http://livingprimitively.com/

Migrating to own domain.

2007-09-06T20:31:00.000+01:00

This blog has been moved, please update the links. This adress will not be maintained anymore.

The new adress:

http://livingprimitively.com/

Just for a few days

2007-09-02T11:38:00.000+01:00

I'm migrating the blog to wordpress and it's own domain. To not lose any comments I'll disable the comments for a few days and not post again until the new domain is up and running with the blog.

There will also be some changes in regards to the goal of the blog itself. From strictly displaying skills, I'll focus more on the experience of it all, in an attempt to catch the interest of more readers. Not that I'm not satisfied with the primitive skills nerds that already read this blog... :-D

Regards
Torjus

Another Bone Knife

2007-09-01T15:25:00.000+01:00

Bone knives are excellent for tasks requiring a more sturdy edge than stone normally is. For example, while cutting true tinder fungus with a stone is a pain, shaving it off with bone is easy. Bone is also sharp enough for cutting non-fibrous vegetables, gutting fish and skinning small animals. In the latter task bone has the advantage of not normally being sharp enough to slice through the skin, especially if you have a rounded tip on the knife. Though I prefer to work with fresh bones I have been in short supply of bones for a long time since last hunting season so in this case I had to use an old sheep leg bone I found in a field.

Start by sawing halfway into the bone at the lower end margin of where the blade is supposed to be.

Score around the sides and top so that the front piece is freed from the rest without cracking the rest of the piece. Score almost all the way through. Using water will help a lot.

Split from the top and break off the waste. This waste piece was made into a small chisel. It might not be of very great utility, but I'll try it on green wood.

Afterwards the blade was ground thinner and pointy. For cleaning fish I would ideally want a thinner tip, but I want a stronger edge on this one for broader application.

I already had a birch bark sheath from a now broken knife to reuse.

The Allround Hunter

2007-08-28T18:22:00.000+01:00

My brother Laje do have some rather interesting updates on his blog now. It has been a very good start on the hunting season for him. I am very much looking forward to tanning that fox. Out of prime fur season it is, but the case skinned hide will make a nice bag or similar nonetheless.

Fish Trap

2007-08-26T17:51:00.000+01:00

I've finally finished my fishing trap. This is the style Patrick McGlinchey uses and Jon have also made one of them. This trap is all willow and was quite frankly a pain to make. The willow bark works fairly well as a binding, but it takes time processing as much as you need. Compared to wickerwork it also seems to slip easier.

The result is fairly pretty and I look forward to testing it, but the next time I will make a trap in the same way as the burden basket a little while ago. This method simply takes way too much time to be worthwhile.

Two New Creations

2007-08-19T18:09:00.000+01:00

Nothing great to report. I've been gathering some nettle fibres for fishing lines, a carrying net and a fishing net. I have tested some new techniques for making willow basketry, since this was a crude attempt at a burden basket I will not post anything about the techniques I've tested them further and gotten better at it.

Both Patrick McGlinchey and Jon_R have recently been experimenting with coiled basketry and that has inspired me to give it a go. To start on this type of project I needed to make a needle first. This one is out of a thin, flat section of reindeer antler. I expect the thinness to be an advantage in this kind of work.

Sub-arctic Food Plants

2007-08-13T18:40:00.000+01:00

The subarctic region has few food plants. Most of them give a fairly low output, energywise. It's fish and game that are the major sources of food there. Here I show you three plants that has a fairly good output. If you have a woman or two ( ;-) ) gathering these plants for several hours of the day I think you could at least achieve almost the needed calorie intake, at least combined.

Cloudberry

You can not eat too many of these berries, but they contain a fair amount of sugar and vitamin C. They also store quite well. The Saami hid these for the winter under overhanging waterfalls. I love the taste of these and snack or gather them whenever they are available. The actual colour is more yellow than on the photo.

Angelica

Viking era candy. All the plant is edible. Very spicy and too much flavour to eat alone in my opinion. Very good boiled with meat or fish. It's not so abundant and can be difficult to find in quantity. Also contains vitamin C.

Alpine Bistort

The whole plant is edible. The seeds taste a little nutty, but are hardly worthwhile collecting and processing (winnowing). Quickly fried in the coals, the roots which can be of quite decent size, taste almost like french fries.

In the News

2007-08-11T14:43:00.000+01:00

The currach I made at Lofotr got some press attention. It was published in the local paper Lofotposten. Here is the scanned article. I'm sorry for the curled paper causing the bad scanning.

Small and Simple Antler Comb

2007-08-11T13:03:00.000+01:00

Start by scoring and breaking off a palm of antler. The antler in question here is reindeer/caribou antler. As usual, use hot water when working antler.

Score or scrape along the edges so you can split the piece with a wedge. My split wasn't totally successful, but I actually think the result got better because it ran off. It gave a stronger handle.

Start scoring the teeth.

The teeth should be rombic in cross section and of course have a little spacing in between. This you can achieve by scoring, splitting and abrading with a rough piece of quartzite between the teeth.

The handle was engraved with a stone flake. Take several turns, score first superficially, then deepen the grooves. The grooves can be highlighted with a mixture of charcoal and wax (best in my opinion) or charcoal and fat.

Summing Up the Stay at Lofotr

2007-08-10T19:35:00.000+01:00

For six weeks have I now worked as a craftsman at the Lofotr Viking Museum and I am now back in Trondheim. The total production of items (during work hours) was:

3 needles of whale bone.
1 needle of elk (moose) antler.
1 large fishing hook of cow bone.
1 medium sized fishing hook of elk (moose) antler.
1 engraved cloak pin of cow bone.
1 netting needle of cow bone.
1 engraved button of whale tooth.
1 coracle/currach.
2 hide scrapers of reindeer (caribou).
1 small engraving knife of iron.
3 slate sharpening stones.
Hafting for a bowdrill bit of iron.

Unfinished projects:

4 metres of a 50 metres long salmon net of linen.
A composite antler comb (reindeer/caribou antler).

Not much may some say, but keep in mind that this museum has on average around 500-700 visitors per day, making questions from the public a major occupation.

Some of the projects on the photo below.

A closeup of the cloak pin. Poor quality because of the bad light in the house.

The museum owns three viking boats. This is the larges one. Note the new horse head in the front, carved by Doreen Wehrhold.

Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to go back next year to finish the unfinished projects + do a number of new ones.

Sailing with a Viking Boat

2007-08-03T15:41:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was out on my second sailing with the small viking boat called "femkjeipingen" because of it has room for 5 rowers. This is a very quick boat, even for one person to row, so I imagine it would be excellent with five. Sailing is however of course more desirable. The wind this time was almost absent and changed direction all the time, but at the end of the trip we had very good wind. With it's large single sail this boat is very quick, but two people is really too little as you need more people to redistribute the weight in the boat as needed.

I sat on the rodder, while Flurin, a travelling blacksmith from Switzerland sat in the front. Note that this photo was taken when the wind conditions were less than optimal.

This is a boat I WANT! But I guess I have to make myself a large currach to sail instead.

Here is a photo of the chieftain's hall taken from distance.

Currach

2007-08-02T15:50:00.000+01:00

I have learnt quite a bit from my the last currach/coracle/bullboat I made. On that one I did a lot of mistakes, most of which I managed to avoid this time. This site also gave me a lot of needed new inspiration.

First of all, what you need to get is a cow hide (or some other large animal). Making the frame takes about 1 day, but dehairing the hide in a stream takes substantially longer.

The frame is started by sticking a circle or semicircle of an equal number of rowan rods into the ground. They don't need to sit deep, but they should preferably be stuck to an angle outwards.

Next you start a special type of weaving where you bring in one and one rod so you get a type of diagonally overlapping weave. The currach site explains it better.

The secondary weaving is done in the ordinary fasion with one round at the time before starting an opposite one.

Bend the withies down and pull 2 and 2 over eachother. This will give the boat a slightly more rectangular or square appearance in the end. Tie the crosspoints with strong cordage or leather. There was in my case no need for it to be weighed down for the recommended 10 days.

Take the dehaired hide and stretch it gently on. Use the longer parts, the legs and such for rope and tie it to the frame. I didn't bother to cut the protruding points and they made it easier to tie the hide to the frame.

The currach ended up quite big and very stable. Here is a photo of two of the viking voluntaries, Brage (14) and Gaute (12), rowing the currach with oars.

Hide Scraper

2007-08-01T17:43:00.000+01:00

Making this type of hide scraper is easy. First score around the edge of a reindeer/caribou "skovle" (what we call the flat pieces of the antler here). Brek off the irregular front and then score along the sides. As usual, using hot water will help you a lot. Split the piece along it's lenght. Tidy it up and make the lower edge sharp.

This type of scraper is quite effective, but the width is too large for my strength at least. Adding a long handle to it would make it better of course, since you then could put a lot of weight into it. It is used with a chopping motion, or by forcing the corners under though points. These scrapers were used to scrape both the flesh and hair side of the skin of the new coracle/currach/bullboat I've been making for the museum. A post about that will hopefully be up within very few days.

Fuedalism Alive and Well in Britain

2007-07-31T19:58:00.000+01:00

A young friend of mine, named Jon is now being cut off from moving around on the estate where his father works. Their house is surrounded by the estate, so he is now really confined to walking on the roads and their own lawn. He is very much into outdoor life and crafts and is very responsibly behaving towards the environment. If he or anyone else in his family trespasses his father risk loosing his job.

I try to avoid posting things with political content, but I find this really appaling. I consider it the right of every human to be able to move around in their surroundings.

Viking Era Shoes

2007-07-30T16:41:00.000+01:00

I've been to the Viking Museum Lofotr for over one month now. There I have been making quite a few items which I'll post over the next weeks. PS! A warning for the purists: These things are not made with stone tools only.

The shoes were made on an evening course run by viking era shoe maker Fanny Larsson (she makes shoes on order for those who are interested). Though they are a little too big for using without woolen socks they are very comfortable. The pattern is taken from Hedeby, currently in Germany, but formerly in Denmark.

I've used these types of shoes and my bare feet only now for almost 5 weeks straight and the 2 times I've tried on my modern shoes it has been an awful experience.

Birch Bark

2007-07-01T17:37:00.000+01:00

I gathered a lot of birch bark for personal projects and courses while I was at home. Some is spirally cut and will be used for a rucksacks or shoes. This is a photo of some of it. All was gathered with stone tools.

This cup was made due to the need of a container to keep my worms in when fishing. This type of cup is readily made and discarded and can be used for drinking from too, but due to the simple fold it does not hold water perfectly.

Going away for a bit

2007-06-15T19:37:00.000+01:00

I'll be gone for about 2 months. I'll first go home preparing for some courses this winter, later I'll go work as a craftsman in a museum up north. It is this museum, if you by any chance are there within that timeframe chances are you'll see me making something in the longhouse.

Have a nice summer.

PS! For all I know, Robert may still post from time to time...

Arrowsizer

2007-06-03T12:49:00.000+01:00

Here is the arrowsizer I started making before Christmas. It is carved as an eagle flapping it's wings. More detail may be added when I feel my skill is up for it. I think it looks acceptable regardlessly though.

Aspen Bark Container Part 2

2007-06-03T12:33:00.000+01:00

The container is sewn after it is dried. I drilled the holes with a flint tip. The rim was willow bark and so was the lashing. There are many possibilities of how to do this. If you use a good type of bark, which doesn't curl that much, you can butt the sides against eachother, but with aspen you pretty much have to overlap. This basket type is very sturdy and well worth the effort in making.

Wikkiup

2007-06-02T17:25:00.000+01:00

My kids and I took off an afternoon to work on a wikkiup in a place that we have thought would be good to do it. We picked a spot right on a creek where there is a natural spring and we've been to the spot enough to know it doesn't flood at any time of the year.

