitive, and I know it. It is not about the fire, not about the flint and steel, but it is about a certain line of thought that enables you to see resources and creatively solve problems. 

Also, as I said, it is fun, or rather, there is a deep satisfaction in indulging in the process. It can be a ritual. To me, it is a soothing thing to silently prepare the means to start the fire. You understand why our forebears saw fire as something sacred.  

You need to get to know fire.  Sounds esoteric, but actually it is a commonplace. If you don't, you might eventually set the woods on fire.  It can cook your meals, it can warm you when you are cold, it is one of the best entertainments I know of, but it can also burn so hot that you can burn steel, it can hurt and consume and destroy. Never start a fire you cannot control. Always keep some quenching agent handy and please do not start a fire in summer when everything is bone-dry.  I recommend you taking lessons at the local fire brigade authorities. 

Other than that, I hope you enjoy your campfire. Take care, and all the best! 

Carving challenge with a Mora Robust and some foul-mouthed sarcastic philosophy

Having some sort of container is not only practical and sometimes even beautiful, but can also make all the difference in the woods. You can collect water in it and even boil it in order to achieve a certain degree of disinfection. Not the same amount as in tap water, but hopefully keep at least some of it in your body.  And do not get me wrong: Modern people have no defence against E.Coli bacteria or some of the other bstds you can find in the creeks. So please do not try this at home. Your body is accustomed to drink Chloride- disinfected water. Boiling water will remove some of the ugly stuff in the water, but not microplastics or chemicals.  Anyway, you could even improvise a water filter that way, not a good or efficient one, but at least some kind of it.  

I usually use a tool kit for carving stuff like that, a drill wrench, several carving knives, spoon knives and an adze or axe. But of course it is really unrealistic that you have such a tool kit on you all the time.  

Enter the Mora Robust. Developed as a heavy duty work knife for carpenters and construction workers, it also has gained sort of a legendary status amongst bushcraft people and survivalists.  The shorter blade (around 85x3.2mm) offers a Scandinavian grind with the tiniest of micro bevels and a stick tang.  "A STICK TANG?!1!!1!!???", I hear you cry? Yes, a stick tang, but one that reaches nearly to the end of the handle. The culprit is that it consists of a glass- fibre reinforced plastic that is injection molded around the metal and offers almost the same tensile strength as mild steel. Of course I do have issues with plastic.  It simply should not exist, period.  But it does, and better a sustainable product that can be repaired and recycled than some flimsy shit from the webs.  Look here for an extreme test of the knife that can only be called mad:

https://youtu.be/fKlcBpKbAvM?si=rlKoqCWFK1HufZjW

This knife is designed to stand extreme abuse. I do not think it is pretty, but having worked as a construction worker, roof tiler, carpenter and landscaper myself I can safely say that pretty knives need an almost obscene amount of maintenance in such a setting. And, to get that right also, most of the most extreme abuse you can throw at a knife in "survival" (and you know my stance on this) is but children's play compared to what you do on a construction site. Cutting tar paper, construction bricks and interior plaster boards, opening cement bags, prying,, splitting wood, probing rotten beams, and opening bottles 😉 every day for seven to twelve hours is nothing you would do in a survival situation. The knife also has (sort of) a legal reason built in. It is designed as a work knife. If you wear work pants and boots which are well suited for the woods, and you forgot to lock the knife into a bag which locks into a bag which locks into a bag, reinforce it with spells and magical sorcery runes and put it into another lockable bag that locks into a biogazard container (because it is obviously the object that is dangerous, not individuals with criminal intent), chance is, your legal reason (i.e. your claim of innocence towards criminal intent) might even be accepted by the almighty authorities. Or maybe not, because workers and craftsmen tend to be on the poorer side of wealthy, and the law is possibly only enforced on the poorer people in Germany.  (Information-based opinion according to Art. 1 GG). If it would be confiscated, you also only lost 12-18€, and it isn't rare, so you could grumble to yourself and buy another. 

So, chance is, this knife might be a knife you have on your person somehow.  I suggest you keep it in your backpack and as inaccessible as possible, together with an obviously half-finished funny carving like a smiling wood spirit, some heart pendants or something like that. Yes, you got my meaning right.  And I do not tell you to be cheating.  I trust that no reader dropping by has any criminal intent at all, and that you are here for the special atmosphere of this Blog. There are other sites for the tactical crowd alright, and I think a lot of people are here because that is what you do with a knife anyway, namely carving stuff, being creative and prepping food.  It is not your fault one must suspect some sort of hysteria or even villainous intent in people, fellow human beings or politicians.  

That is how that challenge came to be. I honestly cheated a bit by using the saw on my Victorinox Farmer X Alox to cut a piece of birchwood. But the Vic is even more realistic to have on you in a situation where you need to improvise.  The Robust is faster in carving such a container, though, because you can use it like a chisel, too, which I would not recommend with any Slipjoint knife. 

Starting at the centre of the branch, I worked a recession into it. As I said, I also used the knife as a chisel. Fact is, with a different knife than this, you should not use a drilling motion or chiselling motion, but always a cutting movement, because both can damage the tip. Do not apply too much pressure, too.  You can easily hurt yourself or ruin your piece. Patience is key. 

Be it as it may, after about half an hour, I was able to have a #cuppatree from the branch.  You can also char the inside a bit to make it more durable. 

The knife is not the next big thing. It isn't exceptionally pretty or full of prestige.  But it is extremely sharp and durable and does everything you can possibly expect from a knife. It is also pretty cheap, but sustainably and responsibly made in Sweden. 

Actually there is no reason at all not to buy it.  It is also really great for every toolbox at home or at work, around the house and garden and even for harder kitchen tasks like splitting bone.  

Buy it, but do not forget those magical sorcery spells and runes and the biohazard vault to always lock it away.  Remember, knives kill people, not people kill people. 😜

Anyway, do have fun carving and making stuff, take care of yourself and your fellow human beings. It is possibly a culture war against everything non-profit we are faced with. Those are the death throes of the Terror Squid. 

They want to take the innocence from innocent people.  Things like love, care and resourcecefulness are the antithesis to their idea of society.  So they have to remove the assumption of innocence and spread discord. Do not let that happen. Do not even lose yourself in hatred against them. Lose yourself in good things.  In work in the garden, in carving good things and foraging and cooking healthy, hearty meals. 

Because this is human society, not some paper dragon brave new world.