The camp vise is illustrated in the book Wilderness Survival by Mark Elbroch and Mike Pewtherer. The authors suggest that this tool can be used to hold and work small objects that may be too difficult to do so with the fingers alone. Little detail is provided for the construction or use of the vise, however the concept is simple enough that it is hardly necessary. It consists of a split stick that tapers on one end with a small pivot stick inserted between the two split pieces and lashed into place. A wedge shaped stick is then inserted between the splits on the opposite end causing the tapered ends to close down on the intended work piece. With a knife and some cord, this tool can be made in a matter of minutes. I can see how it may be useful for sharpening a piece of bone when abrading against a rock or even as a clothes pin for drying a pair of wet socks. How would you use it?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Popularity: 100%

Withys may not sound very exciting to most, but I’ve just had a breakthrough with them so I’m a little excited and thought I’d share what I’ve learned. First of all, I want to say that I originally learned about these from one of Ray Mears videos (again). But I’ve also seen them mentioned in Hilary Stewart’s book Cedar. If you are not familiar with the withy, it is simply a sapling or thin branch that you twist which causes the wood fibers within to separate making it pliable enough to be used for binding. Ever since learning about them, I would try to make one every time I went out into the field. But I never really had any success. I would start twisting, the fibers would start to separate, then eventually…SNAP! The fibers would break rendering my withy useless. The trick, as I learned today, is to maintain some tension on the shoot so the wood fibers don’t have a chance to kink. If a kink develops and you continue to twist you’ll likely hear a snap too. In the beginning, I was blaming everything but myself (e.x., brittle tree/shrub species or seasonal variations, etc.). But in the end, it all boiled down to technique.  So, in my excitement, I put together a little tripod fastened with a withy and a built-in kettle hook to celebrate.

Popularity: 35%

Spend a weekend camping and your hands will invariably show it. There is no escaping the dirt, ash, pine tar and other unmentionable funk that can accumulate on the surface of the skin from the variety of tasks the hands perform while in the field. But where is the soap when you need it? Depending upon where you live there should be at least one plant variety in your area that contains enough saponin to be used as a soap substitute. In the book How to Survive Anywhere, Christopher Nyerges describes several options that are available for personal hygiene for those spending lots of time in the woods. One of the plants that Christopher discusses in detail is Yucca. Now, where I live in the northeast, yucca is definitely not a naturally occurring plant. It is typically associated with the desert southwest. However, it is widely planted as an ornamental landscape species and can be found in many places throughout. So, I happened to have access to some yucca from which I picked a couple of leaves and then processed them as outlined by Christopher. As he explains, just separate the fibers from an individual leaf into several smaller strands, add water to the bundle and agitate between your palms to build up a lather, then rinse. The lather that is generated, in combination with the semi-abrasive quality of the leaf fibers, should leave your hands squeaky clean. And as you can see in the accompanying photo, the lather is an interesting shade of chlorophyl-green, so now washing can be fun AND hygienic at the same time.

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Here I go, playing with fire again!  This is something I saw Ray Mears demonstrate in his Bushcraft video series.  It is a neat concept that requires a dry and seasoned log.  In the Bushcraft episode, Ray uses pine.  I didn’t have pine available but I did have some knotty spruce from a tree that was felled from the yard this spring.  It wasn’t as seasoned as well as it should have been, making it more difficult to ignite, but once it got started it burned nicely.  I used a chainsaw to make the cuts.  In the video, Ray explained that the cuts could also be made with a hand saw or the log could be split into quarters and the ends buried in the ground vertically.  The splitting method seems easiest of the two alternatives and when I do this again, I’ll try it that way for comparison.  One mistake I made was packing the cuts way too tightly with sticks which impeded the oxygen flow thus adding further difficulty to the ignition process.  As you can see by the photos, the wind was wreaking havoc on the distribution of heat and flame.  Even with the wind conditions as they were, I was able to get the uncovered pot to a boil, but not to a rapid, rolling boil.  I suspect that under more ideal circumstances (i.e., no wind, properly seasoned wood, and perhaps a lid for the pot) the water would have reached a rolling boil.  We’ll have to see what happens the next time I try the Fire Log out.

Popularity: 50%

Today I finished up a Susquehanna point that I had originally worked into a little biface a few days ago.  The material is keokuk chert and probably wasn’t historically used with this eastern style of point.  But once it’s hafted to a spear or atlatl dart, I doubt any critter that might be on the receiving end would know the difference.

Popularity: 24%