Right near this spot are old broken cottonwoods which tend to break off in large splinters that leave huge slabs of material to use as shingles. There are also some green alders that were washed away at the bank and were blocking the creek somewhat. Alder, no matter if it's green or dry is very brittle and pretty large trunks can be broken off.

The point of this exercise is to show my kids that good dwellings can be made with what is available. When it's done is should be fairly rain proof and tall enough to have a fire inside. Right now it's drying a bit as it is very heavy from being green and the large slabs are still wet with the rain we've been having.

In the above picture you can see how we used the natural forks of the trees to make an interlocking center. You can make the center interlock very tightly by laying everything down on the ground first and interlocking it while it's on the ground. Then you raise it up in the middle and keep pushing it up. The increasing angle will really help bind the forks together.

The above shows the large slabs of cottonwood that will overlap as shingles.

This last pic shows the approximate size of the shelter. I can easily stand up and have room to reach up still in the center. It should sleep 4 pretty comfortably.

Aspen Bark Container Part 1

2007-05-26T20:14:00.001+01:00

This type of container is to me the quickest way to make high quality containers there is. It has the limitation that it is to a great deal only usable in spring and summer. After the bark has been folded you have a ready made container. To make it more durable and useful however, it is an advantage to dry it before you do the final steps. Otherwise you will experience curling and shrinking of the bark, making the construction loose and without a great fit.

First choose a section of Aspen (or specie with bark of similar structure) which is fairly straight and knot free. Score around the tree in the top of the piece you want, and do the same in the bottom. Then score diagonal line connecting the other two. Make sure you score all the way into the wood. You will kill the tree anyway, so there is no reason to be careful.

I use my flat moose antler wedge to pry loose the bark.

Determine the middle of the sheet by using a folded line. I have no picture of the process, only the curled sheet.

Score a shape across the sheet, resembeling the cross-section of a convex lense. I did this on free hand this time, but to get a more regular and beautiful shape you could make a simple birch bark pattern.

Fold it over and pull it over a log stump, bind around and leave it to dry. This is to prevent it from curling inwards. Not very easily achieved primitively, so I am currently testing another method, which I have never seen demonstrated anywhere. If it works out well, it will be presented in a book.

Heat Treating Rocks

2007-05-26T19:35:00.000+01:00

Norway is full of rocks, but very few of them have any particular value in knapping. Flint is only occationally found on the southern coast in small pebbles and rhylite in one location in the west. Quartzite is too hard, quartz breaks a little irregularly and lots of others are more or less useful.

I had heard that quartz responds to heat treating, so I decided to test high grade quartz, quartzite and something that resembles metabasalt. The flakes, no more than an inch thick, were buried a few centimetres below the surface. A small fire was made on top and maintained for between 1 and 2 hours.

I then brushed the coals aside and let the ground cool for a little while. My immediate reaction when digging up the flakes were that the pieces of quartz seemed more shiny and glossy. There was no visible difference on the quartzite and metabasalt.

When testing the pieces I found that the quartz knapped much easier. The flakes travelled easier and didn't step in the regular fashion. It also felt sharper. On the quartzite, which supposedly doesn't respond to heat treating I found a small positive change, although it may be just my bias. The metabasalt just became more brittle and crumbled under any flaking.

I didn't expect any change during such a short time of exposure to such relatively small temperatures. As the results were quite pleasing, I'm not sure much more would be recommended with the quartz, since it may become too brittle, but it may be worth experimenting with higher temperatures and/or longer time in the ground with quartzite.

Beaver Tooth Bracelet

2007-05-13T13:14:00.000+01:00

I've made a bracelet for my oldest daughter, Alva. She doesn't want to wear bracelets yet, so I'm thinking of making a longer string and turning it into a necklace instead. It is made from broken beaver teeth and willow bark.

Sewn Birch Bark Box

2007-05-12T12:39:00.000+01:00

Birch bark is extremely versatile and resilient. Consequently it can be used for making a lot of different things. You need bark of a certain quality to make this type of box.

Take a long piece of bark and roll it up double. Sew it up with some type of cordage. For such high strain, static applications, split spruce root is ideal.

I had limited amounts of spruce root available this time, so for the rest I used strips of willow bark. The bottom of the box and the top of the lid is doubled with bark in two different directions for added strenght. Stitching across the grain is always important to do when using birch bark. Otherwise the bark will most likely split.

That's the basics of it all, an excellent box for storing all sorts of small items. There are many tips and tricks regarding fitting and similar that doesn't fit in here. A more in depth tutorial will be in the upcoming book(s).

Arrowheads

2007-05-06T08:39:00.000+01:00

I have a ton of projects going on now. Among them a fish trap, which will hopefully be finished by the end of this week. But I'm also working on a construction site these days. There is some slack during the day, while waiting for supplies and stuff. That is an excellent opportunity to knap a little. The two to the left have been made at work last week. The two right ones are made from some kind of English flint. The left one from Knife River flint, most graciously given me by Eskimoboy on paleoplanet.

Primitive Skills Wikipedia

2007-04-22T15:40:00.000+01:00

Urban Scout has started a primitive skills wikipedia. I think it's an excellent idea, which probably needs a lot of contributing people.

http://www.rewild.info/

Moose Antler Axe in Action

2007-04-22T11:05:00.000+01:00

Here is footage of my recently reworked moose antler axe in action. It is very heavy and packs a punch. I need a new shaft though as you can see it almost popping off all the time. It is also split. The tree (a dead, dry spruce) took about 10 minutes to get to the ground in total. A little slower than a dull steel axe. Thanks to Halvor Hylland Olsnes for filming.

Here is a photo of me chopping down a goat willow tree. The tree was down in two minutes approximatly.

Buckskin Leggings Tutorial

2007-04-18T16:10:00.000+01:00

It has been a while since I made a pair of leggings. My last set was stolen out of my friends pickup truck during a trip. The bag held all my buckskin clothes and was the only thing taken. It's been long enough now that I smile when I think of what the person who took this bag must have thought when they got home and opened it up!

When making clothes of any kind with buckskin it is crucial that the skin needs to be washed first. I don't mean a trip through the washer (which you can do with buckskin!) but rather a dip in some water. When buckskin is worked soft in a frame, which I do, it tends to come out in a 2 dimensional shape. Deer are obviously not 2 dimensional so getting the skin wet and slightly working a little as it dries allows it to come back to a more normal shape. After giving the skin a dip I wring out the smokey water, catching it in a bucket to be used later for a braining. The smokey water helps keep the brains from going sour and also make it a little easier when softening the skin. The reason you want to soak the finished skin is because if you don't you might end up with one leg that wants to twist weird ways or a sleeve that is shorter than when you started.

One should also try to find matching skins when making clothing. That is to say that the skins should match in overall thickness as your first priority and optionally in coloring. To help with color matching smoke two skins of the same thickness together. The skins I use here were not smoked as a matching set and you can tell the difference if you look carefully.

I have found it much easier to use old clothing that you like the fit of and taking it apart rather than useing patterns or measurements. I went to the second hand store and picked up these old jeans for 2$. I simply cut out the crotch and then split them up the outer side seam. They are now my pattern. You can see in the pic where I have laid the "pattern" on the washed skin. You will note that the skin is not flat but has curves in it. This is normal. Buckskin is not like working with any other material. Your finished garments will never look like they came out of a factory.

I traced an outline of the pattern onto the flesh side of the skin. You can use some sort of straight edge to help make up for the ripples but again, it's never going to be perfectly straight. Be sure to keep track of which side of your skin will be the front part of your leggings and which part is the back. The side of the pattern where you can see the old pocket from the jeans is the front side. It will be that side that is eventually made into the fringe.

This pic shows the buckskin that has been cut away from the back side of the legging and also the crotch area. Before you cut into buckskin make sure you think about what your doing, then think about it again as you cant really fix a screw up too easily with buckskin. I made the cut about 1/2 inch away from the exact tracing line of the back part of the leggings. This is to allow for a little overlap in the seam of the sides of the leggings. Next I used an awl to poke holes on the line of the back side of the leggings, or the side that has been cut. Do not expand these holes by shoving the awl through the holes. Leave these holes small. All holes exposed to stress will become larger over time. This is why you want to leave the holes small. These holes are about 1/2 inch apart. You can space them wider or smaller to charge the appearance but much further apart and you run the risk of the seams becoming saggy over time. Much closer together and you run the risk of having the seems rip into each other.

This pic shows the seam on the outside of the skin. This is called a running stitch. In this case this would be called lacing as this skin is not really stitched as much as laced together. There are many variations of making seams. I like this one for it's simplicity. You can get really crazy and make seams that look like little x's or seams that look braided. Whatever seam style you decide to do you want to make sure that when you cut your lace that you take note of the different thicknesses of the skin. Thinner areas on the skin will stretch much more than than thicker areas. So when you cut your lace make the cut wider in thinner areas and a little narrower in thicker areas. Get your lace wet and pretstretch it. No need to let it dry before using it but you can. Note also how the same side (hair side of skin) is showing on the lace as well.

When I lace I lace from the bottom of the leg and work my way up. I leave about 8 inches of lace on the bottom just in case I need to make adjustments somewhere. When I finish off the end of a lace I tend to just weave it on the inside of the garment rather than tie it off and cut it. That way I have something to work with later if needed and I also know I have a little stash of lace on me in the event I need one and don't have one. I don't lace the the very top and will show what I like to do there next. Now we have the skin laced up the side. The big flap on the right can be left as is or made into fringe. To me half the fun of buckskin is the fringe and as you will see I love to get nuts with the fringe.

There are a number of ways to make the part that keeps the leggings on you. Some folks suggest a suspender type set up while I prefer a belt. To make the belt loop I lace the inside part of the flap that is left on the inside of the legging. I fold it over to create the loop and include this in with the lacing on the top and keep going all the way up, folding over the outer extra skin. That way I have a strong loop that does not want to stretch.

Making the fringe is pretty simple. Just cut strips of skin until they are as small as you would like them. I like to make some initial cuts all the way along the lateral flap just to make sure my fringe is as even as I can get it.

I like the look of twisted fringe which was practiced by some aboriginal American tribes. I wet the fringe and then stretch each individual part of the fringe and twist them tight, giving a nice pull on the end.

I really suggest wearing the whatever your making around a bit before you do a lot of trimming. Again, you can't correct mistakes too easily and buckskin takes a lot of work to get to the point where you're making clothes and don't want to waste all that work. After you've worn it a while you will see and feel where you want to make some different trimmings. I am going to leave the upper parts of these intact for a while before I do any trimming.

And there you have them, leggings.

I really prefer leggings to pants for several reasons. My favorite reason is that they are adaptable. When you get up in the morning you put your skirt/breech cloth on and then add your leggings. When it warms up you simply take off your leggings, no need for a wardrobe change. When it cools back off then your leggings come back on. Leggings also cut down on laundry especially when used with a skirt which I what I prefer to wear with leggings. This makes them go for longer stretches where they don't need to be washed than do pants. While buckskin is pretty breathable it can get hot and musty in a hurry. Leggings cut that right out. Leggings also allow for much greater flexibility and range of motion than do pants and you never get butt sag as buckskin pants tend to do over time.

Some may think this a little drafty of a system but I have never had any problems with it having lived year round in a skirt and leggings outdoors. Buckskin is so naturally warm that a little ventilation is nice and the extra ventilation helps keep one cleaner in my opinion.

In final analysis the most important part of leggings is that leggings are just damn sexy!

