Monday, August 30, 2010

One Year Reflection

Y'know it occurred to me that it has been over a year since I started keeping this journal, and I completely forgot that the 1 year date had passed.

I originally started this journal with the intention of just tracking my progress, my projects and any cool tricks I had learned. Ultimately I wanted to be able to look back on the early pages in about 5 years and laugh at some of the silly things I believed. Really though, what I didn't expect was how well this thing has kept me accountable...to myself.

At the beginning I was unsure if I should even create a blog, and actually kept it unsearchable and private for quite some time. It was only for me to read, and perhaps a few close others who knew what my interests were. What would I post about? I don't know much and I lack quite a bit of experience. That really hasn't changed, but what I CAN say is that I know more today than I did 1 year ago...and isn't that the point? Constantly growing, learning and absorbing new experiences so that you know a little more today than you did yesterday.

Two years ago I couldn't start a fire if you handed me a box of matches, let alone any other method. Now I can identify a number of natural tinders, and multiple ways to start fires. Some I have tried, some I'm adept at and others I still need to learn.

1 year ago to me an overgrown area would've been covered in weeds. Now I can recognize a multitude of plants and their medicinal or nutritional benefits.

I sometimes find myself reading my journal and looking at the date of the entry. If my last posting is anything more than a week I'm forced to ask myself why I haven't posted since then. Have I genuinely been busy, or have I just been lazy? Have I run out of things to say? If so, why? I should have been learning something, working on a project, making a kit...so why not post on that! In that way I need to continually have something lined up to post about, which means I continually need to be refining my skills.

All in all this has been a positive experience, and I'm interested to see how long it will run for before I feel the need to wrap it up. Based on how much I don't know...that won't be for a while.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Leather Sheaths for 2 Old Hickory Butcher Knives


Recently I found 2 Old Hickory carbon steel knives at my grandparents old house in the cellar. They were beat up so badly that the edges didn't exist and were also covered in surface rust.

After I cleaned them up and re-profiled the edge, I decided that it wasn't safe to have them around without sheaths, so I made some with leftover leather I had from making the sheath for the Pathfinder Knife.

The style is a traditional knife sheath, with no belt loop. These are not meant to be on my person like a bushcraft knife, but rather to stay at camp for food prep. I finished the sheath with a beeswax mixture I prepared and am very pleased with how it darkened the leather (plus it adds protection to the leather itself from wear and moisture damage).

I'm finding this basic leatherwork more and more rewarding, and can see how easy it is to get addicted to this. I'm limited by what I can produce by my lack of experience and basic tools, but it's nice to see a sheath come to life in a matter of hours.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Les Stroud: Beyond Survival

Les Stroud (Survivorman) has a new series airing soon on Discovery. This takes his survival theme a step further and looks at how the aboriginal and indigenous cultures of the world dealt with surviving the every day.

This looks a lot like what Ray Mears did in his World of Survival series, which I wholeheartedly encourage. It's extremely difficult for these societies to maintain and pass on their tribal knowledge to children who grow up in a more and more modern world. Shows like this have a chance to highlight the way these cultures exist, and bring attention to them that hopefully will allow their knowledge to live on.

Check out a preview of the series below.