Needle Case

2007-04-17T10:21:00.000+01:00

Needles are as a rule; small and fragile. Consequently being prone to loss and breakage. The needle case does the job of containing and protecting them towards breakage and dulling. Needle cases can be made very elaborately or very simply, from wood, antler, ivory or bone. This one can only be classed as very simple and is made from sheep bone. When I get my hands on some reindeer (caribou) leg bone I will make a bigger, more beautifully carved version.

This design is of Inuit origin, but I know that other natives, including the Scandianavian Saami used similar designs. The idea is simple. You have a hollow case, a leather/buckskin strip and two stopping devices. When closed it looks like the photo below. The needles are then protected inside the tube.

To open it, simply pull the opposite stopping device.

The needles are stuck into a buckskin pad.

A proper belt hanger could be made for it, but for this one I used only a stick to make sure the thong doesn't go all the way through. I will just carry mine in a pouch.

Toe Bone Fishing Hook

2007-04-12T17:59:00.000+01:00

This winter I have made a number of antler and bone hooks made in several different ways. A method I tried fairly recently I would say is more than likely my new method for making a bone hook. Bone has two major advantages over antler as a hook. It gets sharper and isn't as affected by water (antler softens a lot after some time). The disadvantage is usually that bone isn't as flexible and has a strong tendency to break, especially where cut agains it's grain. The toe bone hook follows the grain all the way and can be left thinner, which faciliates easier bait attachment and possibly higher overall efficiency. With other words, this is yet to me, probably "the ideal" primitive fishing hook. I know that the barrel cactus have even more suitable hooks, but that plant is unfortunately not to be found here.

First you need a toe bone. Clean it up well.

Grind both sides until you expose the marrow in the middle, this will make into a natural, hollow rectangular(ish) piece of bone.

Clean up the inside.

Cut at what you judge to be the most suitable place and cut the shape of the hook.

Round the edges of the hook and make it sharp.

Carved Snow Googles

2007-04-10T16:17:00.000+01:00

I've made a couple of pairs of these before, but this one is the first with stone tools only. I didn't take any photos during construction, so I hope that my explaination will suffice.

First you need to find a bent piece of wood, mountain birch being a good alternative. I chopped it down with my moose antler axe and when I got home I split it in half so that one piece has the split surface facing out of the curve, while the other has the face on the inside. Use the one with the split face on the inside.

Determine how it will sit on your face and use a flake to saw it to lenght and make the groove for your nose. Clean it up with a beaver tooth or a flake. Beaver teeth works better when hollowing out the nose room since the edge is stronger. Take your time, making such googles isn't done in a flash. Try to do as much work as possible while it's green.

Next, measure where your eyes will be and carve out the eyeroom with beaver teeth. After this is done, chances are the wood will dry out very quickly, so do as much as you can at once. The slit through should be as long as possible, to allow for the best possible sidevision. Carving the slit is easily achieved and can be done both from the inside and outside. For maximum light blocking, go as narrow as you can.

Drill one hole in each end for the string. I used a hand drill tipped with a very thin bone point. It will burn hole more than anything else, but it works. Drill from both sides and punch (carfully) through with a bone awl. Finish it up, attach a line and coat it with charcoal (not done in photo) on the inside of the eyes.

Glacier Lilly

2007-04-08T23:02:00.000+01:00

Today my daughters and I walked about in a burn area looking for some early morrells. While we struck out on the shrooms we did see lots of glacier lillys. I havested a few to show ya'll. I noted that the bulbs that had no flower or the flower had not yet opened were much better and firmer than the ones that had flowers. There were tens of thousands of these ready for the harvest. I've read where a couple of hundred pounds of these were harvested by abo's. They are sweet and nutty tasting.

Final Stage of Sinew Making

2007-04-08T17:24:00.000+01:00

The promised post to finish up the sinew processing. The pic below shows the dried elk backstrap sinew. Elk is very much larger than deer to work with but it also produces some very long strands. Moose would be much the same way.

Here I am giving the sinew a twist, bending it every which way possible. You basically just keep on doing that until it becomes loosened up. Deer take but a few minutes but this elk tore up my hands pretty well. It's really strong stuff.

Here I splitting the sinew in half lengthwise. This will make it easier to torque around. Just keep working it until it wants to come off as threads. You can see the perpendicular cross fibers of the fascia that was left on it.

The final pic shows individual fibers that have been stripped out. Across them is a piece of nylon thread so you can get an idea of how large the threads are. I generally leave the sinew intact and only split off threads as I need them. Wet them to prestretch them before you use them. Sinew doesn't take a square knot very well so one must use a figure 8 to begin to sew with them, or some other knot that doesn't come out.

One last thing, when splitting anything including sinew the side that recieves more of the tension will end up thicker, so to keep a split uniform you try to keep the tension uniform bi-laterally. If you start to see the split make one side thinner then add more tension to that side. Make sense?

I'm going to be making some buckskin leggings next so check back in soon to watch them take shape!!

Snow Blindness

2007-04-05T09:09:00.000+01:00

The light from the snow can in spring be very hard on your eyes. The potential consequence being snowblindness. Having experienced it myself once, I can tell you that it isn't fun and the condition would seriously impact your ability to provide yourself with food. The danger of becoming snowblind isn't all that great as long as you stay in the forest, especially in the evergreen coniferous forest. But in case you need to go up in the tree less mountains or cross a big surface of ice, you will need some kind of protection.

Coating charcoal around your eyes will help a little, but to be properly protected you need some special googles. While I don't know of any transparent natural material with UV protecting properties, the inuits (and probably others) made googles with slits in them, to reduce the amount of sunlight which hits the eye. Especially important it is to remove the reflection from the snowy ground.

If you of some reason has gotten snowblind, you need to stay indoors in the dark for a number of days days, the length depending on the severity of your case. You will know that you have been cured when it does no longer feel like needles stinging your eyes when you look outside.

Very soon I'll post instructions on how to make more advanced snow googles of wood. Not many photos I'm afraid, but hopefully the text alone will be suffcient.

Here is a photo of some quicky birch bark googles in usage. They work reasonably well, but the slits could have been made narrower.

Processing Sinew

2007-04-04T20:51:00.001+01:00

Torjus has talked about using sinew for sewing so I thought I might show a little photo tutorial on how to process sinew. These instructions won't be exactly in chronological order as I won't be showing how I remove sinew from the critter until I butcher my next goat. The sinew I will be working with here was saved for me by my friend the meat processor who I worked with in gathering up my deer skins for my year. They were already cutting the sinew off of the loins so I just showed them how I wanted to keep it as long as possible and they supplied me with bags and bags of deer and elk sinew. I keep finding these bags in my freezer and I have more sinew than I know what to do with! You may wish to become very good friends with your localmeat processor or butcher as they can supply you with many things that you may not have access to if you live in an urban area but like to play caveman.

The first pic is of elk backstrap sinew that has only been cut away from the rest of the loin. When I remove sinew it seldom has this much meat left on it but I am not complaining. In my hand I am holding a piece of slate. On the sinew is a obsidian flake.

The next image shows the actual removal of meat from the sinew. You want to work perpendicular to the sinew, not at an angle. You don't want the tool your using to be very sharp as you can cut the sinew. The longer your sinew is the better it is to work with in most cases. I am simply "pushing" back and forth.

This pic shows the elk backstrap sinew getting cleaner. There is some connective tissue on elk that isn't on deer that I used the sharper obsidian on.

This pic shows the connective tissue on elk that makes meat removal a little harder.

You want to clean both sides of the sinew. You will find that the side of the sinew that faced the dermis of the critter doesn't have all that much to remove but you do want to remove as much of the fascia as possible. Every little bit helps. Any meat or fat left on the sinew can weaken the sinew. This pic shows fascia or connective tissue that you want to remove as much of as you can. Elk especially is very tough when dried out.

I will post the next part on Sunday.

Thanks Torjus

2007-04-04T20:51:00.000+01:00

Thank you for the invite to help out on your blog. I look forward to helping this blog become a great resource for people who want to learn more about primitive skills. Perhaps I fantasize too much in dreaming that one day we might be able to put on a primitive skills gathering there in Norway!!

Just to let folks know a little about me. I am a traditional tanner who lives on a reservation in Montana, but I'm not an aboriginal American. I make my living as a traditional tanner selling garment quality skins to aboriginal women who use my skins to make clothing and moccasins. Traditional tanning as such is not practiced much among aboriginal people these days.

I have been making braintanned buckskins for about 14 years now. I have also lived very "primitively" for about 3 years straight at one point in my life which has given me a practical perspective on living simply. I did this with children which is also somewhat unusual for many primitive practitioners. One of my children was birthed 1/2 mile off the nearest road in a shelter I made, and without a midwife. I have a wide range of primitive skills that I know and practice but by far I am best at braintanning deerskins.

Thanks again Torjus. I look forward to contributing.

Robert

Reopening the Blog

2007-04-04T18:01:00.000+01:00

The blog is now reopened and has had the name changed. This time with several posters. The purpose is threefold:

Take workload off me.
Give a broader contribution from people who specialize in other fields.
Offer these contributers commercial exposure.

Veidemann Course

2007-03-13T14:32:00.000+01:00

I'm not back, at least yet, but I would like take the opportunity to market the course that Patrick McGlinchey (Backwoods Survival School) and I is coarranging 1. - 7. October this year. Patrick is extremely knowledgable and an equally comptent craftsman. Learning from him is to learn from one of the very best on primitive skills in Europe.

Text is from his website, where it can also be booked:

Veidemann – man of the wilderness. This 7 day advanced course in the remote, wild and beautiful Telemark region of Norway aims to take students back to a simpler time, when man worked in harmony with nature and the environment to meet his needs. As fish is the main source of protein in this locality, the course has an emphasis on primitive fishing techniques, many of which are not possible to practice in the UK. After building our own elk-skin coracle, we will make and use fishing nets, hooks, line and fish traps and employ gill nets, harpoons and weirs to catch the abundant local wild trout. Other subjects taught are natural shelter building, fire-craft, foraging and wild food cooking - including making elk jerky! We also cover craft work with reindeer antler, birch bark and natural cordages among other subjects. This is a physically demanding course that requires a good level of fitness. Costs include all travel, food and materials within Norway. Students arrange their own travel and insurance to Norway (inexpensive flights are available though Ryanair)

Taking a Break

2007-02-14T18:18:00.000+01:00

I am ashamed to say this, but there will be no posts on this blog for a longer period of time. Currently I am juggeling too many balls at the same time. Writing quality material for the blog takes a lot of time, so I am downprioritizing it for the moment.

Hopefully in some time, I'll return with a lot of fresh material, possibly also from the expedition to Hitra. Maybe even a book by the turn of the year.

My best regards to you all.
Torjus

Evenk Berry Picker Update

2007-02-13T17:16:00.000+01:00

Two years ago, I made a makeshift Evenk berry picker when out in a woods, inspired by an article on a Swedish site and later also by Ray Mears in a tv-series. I was surprised by it's efficiency, but the workmanship didn't hold up for long.

I have been thinking about making a new one for a long time, even gathered the bark and the spruce root, but it wasn't until there recently was announced a berry picker contest on bcuk that I got the neccesary kick in the behind.

What I have done yet is to gather the materials and to make the rim. This was done quite a while ago, this summer. The rim is of willow and could with advantage have been of another, more sturdy material, but in the very far north that is one of the few materials available. The willow is so weak in that after it had been split and thinned, I wrapped the opposite half on as a support. The bark is strong, taking away the strain on the back and the opposite half evened out the compression.

Compression fractures developed in one place, and that place was straightened with boiled water. To keep it firm until it dried, I bound down a bone piece with some rawhide.

On the Use of Antler Axes

2007-02-12T12:24:00.000+01:00

The last half year or so, I have only used antler axes, no metal whatsoever. During this time I have made quite a few observations on them. Compared to stone axes, antler axes have mainly two advantages:

Ease of construction (softer material, "axe shaped")
Ease of repair (softer material, can be repaired by scraping with flakes)

Their major disadvantage is that they dull more quickly. On a newly sharpened antler and a stone axe, there is however no difference in sharpness. If there is, I would say it goes in the favour of the antler axe. Below: Flattening a piece with a diagonal antler axe.

There are primarily two styles of edges on these axes, the diagonal edge, the elk(US: moose) axe and the hafted slab. As antler normally has a pith, the first and third options are normally the only ones possible. That especially accounts for red deer antler, which has a very extensive pith.

The diagonally edged axe is quite quick to make. The fixed direction on the edge makes it very suitable for wood working, but not for heavy duty chopping. For small trees it works fine, but if you have to lean into the blow, you risk splitting or chipping the antler towards it's weakest direction, making repair a monumental task.

The elk axe is a much more stable axe, it is ground to a centered bevel like a standard metal axe and is therefore good for heavy duty chopping. This axe is as a general rule only possible to make out of elk antler, due to it being solid and extremely hard near the base. The superior weight of the elk antler also adds into the equation. Due to it's hardness and the sheer amounts of materials that needs to be removed, making this type of axe is a major undertaking. My elk axe is under remake, I will try to remember to post the appropriate pictures when it is finished.

The slab type I have limited experience with, I just made a quick one this fall and it didn't hold up for too long. This type lacks the weight of the former ones, but the narrow blade offers even greater precision and better cutting ability.

Hitting rocks is total death on bits, whether it is antler or stone, though even more so with stone. A way to avoid this is to make high stumps, that keeps the edge as far away from the ground and the rocks as possible.

The good ratio between hardness and flexibility is what makes antler such a good material for axes. Flexibility is completely lacking in stone and makes chipping more likely. However flexible, red deer antler (or degraded reindeer and elk antler) is on the margins of what is usable, it is too soft I feel and the extensive pith makes it prone to splitting. Use top grade reindeer or elk antler if you can get it. It is most likely that I will continue to use antler axes in the future, they arn't as good as metal, but then again nothing is.

Willow Basket

2007-02-11T10:55:00.000+01:00

Willow is very fast growing tree. That makes the wood weak, but the strong bark keeps an integrity to it. Harvest the red shoots, they are usually the best ones. The shoots that are still red has a large pith, but the bark is strong, so that they can be folded without breaking.

Harvest in winter, when the sap is down, the shoots seems to be less brittle then and their water content is lower. But still, dry them before you use them, to avoid the baskets becoming loose. It is better to reconstitute them afterwards, before using them. That wasn't neccesary with these shoots though, as they were so strong. When harvesting, there is no need for tools, the easiest method is just to rip them off the trunk with your hands.

To start the weaving, overlap four willows like on the photo. But four will not do it. It has to be an uneven number, otherwise the weave will end on the same place and that will not make a basket.

When you feel the gaps between the spaces become unmanagable, add in an even number of new strands. If you add in an uneven number, the result will be even and will not work (Said differently: Not 5+5=10, but 5+4=9.). Cut off all of the ends on the inside, as that will be hard to do on the finished basket.

When you have the size of the bottom you want, bend up the strands and tie them together in the top to keep them like that. Start weawing upwards. It is messy in the start, but if you are careful to keep the weave tight it will become progressively easier as you move upwards.

Weave it as high as you want it. When the top has become stable on it's own, you can release it in the top, that will make further weaving easier. Splice on the outside, as trimming later on the inside will difficult.

Cut off the tops at a good lenght. Make them pointy, that will make tucking them back into the weave easier. Tuck them back over into the neighbouring strand.

Finally, trim off all the ends and the basket is finished.

Changes on Course Dates

2007-02-08T15:32:00.000+01:00

Some changes have been made on the course schedule for 2008. No courses with bookings have been changed.

Willow and Alder

2007-02-07T13:36:00.000+01:00

I was out on a little daytrip today. Took home piece of a broken alder tree, it will probably give me plenty of heartboards for the bowdrill. Since I am also entering the berry picker contest on bcuk I broke off some willow branches for the rim of my picker. I really need only one branch, but in case I screw up royally I cut four.

Fishing Gorge

2007-02-06T20:47:00.000+01:00

Due to a heavy work load at school and in the home I have had very little opportunity to test much of my new equipment yet. So, when the workload hopefully eases sometimes this summer, I'll have opportunity to test the fishing equipment some more too.

Anyway, having heard about the efficiency of the throat gorge for several years, I have decided to give it a go. My experience with metal hooks is that smaller and thinner is better. This is where I believe most practitioners fail today. To large and too crude.

I used the thigh bone of a black grouse. First it was sawed off in one end, then halfway through on the other. As usual, water helps reduce the work involved.

Four slithers was made by scoring it along the length in four places.

The pieces are scraped pointy in the end and all that is left is to tie a thin thread to the middle. I don't think it will slip, even without a groove. The smallest one is less than 1,5 cm long. Hopefully small enough for the small fish I usually go after.

Skin Pouch Update

2007-02-05T14:39:00.000+01:00

To make the pouch easier to tie off, I made a lining of roe deer buckskin. The skin is cut against a board. Keep in mind that it is easier to cut reliably in a pushing motion rather than pulling.

The sinew thread is single ply strands from reindeer backstrap sinew. It is twisted like this to keep it together. For longer, stronger threads I'd use two ply threads, but for this project that wasn't needed.

The small tear down in the bottom is sewn tight with an antler needle. For this I used a simple overhand stitch. For the rest I used running, double stitches.

On the top of the lining I sewed in a short braided cord of elm bark to tie off the opening of the pouch. The knot here is excellent for tying off the end of a seam.

The finished result: A tinder pouch.

Skin Pouch Update

2007-02-04T20:13:00.000+01:00

Have done some major progress on the skin pouch today. But I'll sum it up tomorrow in a longer post.

Skin Pouch Update

2007-02-03T18:42:00.000+01:00

After having soaked the pouch in a lake an dried it again, the tannin smell is pretty much gone now. The skin has been oiled and was today softened by breaking it in. It takes time. To get a more even result I would use a sharp, shredding object, but due to the risks of tearing the thin skin and that the hair will be out anyway, I omitted this step.

The rough, hard edge on the thicker skin on the "rim" is cut off and evened.

All that is left now is to sew up a hole and a tear. I also want to make a buckskin lining on it if I have enough scraps left. It will be wrung back for sewing, but for this picture it has been left hair out, like it will be in the end.

This is just the tip of the ear. I am also thinking that skinning the whole ear would make easy, quick to make mittens. Especially smaller roe deer ones for children.

Elm Bow Update

2007-02-02T17:12:00.000+01:00

I was aiming at getting a 60 pounder out of this stave. Due to a couple of bad decisions when I removed the bulk of the wood, I may be ending up with a 40 pounder. Not what I want, but it'll do until I make another one.

To day I started some initial floor tillering. It seems like the wood may be a month or so from being totally dry, but I got a feel of it still. The reason why I don't think it is totally dry is because it doesn't snap back, but retreats slowly. The tillering is done by watching the curve while flexing it onto the ground.

The adjustment is made by scraping with a sharp flake on the stiffest spots. Can't say I am as enthusiastic in regards to this bow anymore, but I will follow it through. Who knows, some extra seasoning, may add a few pounds of draw weight.

Pack Frame Update

2007-02-01T21:29:00.000+01:00

An advice for those who are going to make this themselves: Mortise the boards into the frame while the frame is still green. The hazel become remarkably hard to work after it has dried, mortising properly is next to impossible. What I did was to plane the surface down to make it flat and narrower, so that the cordage grips binds the boards more securely to the frame.

Tie the boards down very hard. Preferably with wet cordage, so that it will tighten up when drying and not loosen again when it becomes wet. I may have to redo just that, if it becomes a problem.

The straps are tied under the boards and the frame is now finished.

Courses and Expedition 2008

2007-02-01T17:45:00.000+01:00

I'll arrange 11 courses and one expedition in 2008.

Prices, dates and additional information is found on these links:
Standard courses
Expedition

Traditional Squirrel Deadfall

2007-01-31T18:36:00.000+01:00

Due to my very limited success with my improvised deadfalls, I decided to add a strictly traditional Norwegian setup to my line. The advantages of this design should be:

The trap is put into the squirrel's domain, the conifer trees.
The trap is set so high that it is harder for most predators to pick the squirrel out of the trap.

On the negative side, this trap involves quite a lot of extra work compared to the stone deadfalls. Use densly grained spruce or pine or preferably broken trees that has split naturally. That will save you a lot ow energy.

First chop the tree down. To give you as little chopping with the antler axe as possible, break it after only having chopped around slightly. Cut off where you find it to be a good length. Longer length makes for quicker action on collapsing.

Split it down the middle.

Wedge the bottom log between two trunks to make it sit securely. This will also make the upper log fall directly down. But you need to make sure you remove any twigs or cracked bark in the way, otherwise it will not fall freely.

I used a regular figure 4. I have found a way to make them more sensitive and more quickly producable with stone as tools and spruce twigs as materials.

The bait is walnuts, a bait I have had success with in previous years.

Pack Frame Update

2007-01-30T21:20:00.000+01:00

Larch is not found naturally in Norway, but since I (unfortunately) live in a city at the moment, a lot of trees that are not natural is to be found there. Since larch was used on the original, I decided to go for this tree.

Larch is supposed to be exeptionally easy to split. That has to be trees with denser growth rings than this specimen. This one was quite hard to split properly, but the results were satisfactory. There was also a slight twist in the grain. But not more than I was able to even out on the planing.

Here my daughter seems to be working on something. Maybe she has some plans for the split log too.

Planing the planks thin and even takes a lot of time. Much more than one would expect it to. I used the big flakes I got from Kevin as drawknives and planers, alternating sides avoid digging into the twisted grain.

The ends were evened and notches were cut. To make sure that the frame isn't going to spread, one of the two boards are notched.

The only remaining task is now to mortise the frame and lash on the boards.

New Book Review

2007-01-30T14:43:00.000+01:00

A new book review is up in the books review section. The book is "Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival by Mors Kochanski. Thanks to Ian on bcuk (nick: elma) for giving me this book.

Veidemann Course

2007-01-29T20:21:00.000+01:00

I thought I'll promote the Veidemann course this October again, which Backwoods Survival School will co-arrange with me. Patrick McGlinchey is a suberbly skilled man. Particularily known for his beautiful fishing equipment on display at BCUK and PaleoPlanet.

Here is the link to the Veidemann Course, almost to the bottom of the page. Photo is from this site.

Roycroft Snowshoes

2007-01-29T16:15:00.000+01:00

This type of survival snowshoes I have long wanted to build. I think they look horrible to be honest with you, but the simplicity was appealing. A warning: To save time, I used sisal ropes on this project. Sacrilegious, I know, but hopefully you will forgive me. :-)

First, You need ten small trees and 6 short halves. Try to use as small sticks as possible to reduce the weight. I used aspen, a very weak wood and consequently needed to use bigger sticks to compensate. If I'd used birch, rowan or even willow I would have been able to reduce the weight to more comfortable levels.

Anyway, bind 5 thick ends together onto a crosspiece, with some spacing. This will be the rear end.

Decide where the binding will be and bind another crosspiece onto it. The binding needs to be a little in front of the tipping point to make the snowshoes work properly. Measure where the heel of the shoe will fall and bind another crosspiece there.

Bind together the tip and lift it by binding it to the front crosspiece.

Make bindings. Just a thread over and one behind the shoe. Duplicate it to produce two snowshoes (hardly needed to say that, did I?).

Compared to traditional Canadian snowshoes, this is a terrible piece of equipment. Heavy and ungainly, but still far better than going without any snowshoes at all. For denser snow I would rather go for the traditional Norwegian style, which is much less encumbering. With the fluffy stuff we have here these days, you can clearly tell the difference. Below: Wading in the snow without snowshoes.

New Book Review

2007-01-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

A new book review is up in the book reviews section. The book is "Survival Skills of the North American Indians" by Peter Goodchild.

Hare Snare

2007-01-28T15:12:00.000+01:00

An update on the deadfalls. The trap that didn't collapse last time had done so now, but there was no animal there. I don't know whether the trap wasn't heavy enough to kill it outright, if the squirrel managed to dodge the trap or whether a predator has taken my quarry. If it hadn't snowed so heavily the last days I'd probably see it from the tracks, but they were all gone. I reset the trap a little higher up and with a paiute trigger instead of a figure 4.

This is staged, the noose is too small and too high up, but you get the idea. There seems to be virtually no hares in around this city. Probably due to everyone walking their dogs.

Over a hare trail, find a branch of decent thickness, break off the branches and the top.

Tie a forked stick to a standing tree, or break a suitable branch standing in a good position.

Tie the noose to the the bent down tree. Stretch it out with two small sticks.

When the hare struggles to get loose, the bent branch pops out and tightens the snare even more. If you have sufficient lenght on the bent over tree, the whole hare might become suspended. Below: The triggered snare.

Composite Fishing Hook

2007-01-27T18:33:00.000+01:00

The composite hook has two advantages over the one piece hook: It's easier to make and the point doesn't soften up and become limp in the same way. It's main disatvantage though, is that you can't thread worms onto it. Below: The wood and the halibut bone.

For this particular hook I used a piece of split and dried rowan, a halibut bone (for the barb) and sinews for binding. This binding has to be waterproofed however, so I am looking to replace it with spruce rootlets in the spring. Below: The barb fitted onto the wood.

Carve the lower end to fit the barb.

Thin the rest of the hook and bind it, but sinew can't be bound in the same way as roots, which is much more elegant. I will show how to do that later.

Checking the Traps Again.

2007-01-26T15:30:00.000+01:00

Due to a lot of work at school, my traps have been down for quite a while. I have now changed trapping location as I have found a place teeming with squirrels. A few days ago I set two deadfalls, both of them had signs of disturbance today. One had collapsed, but still rested on the upright stick, because of improper setting. A true newbie mistake... Below: See what I mean?

Here the trap is ready for action again.

The other one was obviously not sensitive enough, and the squirrels had eaten off the bait without releasing the trap. Below: Tracks from one of the squirrels who have had a feast on my almonds.

I am starting to become a little annoyed by the lack of sensitivity of the figure four trigger. Because of that I set a new trap, this time with the paiute trigger. It seems likely that I will more or less start using this trigger type on the nible squirrels. The stability of the figure four will however still be useful when trapping fox and other large animals. Below: A deadfall set with the paiute trigger.

In addition to this, the prototype trap was set to carry out the field tests.

Antler Dagger

2007-01-25T12:45:00.000+01:00

I always have plenty of antler tines and other leftover pieces that lie around unused. Being a little busy these days, I thought making an antler dagger, more or less like in the movie Braveheart would be a good idea. Below: The antler piece soaking.

First I split away most of the soft core.

The rest was carved away with one of the big, nice flakes I have traded for some sinew. Thank you Kevin.

The tip was abraded on a stone and the sharpest edges rounded in a similar fashion.

It may not look that much like a dagger, but has more the function of a primitive fighting glove. I expect it would do serious damage.

Different Things

2007-01-24T19:50:00.000+01:00

As all stories doesn't reach the headline news, like that it is with the things I make and this blog. Here is a few things I've made recently that wasn't unique enough.

Here there is a small figure 4 deadfall trigger, a hare snare of sinew and a two very thin fishing lines of nettle. One with a new, small antler hook. These fishing lines are specifically aimed at getting those picky trout. The lines are really scavanged from the beginnings of the cordage that was originally destined to be used for a fishing net. It'll set me back a bit on that project, but not much.

I have also made a prototype trap. To my knowledge unique, although it is so simple that I'll expect that someone have thought of it before. It will be tested in the field in the nearest weeks.

Ice Fishing

2007-01-23T13:48:00.000+01:00

Fishing with lines through the ice is not a particulary effective means of catching fish. But as with traps, they take little effort to set and they can fish for you while you are not present.

To achive a reasonably steady supply of trout throughout the winter, you are likely to need at least 20 lines out. Some days you will have many, but you will at least be almost certain to catch one every day. This of course depends on how numerous the fish is in the area in question. In some places you may get by very well on 20 hooks, other places that is way to little. If you have to set more than 20 hooks to get fish every day, I would seriously consider moving to a better fishing location. It takes time to check all of those hooks and if the return on them is poor, you may be better off spending more time on setting traps. But as a general rule: Fish is a more dependable food source than game.

One of the main advantages of fishing through the ice is that you need comparatively less line than when fishing from the bank. This being of the simple reason that the ice helps you drop the line straight down on the fish.

Setting a line and hook:

First, of course, make a hole through the ice. Make it bigger than you expect the fish in the lake to be. Scoop out the ice bits and snow out with your hands.

Bait the hook with something you know the fish like. Trout likes worms and other small creepy things. But these are hard to come by in winter, so they have to be stored. The Saami use reindeer fat. I have tried elk/moose fat and have yet to have any success with this. Other, more aggressive fish like pike, seems to like pieces or whole fish. Old bait doesn't work very well. The bait should preferably be changed every day.

The fish usually stand just a little over the bottom of the lake. So that's where your bait should be. Use a sinker to get the hook down. I often find that the best fishing locations to be where there is little water under the ice, maybe just a metre or two. Especially in the spring. In mid-winter they often stand deeper. Below: A line with a baited hook.

Tie it or wrap it securely around a stick at the desired depth. A few motions on the hook can often give you a fish right away.

Don't try to lift big fish directly out of the hole. Everything weighs less in the water. Grab it by the gills and lift it up. I have saved a lot of fish unhooking in the hole, by grabbing the confused, but freed fish down in the hole.

Make sure the line doesn't rest on one of the sides. Otherwise, when the hole freezes over you will have a lot more chopping on your hands, with the risk of cutting the string of course. Cover the hole with snow to reduce the freezing. Spruce boughs can be laid underneath, but I usually just showel a pile of snow over the whole thing. I have seen the Inuits make a small igloo over the hole, but I don't find it to give any advantages over the previous methods. If anything, it has to be less snow in the hole.

About safety. Check the ice on intervals to avoid falling through. Especially where there is fast flowing water. Carry a long stick if you are insecure about the ice. Then you can use it to climb back up on if your luck turns sour.

The Hoko Knife

2007-01-22T17:51:00.000+01:00

Having seen the hoko knife in the Bulletin of Primitive Technology a few years back, I had forgotten about it until Diederik Pomstra showed me one he had made. Mine I made rather large and crude. I would have been much more gainly if it was smaller. But it definately was quick to make. Taking the (rather poor, I know) photos took longer.

The advantages with this type of knife:

Gives you leverage when using rather small blades.
No need for retouching to protect your hands. That saves on edges, which you need as you can get of in an as stone poor place as this.
Quicker than hafting in the regular fashion.

First, I broke off a piece of willow and split it down the middle just by seperating the fibres from the break. Don't split it all the way through. It will be useful to have the attached still connected to clamp the blade in place.

Start the wrapping by inserting the willow branch into the crack, on the inner side of the blade. Make a few turns around on that side before taking a wrap over the backside of the blade.

Wrap the other end tightly down to clamp the blade properly. Secure the small willow branch wrap by inserting it into the crack twice.

Not exactly a work of art, but very handy. And disposable too.

Ice Pick Update

2007-01-21T15:13:00.000+01:00

Finally I have finished this project. I did it very simply this time, as it is just meant to be a temporary haft so I didn't even use the holes. I simply cut down a piece of willow with my antler axe and split it with my antler wedge.

The head is inserted into the crack and the sinew rope is wound around it. To keep it from wobbeling in the crack, wind around the head as shown in this rather poor drawing.

The pick in use.

Ice Fishing for Pike

2007-01-20T14:16:00.000+01:00

Me and a chap named Øyvind was out ice fishing this morning for pike. I wanted to test my primitive ice fishing gear, but brought some modern stuff too. But even the modern stuff was very basic.

The ice was firm, but layered. Using the antler axe for chopping through was practically impossible. That is the main advantage of using a ice pick instead of an axe; you don't have to worry about the ice not being solid all the way through.

We got one non primitive hook out first. While I was making a new hole, he was making motions with the stick to try to make the pike to take. Suddenly the pike took the bait and I rushed to help. The hole was too small however and before we managed to enlarge it, the pike was gone with the hook and all. I think that, if we had planned a little better, we should have made a little gaff of a split branch, hooked it through the gills and used it for pinning the pike's head to the ice. That would have left us with more time to enlarge the hole.

After that we set one primitive set and one more modern. On the modern one, the pike left with the hook and bait, which was by the way herring. No contact yet on the primitive set, but they have all been left until tomorrow. Hopefully there will be something there then. I will also set another set of primitive hook and line to increase the chances of finally proving that these hooks are effective, even on hard mouthed fish like the pike.

Walking Barefeet

2007-01-19T10:37:00.000+01:00

Since there isn't much to report from skillswise, I thought I'd give the readers a simple treatise on walking barefooted. Walking barefooted, however looked down upon in our society it has numerous advantages over using shoes. I have done this for several years during the warm season and find it much more comfortable than using shoes.

First on the advantages of going barefeet:

Hygiene
Having your feet exposed to water, dirt (which sucks up fats and moisture) and the sun washes, dries and condition your feet automatically. Shoes on the other hand, locks in moisture and promotes bacterial and fungal growth. At first it only creates annoying smells, but in time it can develop into quite dangerous foot-rot. There is a reason why all the rainforest tribes around the world go barefeet. Shoes would never dry up.

Foot health
If you ever have heard of massaging your feet. That happens all the time when you walk barefeet. Being as close to the ground as practically possible, it almost eliminates the chance of stepping over. It also trains your feet and legs (very much in fact) and toughens up the skin. Blood circulation is increased and that reduces freezing on your feet in winter. Something which I have barely done after I started to walk barefeet almost all the time.

Silence
There are three reasons why you walk silently without shoes.

The pain of stepping on something sharp makes you take care when you step (effect is reduced as you toughen though).
Better contact with the ground, when you feel the sticks directly you can avoid breaking them much easier.
The sole of the foot is softer than that of the shoe.

Economy
Maybe not so relevant today, but in a time when you needed that leather for winter shoes you would want to save it by walking barefeet in summer. Modern shoes may not wear out so quickly, but moccasins, birch bark shoes and other natural shoes do. So, if you are going primitive for a longer period of time, you more than likely need to learn yourself to walk barefeet.

Limitiations
Like a heavily used horse, a human trekking for multiple days with a backpack over rough country and without rest will need some sort of shoe to avoid wearing down the sole underneath. The sole will regenerate, but you need to rest for that to happen. You will also need shoes on very hot sand, where there are a lot of thorns and in the snow. There are plenty of ethnographic examples that defy all of these, so it isn't written in stone.

Getting tough feet

Tough feet are unfortunately impossible to buy in a shop. Every spring I do this, as my feet has pretty much reverted by then. It will not revert all the way though, so it will not take as long as the first every time.

If you have extremely tender feet, start on grass and coarse sand. Walk around all day on this soft ground for several days, it should make your feet sore. Dont' bother resting after this small ordeal, but press on. On the days that come, start walking on very coarse asphalt and coarse gravel. That will be very painful and your feet will be very sore. When it gets so bad that you feel like tendons are pulling all over the place and blisters are forming. Take two days with shoes on.

After the rest, start walking everywhere without shoes. Especially in the forest, where the ling will whip the soft parts on top of the feet and toughen them too. Take two days with shoes whenever you feel blisters forming.

As you continue walking barefeet it will become second nature to you and you will loose your fear of stepping on something sharp and become able to run, even in the forest.

New Fishing Hook

2007-01-18T17:32:00.000+01:00

Little to write about these days. I have made another fishing hook of antler. I don't like the proportions of it, but it's usable. This time I used Patrick's method. Seems like I am going to stick with my own, I like it better.

And also, I have this bad habit when making hooks. If there is room in the width of a piece, chances I will use it, even if it doesn't give good results. The blanks I have ready now, I will halve. Hopefully that will make me do it properly.

Fishing Line Update

2007-01-17T22:13:00.000+01:00

Not making much progress on anything today, I thought I'd post on pretty much the only primitive thing I did today. The rest of the elm bark I had from making the straps to the pack-frame will go into make a braided fishing line.

I need more fishinglines when the ice fishing season starts soon (very late this year). I also will need them on my expedition this summer.

The process is simple. The sheets are seperated into smaller sheets.

The sheets are plaited into a braid. It is very slow work. But the result is a very strong line.

Winter Course 2007

2007-01-17T14:55:00.000+01:00

The 2007 Winter Course details are now up. Application to the course will be offered Full Members of the Bushcraft UK Community. If the places arn't filled by the 1st of May however, it is open to everybody.

Woven Birch Bark Basket

2007-01-16T14:21:00.000+01:00

If you only have poor quality birch bark available or just have lots of unusable strips left, making woven baskets is a good option. It can be done similarily with other materials and you can weave anything from rucksacks and arrow quivers to shoes. This roll is of fairly good bark, but a little brittle and only about 2mm thick.

Soak the dry roll in water for a while to make it possible to unfold.

The strips are cut straight with an even width by using a stone knife, a straight edge and a wooden plank underneath.

One of these strips aren't as good as the other, most of the brown stuff should be scraped of before using them. The one with most brown and cracked bark is of much poorer quality, but still usable with this method.

There are a few considerations:

It is hard to do if the bark is too thick, split it thinner.
Use a heavy weight about the size of the basket, that will make things easier.
You have to have even numbers of strips.
Even if you are weaving a non-square basket you still have to start with equally many on each side, you just have to adjust your starting points.
The strips can be spliced, but you need substantial overlap.

Weave (tightly) an ordinary square, even and equal numbers of strips in both directions. Weigh it down.

Fold the two middle ones on one side over eachother (make sure that you continue the weaving pattern from before), and start weaving until you have integrated all the strips on that side. Put a clamp on it.

Do the same on the opposite side, then take the two remaining sides.

Then, weave them together. The weave will become ever stronger as you work upwards, so you can pull out the clamps when you reach them.

Don't weave all the way to the top of the strips, you need some ends to tuck back into it. Tighten it all up really well first. Then fold the outer one over first (to the inside) and tuck it into the second "pocket" down from there. Don't be bothered by it ruining your pattern, the next fold will fix that.

Now, fold the inner strip over the inner part of the outer strip (Got it?). Tuck it into the third pocket (also the first, but that does not apply to the first fold).

I haven't made a lid to these yet, I don't know how I want to do it either. We'll see.

Veidemann Course 2007

2007-01-15T14:58:00.000+01:00

Patrick McClinchey from Backwoods Survival School and I will be co-arranging a course from October 1st to 7th. Details can be found on this link: http://www.backwoodsurvival.co.uk/courses.htm

Primitive Clamps

2007-01-15T14:13:00.000+01:00

Clamps work in the opposite way of the wedge, holding things together rather than separating them. They are very useful and luckily also equally easy to make.

The first task you need to do is to grind, saw or chop off appropriate lengths of the stick that are to be made into clamps.

Secondly, you should tie it off in the middle to have a point where the crack is to stop. If you take it further up than the middle it may not stand the strain, despite the string. The string on this photo is a piece of sinew.

Now, drive the wedge into one of the ends and split it up to the string.

To use it, just put whatever you want held together into the split.

Pack Frame Update

2007-01-14T15:33:00.000+01:00

Haven't done much today really. But to my surprise I found that my elm bark, which has been soaking in a stream for 5 days, had dried completely over night. Instead of turning brittle, as unsoaked bark invariably does, it remained fairly supple. Below: bark soaking in the sink.

I wetted the bark and tore strips in the width I felt was best suited and braided two straps. They are very strong, but as I ran out of the best bark I feel that the first one was slightly better looking than the second one.

Below is a closeup. As you can see the right piece is more even than the left one.

Traps and Willow

2007-01-13T15:20:00.000+01:00

Today I have been catching up on a few things I really should have done over the last days. First, my daughter and I was just up the road here to cut some willow, coppiced by the people maintaining the road, for baskets. There is quite a lot of them there, but my daughter got impatient, so I only got to collect a little before we had to go.

I used the no tools technique for gathering them.

A few points on willow for baskets:

The red ones seems better than the ones that have gone green.
Cut them in winter, when the sap is down.
Don't scrape off the bark, that is where the strenght lies.
Dry them before using them, otherwise your baskets will become loose.

This knot shows how well willow can take bending.

After having left my daughter at home, I went into the woods. I fished out the elm bark from the stream it has been laying for several days. It is now drying inside.

I also checked my trap, the one on the ground I haven't bothered to set again, so it's the one in the tree I am talking about. The trap had collapsed, there was obvious signs that something had been chewing or pecking on the almond which was the bait. I didn't want to touch the bait with my hand to avoid contamination of my scent. So I left it as it was, since the trigger needed repair. What had released the trap I don't know, but there were lots of tracks from birds and squirrels around in the new snow. I obviously need to make the trigger even more nimble.

It is no coincidence that the first snow gives "results" right away. The snow covers the ground, making food scarce and taking risks to aquire easy food becomes more attractive.

And by the way, I have also taken in my bow-blank to make it dry properly before final tillering. Hopefully this wasn't to soon.

Antler Fishing Hook

2007-01-12T22:24:00.000+01:00

My method is derived from the method of Patrick from Backwoods Survival School, although I do it slightly differently. I have yet to try his method completely, but I suspect it may be better, especially on smaller hooks.

As in all antler works, soaking the piece in warm water when you don't work it will make the work much easier. Antler is easier to make into a hook in my opinion and can be made thinner due to more flexibility, but bone soaks up water slower and thereby retains it's sharpness better. I have found that if you choose a piece that is rounded in the first place you will automatically achieve the profile Patrick claims to be advantageous in his tutorial.

Start by drilling a hole in the blank where you want the bottom of the hook to be.

Drill a sequence of holes upwards until you have the depth of the hook.

I run the hole out the side, while Patrick runs it out on the top. The pith should be split away first, it will make it all a lot easier. Score between the holes, but save half of a "bridge" for a barb.

Scrape out inside of the hook as you want it.

After the inside looks like a hook at the right dimentions, score and carfully split off the excess on the outside of the hook. Scrape it smooth and round the edges. If you haven't already done that, carve in a bigger recess under the barb to give it better function.

Let the hook dry and sharpen it well.

This hook is the biggest I have ever made and is 6cm in lenght. My experience with metal hooks tell me that hooks around 1-3cm are the most effective on trout, so that is where most of my hooks are and most of the future ones will be. This one is specifically aimed for sea fishing this summer.

Here is the finished hook.

Splitting Antler

2007-01-11T17:44:00.000+01:00

Antler is a lot of work to split, but much easier than I first thought when venturing into those realms. Remember throughout the process that using water eases the process a lot, that includes the splitting. Below: The wedge (on top), the split piece, and the antler hammer.

First you need to score or saw around the tine into the core. Breaking it off is then easily accomplished by putting stress on the point where you have sawed.

You can either free the piece in both ends first or just one end and then start scoring the paralell grooves.

Photo: Sawed off and have started to groove the lenghts.

Score or drill a little depression to take the wedge.

If you split the piece into three or more, a round wedge is best suited to accomplish the splitting. That can just be a regular tine. If the piece is only split in two like this one, you are better off with a flat one, but such a piece is hard to find unless you already have split a piece before. So you may either have to get by with a round one or one made from hardwood.

Ground Stone Axe Update

2007-01-10T13:14:00.000+01:00

How long grinding the edge of a stone axe takes is to a great degree determined by the quality of your abrading stone. Mine happens to be very good, so the process is quite fast. When I abrade edges on stone, I usually start by making a "half" bevel. That is, I start grinding the sides first, more or less to the angle I want the bit of the axe go at in the end.

When I have done that I start grinding much more steeply to even out any dips in the front. In this particular piece there was a rather deep flake scar in the front from testing the blank's integrity.

When the edge is totally even, the most timeconsuming part begins. Narrowing the bit to a usable bevel takes quite a while. Work systematically and if unmotivated, take a look on the progress. I think you'll be surprised of how quick it really is. I used only about 1,5 hours on the bit of this particular axe.

The last task on this piece is to make the handle. A task I fear will take longer than all of the stonework combined.

About Hitra

2007-01-09T14:37:00.000+01:00

Since no significant progress has been made on any projects I have decieded to write a little on the place I am going to live primitively for 14 days this summer.

Where and why

Hitra is a large island just off the coast of Sør-Trøndelag county in Norway. It has the highest concentration of red deer in Northern Europe and a substantial roe deer population too. There are many lakes with trout and arctic char and the coast is renouned for it's excellent fishing. My motivation for choosing this area is that it combines the type of landscape I am familiar to (pineforest and moors) with a very marine environment, which will definately offer learning experiences to me. Opposed to much of the coast with similar characteristics further south, it still has quite long stretches without habitation. Further north there is more of this type of country, and it's even less populated, but it's expensive to reach.

What can I do there?

The reason why I choose a marine enviroment for this expedition is because I clearly see the need to be able to exploit this rich environment. I look forward to forage in the shoreline, catching crabs and fish. I will also, given the amount of time I have on my hands, experiment further with fishing the lakes by hook and line.

The things I want to do:
Fishing in the sea.
Foraging in the shoreline, including seaweeds.
Making a tidal trap.
Fish for lake fish.
Put my gear and skills properly to the test.

The red and roe deer are unfortunately off-limits, but I also look forward to scouting for them.

The practical considerations on this trip is that I need to stay at least reasonably warm and preferably have a full stommach at least some of the time. To stay warm I need to make me some clothes. I am thinking of making a juniper bark blanket to sleep in, a grass cloak and birch bark hat to shed the rain away from my body. Also, I need to hone my fire by friction skills, as that will be my only means of firelighting.

Foodwise I hope to stay reasonably well fed as the shoreline should provide me with quite a lot of shellfish and seaweed. But hopefully I will also land fish and find some big, starchy plant roots as well. But all experience tells me that I will be starving throughout the expedition...

I don't have the room to tan where I live now, so skin clothes will unfortunately be unavailable.

Checking the Traps

2007-01-08T16:08:00.000+01:00

I haven't written anything about it yet, but I have been checking my traps every day since I set them. Until now there has been no disturbance. I believe the lack of snow may spoil the squirrels foodwise, making my almonds uninteresting. Below: The collapsed trap.

What I found today however, was that the stone deadfall had fallen down and the baitstick with the bait gone. There was no sign of any squirrels, but it seems like strangely enough, that a roe deer has taken my bait. This trap is lying straight by a well used roe deer path and there were some fresh, but weak tracks. Below: The path.

I also prepared some elm bark and cut a beaver felled elm to a shaft for a stone axe. Both of these processes will be decribed in posts coming up quite soon (within weeks).

Skin Pouch Update

2007-01-07T17:48:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update on the skin pouch. I took the thinner ear, plus some scraps out of the solution today as it has taken some colour and probably is sufficiently tanned for the use I intend for it.

It now hangs to dry, I don't know how long that will take, but likely in the region of a week.

Pack Frame Update

2007-01-07T17:26:00.000+01:00

Inspired by Oetzi's packframe I have decided to make one for myself. Hazel is a wood with most excellent bending qualities and was the wood used in the original. Consequently I chose to use this wood as well. Cutting down the tree is simple enough, but I struck stone with my antler axe, giving it a serious dent in the edge. Clearly one of the reasons that natives often cut trees with long stumps. Because of very few good speciemens, I didn't have that luxury however.

To make the stave bend on a particular location and without serious cracking, the wood is thinned in the future bend. Thin from both sides and preferably a rather long section, to make the bend more gradual. Compared to the original, my bend is too short. Thus making the frame narrower than the original. To compensate for this, I think I will leave the frame slightly triangular. Below thinning the tree.

The rest of the sapling was debarked with the cannon bone scraper.

I used hot water to bend the wood. When the wood is fresh like this, you don't need much hot water to bend it. Notice the string holding it together while it's drying.

Elm Bow Update

2007-01-06T20:07:00.000+01:00

The uneven places on the stave has now been whitteled off and the width finalized.

Also the rugged ends have been evened by cutting a notch all around and breaking it there.

Here is a photo of the stave, now drying slowly in some bushes nearby. I assume it I will not be able to continue on it for a few months, maybe I will start on a new one in the meantime...

Juniper Fishing Hook

2007-01-05T18:26:00.000+01:00

Juniper is one of the "dryer" woods. It sharpens fairly well and is therefore quite good for hooks. First cut pieces that have the appearance of hooks. You don't need to cut, juniper is so brash that you may just break them off.

Scrape off the bark with a piece of stone or bone. In spring and summer it pulls off easily without the need for tools.

Split the "main stem" on thicker pieces to thin it quickly.

Carve it thinner and cut off the ends so it looks like a hook.

Finally, bind it to bring the barb closer to the stem and thus reducing the risk of the hook splitting in the "joint" because of leverage. On this particular piece I bent back the thin stem to make an eye. One always needs to try something new, not so?

Leave the hook to dry, if you need it right away you can dry it by the fire. Sharpen it when dry, tie it up and pitch it. Wooden hooks loose their sharpness very quickly because of soaking up water, I plan to experiment on glazing the hooks with pitch or smearing them with fat to reduce this effect.

Gum

2007-01-04T18:56:00.000+01:00

In addition to set traps I found a type of gum on a spruce tree we call: Ikøntappe. It's amber in colour and is the best chewing kind of spruce pitch. It doesn't stick as badly to the teeth and has a milder taste.

After chewing it for a while it becomes pink/purple in colour and progressively harder. In case it can be used for something else I saved it for later. Maybe it will be good for hafting arrowheads?

I also found an alder with a very special appearance on the outside. It will more than likely have a very wawy and nice looking grain. So if anyone is interested in some interesting looking wood for knives or something, maybe we can work out a deal...

Deadfall Traps

2007-01-04T15:21:00.000+01:00

Deadfalls deal crushing damage to the victim and are very effective when used properly. But animals aren't stupid, first you have to lure them into trap and secondly you have to have a trigger so sensitive that the animal will be able to run away with your bait without collapsing it.

There are two emotions an animal is run by when finding a bait (food). The counteracting forces of fear and greed. As a trapper your task is to, as well as presenting it where the animal will find it, to reduce the fear enough to let the greed take over.

Scent is usually the mammals' primary means of identifying enemies, so leaving as little human scent as possible is important to success. The smell will wear off in time, but usually you will want success as soon as possible and then you will have to know how to reduce the scent. Some species are extremely suspecious, squirrels are generally not, so I just gently rubbed the sticks with spruce branches. If I were more serious I would hang them in smoke from spruce branches, rub them with dirt and use gloves, but hopefully this will be enough this time.

I have experimented with a lot of trigger types, but I am most pleased with the common figure 4 type. For the first time I have also set the paiute deadfall. I am pleasantly surprised with how simple it is to make with primitive tools and it's extreme sensitivity. Below is a rather poor photo of the paiute deadfall mechanism.

One was made as a traditional squirrel trap, where I know I have seen squirrels before. The logs were rotted birch, flattened with an antler axe on one side and elevated into a tree, where the squirrel feels safer.

The next one was placed directly on rocky ground under a overhanging rock. This is the experimental one. I haven't seen tracks just there, but it is right by some hazel and a big spruce so even if the trap is on the ground I hope it will be tempted to come down.

I have formerly had success with using walnuts for bait, but lacking that I used some almonds this time. So how do you get a round nut to sit onto a stick then? You drill a hole in it of course. That should also break up the inner shell of the nut and release some pleasant smells. Below: The deadfall under the overhanging rock.

Elm Bow Update

2007-01-03T20:24:00.000+01:00

I wasn't able to completely finish the bulk of the wood working on my bow today. I got a long way though. There is a couple of things that should be noted about elm wood:

Small pieces are rarely straight.
If elm isn't perfectly straight and even, they are almost certain to warp.
It's interlocking grain is hard to work with stone tools.

My piece has checked a little more sideways now, it still is on the advantageous side of things though, making the bow more centershot than it otherwise would. I am however very worried!

If this bow fails to come out in a reasonably good way, I will leave elm for a while and use a wood that causes less worries to the mind. Here is the progress, when it has been thinned properly and is bending fairly evenly I will start focusing on making the width the way I want it.

New Reviews

2007-01-03T12:41:00.000+01:00

Two new reviews have been added in the books section. The books are: "Deerskins into Buckskins" and "Blue Mountain Buckskin".

I am also pleased to announce that there are now reindeer backstrap sinew for sale in the merchandise section.

I will probably finish the pre-drying wood work on the elm bow today. Please have patience, I will try to post something on it later this evening.

Black Grouse Wing Bone Call

2007-01-02T20:28:00.000+01:00

Laje said that he had heard about making a call from the wing bones of a black grouse. It is supposed to work when calling hazel grouse. Not knowing how it is supposed to look like I decided to take the design from the turkey wing bone call.

The three largest bones in one wing makes up the structure of this call. The ends are sawed off with a serrated flake to produce three tubes.

The broken ends are ground even.

Stake the tubes free of marrow so you can blow through them.

Amazingly these three bones fit very well into eachother. If you can't get it through you may have to shorten off a little more of the irregular ends. At least I had to.

Finally smear the splices with hot pitch to seal the the joints.

I assume all wing bones of birds will make similar calls, but the sounds may be completely different it seems. This call sounds nothing like hazel grouse, so it is obviously the wrong design, but if you suck the air in and allow your lips to vibrate it sounds a little like deer I think. I will hopefully get into the forest and test that theory on Thursday.

Gaaren's Primitive Services Opened

2007-01-02T18:50:00.000+01:00

Today I have uploaded the new site where I will sell supplies (feathers, antler, backstraps etc...) at competitive prices. There are yet no offers in this section, but they will be added as they become available and briefly announced in the blog.

There will be arranged one course in 2007, further details and exact dates will be announced in the blog.

Also, over the recent years I have accumulated quite a lot of books on primitive skills. I have written reviews on a few of them. More will be added soon and it will be announced in the blog. The reviews are attached to an associate program with amazon.co.uk.

If you by any chance want to visit the area where I grew up and f.i. do some fishing, I also market two houses/cottages for my father.

About today's regular entry in the blog: It will be a little delayed, but will be posted within a few hours. :-)

Some Lessons in Dressing Birds

2007-01-01T19:32:00.000+01:00

It took all day, two of my brothers and I cleaned and ate nine birds today. One female black grouse, three ptarmigans, four teals and one hazel grouse. All shot by my brother Laje.

A few observations on preparing birds:

Don't use flames for singing off the remaining feathers, use coals. The flames will put a foul taste on the skin.
Do empty the stommach right in front by the neck or it too will taint the taste of the flesh.
To make sure the skin becomes all crisp and down free, warm up the skin until it becomes hard and brown. Scrape off the remaining charred down and feathers with a knife.

Below Laje is plucking the black grouse.

Splitting Wood

2006-12-31T16:36:00.000+01:00

Due to visitors I don't have an opportunity to go into the forest whenever I want right now. This does halt the progress on most of my projects. To weigh up I have translated one of my former articles to English. It is partially overlapping with the "Elm Bow" project.

Splitting wood is a task often needed by the primitive, especially in the construction of bigger equipment like bows and skis. But it is also useful when making something as simple as a drill. The are are to my knowledge two methods for splitting a tree: Either by pounding in a wedge into the wood from one side or an end of the piece or by chopping into the wood and splitting the piece by breaking it out of the main piece. The last method is particulary useful when you are splitting off a smaller piece of a bigger tree or when you don't have an axe.

With a wedge

To split a bigger tree to get several pieces this is the only method. For a start, an antler wedge is pounded, usually in the end, to start the crack. If the tree is small one can usually continue the split by simply seperating the two sides. If the crack shows a tendency towards running of to one side, it can be corrected by directing pressure towards the thickest side. On thicker trees this is harder to accomplish, but the problem itself is usually rarer too. By using a fork in a standing tree you can easily put leverage over on the thicker side. It does of course not work on overly large trees, but instead of just small trees you can with the aid of a fork also do the medium sized ones. If one wedge wasn't enough to make the crack go completely through the tree, pound in one from the opposite side. To make sure you get an even split, pound wedges into both sides of the crack. To save strain on your antler wedges, use wooden wedges for anything but the initial split. Below: Starting a crack from one end of the piece.

If one's plan is to split the log into even smaller pieces, one can halve the pieces the number of times needed to reach the desired size. It does however become progressively harder for every time you halve them, to keep the crack from running off to one side. Sectors are harder to halve than pieces square in cross-section. Because of this, it can be very advantageous to carve the sectors to squares to make the results more reliable. Below: The principle of guiding the crack. The thicker arrow indicates where the majority of the force should be excerted.

The same principle in practise: By using the forked tree additional force can be laid on the thicker left part.

Without wedges

This metod is difficult to explain by text only, but it is, as mentioned, very useful if you have few tools available to you. Especially if you don't have an axe. Start by sawing (with a biface for instance) halfway through the tree or branch while it's standing. When you are finished sawing you use your hand and pulls or pushes in the direction of the notch you have made. This should make the wood split in the deepest portion of the notch and you can guide the split up the tree/branch like described above. If you have no tools you can still do this if you very carefully break the sapling into the middle of it and continue as above.

If you don't need the whole tree, but you need a broad and flat piece, you can take the more ecological approach by splitting out a piece of the trunk without cutting down the whole tree. I rarely use this method, and it does require quite good tools. Make a cut into the tree in the upper and lower end of the piece you want to split and hammer an antler wedge into either or both of the notches to pop it free from the main trunk. It is an excellent method for splitting bowblanks out of large trees (for low crowns) and will often not kill the trees themselves, especially if the trees are conifers.

To most purposes you want as straight grained wood as you can get, I will because of that mentioned a few guidelines for seeing whether the grain is straight before you cut down the tree itself. Some species are generally more straight grained than others. Examples of these are spruce and pine. A wood notorious for it's twistedness is rowan and I have to this date yet to find a piece that was perfectly straight grained. It is easier to find straight grained wood growing on flat ground and in dense stands.

There are in general three signs, on which you can see whether the tree has straight grain or not:

Is the trunk straight and even? If not, chances are the grain itself isn't either.
Do the fissures in the bark go vertically towards the ground rather than spirally? That is a good sign as the bark usually has the same direction as the wood behind it.
Are the branches aligned vertically on top of each other. If the wood is twisted, the branches are often placed in a slight spiral on the trunk.

Illustrations will be posted tomorrow. Happy New Year!

Elm Bow Update

2006-12-30T19:33:00.000+01:00

Continued on my elm bow today. The thickness has been reduced and thinned down a little with the chopper and the sides have been planed down to the approximate width. Even though the stave was oiled liberally and has been stored in a tree it has dried up considerably on the surface. There is a slight sign (as yet, totally tolerable) of checking a little to one side, but I think I can remedy it by working it a little more on one side.

I use a sturdy flake as a drawknife. To protect my hands I have padded them with a piece of leather. I have shaped one limb yet. The stave is back in a tree to keep it from drying out quickly.

One point when working elm: Make sure the piece you are using is carved absolutely evenly. Otherwise it will check towards the thinner side.

Squirrel Hunt

2006-12-29T20:37:00.000+01:00

Was out hunting red squirrels with two of my brothers today. Will not say anything about what weapons we were planning on using. ;) We saw no squirrels this time and no other game either. We did however find some more of the common polypody (Polypodium vulgare). It commonly grows in the moss on rocks.

We also found a few patches of hedgehog mushroom (Hydnum repandum), but as we had neither anything to carry them in, nor the time to make any containers so they are still available to anyone who decides to pick them. They grow in spruce forests and are exceptionally good eating. Strange seeing them in this time of year, when we should have had lots of snow.

Although we didn't see any game, we found the den of a probably hibernating badger and it's poo hole. Forgot to take any photos, but I will do it another time. We did however see a dog, seemingly not with it's owner present, the race is called "Finsk Spets".

Arrow Sizer Update

2006-12-28T17:41:00.000+01:00

I know there is a lot of projects that are half-finished now, but please bear over with me, I will finish them eventually. :-) Some of the projects are quite substantial and much of it takes quite a lot of time so I will only post when I reach important tresholds in the process.

This is going to be an antler arrow sizer a little out of the ordinary. I want to carve an eagle out of the tines. I have an idea of how it's going to look. We'll see if it turns out that way too.

The first step is to scrape grooves into the soft core and break it off.

Next the break is ground smooth.

Drilling the hole to pass the arrow through is done with the recently made drill.

That's all of the progress for now. Hopefully I will be able to finish the bow-blank in a few days and post further progress.

Wild Food

2006-12-27T20:13:00.000+01:00

Fish

Fish is and was, contrary to common belief, a staple for most primitive people, often more so than the big ungulates. Especially lake fish is confined to a limited environment and is because of that a much more reliable food source than for instance the reindeer, whose pattern of travel may vary to a great degree year over year. Getting close enough to catch them is also an issue, while the fish is easy to lure into your traps and nets by exploiting their quite limited intelligence.

In my area there are very few fish species. Mainly trout (Salmo trutta), but also arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and/or the common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) in some lakes. These are some of the most widely distributed anyway, so even if my experience is to a great deal limited to these species, the knowledge will be useful in a lot of places. Many of the methods can also be used for other species as well, maybe even in the sea for all I know.

The Trout

Fishing for trout in substantial quantities is difficult because of their solitary nature. At one time of they year, they are however exceptionally easy. When the trout runs on the rivers or streams to spawn in the autumn they can easily be caught, even with the hands. Photo shows lots of small trout caught in a few hours. The dark skin comes from living in a lake heavily influenced by bog water.

The most common method of hand fishing is called “tickeling”. Being rather basic animals, the trout believes that it is hidden whenever it can't see anything. Consequently, you can quite often spot the tail of the trout under a log or a rock. But anyway, chances are that you will see where the fish swims away from you and into hiding. By gently stroking the trout from the tail and forwards it will stand still, because it actually likes it. That affection is likely to come to an abrupt halt when you suddenly grab it by the gills and throws it ashore. Fish in hiding can also be speared, by for example probing under a bank.

You can also use spears, clubs or whatever to take out the fish. The club works best with a run and hit tactic. By running into a river and bashing at everything that moves you can kill or stun a few fish. Leave the river alone for a few hours and repeat the procedure.

Spearing with a torch is very, very efficient. The light calms and attracts the fish. But the torch has to burn brightly, without being made with either fat, birch bark, pitch or fat wood as a component, chances are the fish will not be mesmerised. When spearing fish, aiming at the neck makes for the surest kill, but be aware of that the light bends in the water. Sneak the spear slowly towards the aiming point of the fish (through water if needed) and thrust in an explosive movement. The spear is usually held in the right hand while you hold the torch with the left. Put your hand far up the spear to get most control and force. Pin the fish to the bottom until you manage to grab it with your hand to bring it on shore. With this method you can easily spear dozens in a short time.

If you have a net, chasing (by throwing rocks) the fish into the net or seine-netting a pool can give you hundreds at a time. Alternatively, block the passage of the water with a wall, leaving only a little opening where you set your landing net you can get quite a few fish too. Then start scaring the fish from above and into the only available exit, which is your net. Where the fish run on the exit river of a lake this can be used as a permanent installation, emptied every day. A related method is the fish basket, where the funnel inside guides the fish into the basket, but their limited intelligence make them unable to find the exit. This trap can be used in conjunction with a wall in an upstream run. Below is a crude basket trap.

Not all trout spawn in rivers or streams, some spawn in the lakes and all the fish in a lake doesn't spawn each year, particularly in lakes with bigger fish. Because of that, setting nets on strategic locations around the lake can bring a good catch. Such locations are usually inlets, outside of peninsulas or river out or intakes.

The same goes for spring. But particularly newly ice-cleared river intakes are sought by the winter-lean trout, seeking food brought by the flooding rivers or streams. Setting a net there overnight will often yield a good catch.

Summer is a poor season for fishing. The water is too hot for much movement and the brightness reveal your nets to the fish. Instead of using nets at this time of year, this is the time when the hook and line represents the best available alternative. For a more industrious approach; baited long-lines.

The fish move less in winter, but can still be caught with hook and line. In the winter the fish is found in deeper portions of the lake, but as spring approaches they move closer to shore. Netting under the ice is somewhat efficient on trout, but far more so on the next species described.

Arctic Char

Of these three species, the one I have the least experience with. It is a social fish, running in shoals. It is mostly pelagic and quite hard to catch in summer time, especially on lower altitude lakes where it goes deeper than the trout. Below: Small arctic char caught in ice fishing.

In late autumn (November approximately) the char goes into shore to spawn and is then to be found in very large shoals and is easily caught with nets. If there is ice you can either put nets under the ice, fish with bait or spear the fish like the Inuits sometimes do. The char is quite easy to catch under the whole period with ice.

Common Whitefish

This fish also moves about in shoals and due to a small mouth almost impossible to use hook and line on. Nets are about the only good option for this specie. A few places it runs in slow flowing rivers, but for a great part it spawns in the lake itself. In summer it is usually found in the deeper portions of the lake, but some can be caught in the shallows too. The fish spawns in late October and November, by setting nets outside peninsulas at that time you can catch lots and lots of this fat fish. If the ice is firm, you can also set nets under the ice, which can provide you with whitefish throughout the winter. How to set nets under the ice will be described in a seperate article as the procedure is quite complicated. The spring is also a reasonably good time to catch this fish in nets, but the fish is, as everything else, leaner then.

Dressing the Fish (illustrations will be edited in as they become available)

Start the cut by inserting the tip of the knife in the anus. Cut up all the way until you reach a harder structure almost at the throat. Rip up the tongue and gills from underneath the gill cover. Stick a finger into the throat and rip the pectoral fins off and the entire digestive system with it. Optionally you can scrape out the “kidneys”, a blackish substance sticking to the back from the inside commonly believed to be blood. If you are to fry the fish, skinning or scaling the whitefish is recommended. Of the organs, all can be eaten, including the roe and sperm. Photo is of me, dressing a few trout in front of the lavvo.

Cooking fish will be handled in a later article. This article series will be temporarily discontinued until I have enough photographic material to post the remaining articles (Mammals, cooking, shellfish, seaweeds, lichens etc...).

Skin Pouch Update

2006-12-26T17:42:00.000+01:00

For eight days I have had the skins in the water along with the alder bark. I checked upon the skins today and turned them, as parts were not totally submerged before. The skins show yet no signs of having soaked up any tannin, no change in colour whatsoever. I am beginning to think my solution is too weak. The ear skins are thinner than the leg hides, so I will probably take them out of the solution to dry if they show signs of changing colour in another week or so.

If I find time, I may add more bark to the solution at a point over the next days.

A Break From Christmas

2006-12-26T10:51:00.000+01:00

When I was out getting the elm for my bow yesterday there was a few other discoveries worth mentioning. I forgot my camera, so the only photo is staged.

I saw two ospreys (Pandion haliaetus). They frequent that area, scouring the river for salmon and trout. Quite majestetic birds.

For the first time I found great burdock (Arctium lappa). The seeds were destroyed, but now I know where to go to find them for replanting at home, where they are not found. Another plant (fern) I found is the Common Polypody (Polypodium vulgare). It's root is very sweet in taste and can be eaten raw like candy. In addition to it's sweetness it has a slight licorice taste. Photo below.

Elm Bow Update

2006-12-26T09:59:00.000+01:00

The survival bow is fine, but I want one strong enough to bring down whatever I encounter. In this region the superior bow-wood is clearly elm (Ulmus glabra). There are however a few downsides to this wood. It is hard to find a properly straight bow-length piece and it has a seriously bad tendency to warp sideways. This has ruined several good bowstaves for me so, I hope this will not happen this time.

To reduce the risk of warping I will keep the bow-stave oiled and to dry it as slowly as possible, it will be seasoned outside. Also, cutting the wood in winter, when the sap is down, will hopefully help too. The bow will be worked green to it's near-finished dimentions and then dried.

I found a very good stave yesterday, it's quite remarkably straight for being elm and has smooth bark, which I have found to indicate good wood qualities. Coarse bark almost invariably means thin growth rings. It was cut down with an antler axe

After using the same axe to cut it to a more managable length, which is still much longer than the finished bow will be, it was split. To make sure that a major knot did not end up in on the back of a limb, the antler wedge was hammered through the knot to start the split.

I decided to split free the thick end first. When it comes to splitting wood, there are a few handy tricks:
- Hammer in wooden wedges from both sides, that will reduce the risk of the split running off to one side.
- Use a fork in a tree to guide the crack if it starts to run off to one side. Put a little more pressure to the thick side to get the crack bak in the middle.
- If you meet resistance at a point, use an antler wedge to drive through whatever is budging.

First below: Pounding in wedges from both sides.
Second below: Guiding the split with a tree fork.

The best half was chosen and an approximate outline written on the belly side (inside) with charcoal. To measure the middle point of the bow, make one of the bark strips as long as the bow, fold it over and you have half the lenght of the bow. Photo is of the two halves, of which the left one was chosen.

The antler axe proved ineffective for removing wood from sides of the bow, so I ended up with a combination of chopping with a core of flint and splitting in the budging places with the antler wedge. This stage is far from finished, and I will probably continue this work today.

Bone and Antler Arrow Points

2006-12-23T16:11:00.000+01:00

Finished two points the other day. One are made of reindeer antler and the other of sheep bone. They are narrow because of these materials' inferior sharpness and I will not use them for anything over the size of roe deer or perhaps reindeer due to the probable lack of bleeding qualities.

Have anyone tried making Plains Indian style arrow points from hardened hide or sinew? Just for a curiousity I tried that once. My results were far from satisfying, so if someone has an idea on how it was done, please tell me.