Woodlore Blog

Welcome to our blog; the official source for news on Ray Mears and Woodlore Limited. Here you will find all the latest goings-on from our world; be it news of Ray Mears’ latest television series, book releases and lecture tours, behind-the-scenes reports from our Bushcraft courses and expeditions, or updates on new kit, special offers and exclusive giveaways.

Take a look around, get involved with your comments, and then – most importantly – get back outdoors!

Welcome to the very first of our ‘Ray Mears Sightings’ blog posts. As a new venture of ours, the aim of these posts is to bring you the very best articles, interviews and videos of Ray Mears found online each month. Throughout this past month, Ray has been busy getting involved in a variety of projects that are occurring around the UK, as well as participating in interviews with a number of publications. To simplify things, we have rounded up the cream of the crop and hope that you will enjoy them as much as we have.

Euro 2012 Fan Academy Advert:

Carlsberg recently launched their newest advertising campaign in preparation for the upcoming Euro 2012 football tournament in Poland and the Ukraine. Ray teamed up with other high-profile figures, including Des Lynam, Brian Blessed, Ian Wright and Stuart Pearce, to create an advert that put a massive smile on our faces, and that sees Ray teaching football fans how to endure the great British weather whilst supporting the national team. The Sidmouth Herald ran a great story on the advert which you can read here.

Woodlore will be supporting the England team throughout the campaign in June, and want to wish Roy Hodgson and the team the very best of British luck!

npower Climate Cops SOS 2012:

Ray has teamed up with the UK energy supplier npower in a search for Britain’s most passionate and creative environmentally-minded teenagers. The winners will get to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime masterclass with Ray, who will teach them various bushcraft and survival skills. Check out the official Climate Cops SOS 2012 page, where you can enter to win this fantastic prize.

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The eagle-eyed among you may have already spotted Ray Mears popping up in the latest Carlsberg TV advert, known as ‘The Fan Academy‘. Made in preparation for this year’s UEFA Euro 2012, the light-hearted commercial features a bevy of English stars – including Sir Bobby Charlton, Peter Shilton, Brian Blessed and Linford Christie – as they help train 300 England fans to be the best supporters they can be:

Appearing at 0:56, Ray Mears is on hand (complete with 5.11 garb), preparing the fans for the worst the English weather can throw at them on the terraces:

Ray prepares the fans for an 'English Summer'

Darren Morris, Brand Controller at Carlsberg, said:

“As England fans ourselves, we know how important supporters are to the England team during a major tournament and we wanted to acknowledge the unique characteristics that make England fans amongst the best in the world – such as commitment, loyalty and passion.”

With summer finally on its way, we’d like to give you a helping hand towards the next bit of kit or clothing that you’ve got your eye on for the coming season. As such, we’re giving away a £20.00 Woodlore Voucher today; to be in with a chance of winning, simply post a comment below with the answer to the following question:

Woodlore will soon be stocking a brand new range of products from Swazi, known as The Tussock Range. One of these products has been named after a river in the Northwest Territories of Canada; which item is it?

ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED. Thanks for all your entries; everybody got the answer right today, perhaps it was a little too easy! But congratulations to our winner, chosen at random - Sam Thompson-Garrido. A £20.00 Woodlore Voucher is on its way to you.

Here at Woodlore, we’ve been firm believers in the Swazi Clothing brand ever since Ray brought his very first Tahr Anorak back from a trip to New Zealand. Their claim of producing “the world’s most durable outdoor clothing” piqued our interest, and we’ve been putting their gear to the test – and proving them right - ever since.

The Tahr Anorak quickly became Ray Mears’ favourite and most reliable piece of outdoor clothing, and has remained so ever since. Their distinctive designs and trademark Tussock Green colour can now be found on outdoorsmen and women the world over, helping them through wind, rain and snow, while the production of all their garments has proudly been kept in New Zealand.

In 2012, Woodlore continues to be the UK’s exclusive distributor of Swazi Clothing, a title of which we are very proud. And so, it is with great excitement that we announce a brand new series of exclusive products to the Woodlore shop, in the form of the Swazi Tussock Range:

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The following post was kindly supplied by Woodlore customer Jim Little:

Hi Woodlore,

I’ve noticed a couple of people have sent in finished articles regarding their Julius Pettersson Knife. So, getting in the spirit of things I thought I would do the same.

Other than purchasing the blade itself and the pommel section of Reindeer Antler, the other materials have been collected on rambles with my son Alex. The thin coin sections are deer antler from the nearby fields, they have been separated with sections of deer leather given to us by the local game keeper. The central wood section was brought back from an olive farm in Corfu, from a dead olive branch. Yes, I did get funny looks from immigration!

Nearly there...

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With Woodlore’s 2012 course season now well underway, Aspirant Instructor Sarah Day shares her thoughts on working and living in the outdoors at this time of year:

Sarah Day

I started working at Woodlore in 2006. But since then I’ve not been able to work courses during the early part of the season due to other commitments. I think I’d forgotten just how much I love spring.

Watching summer mellow into autumn is a different affair, the last flush of colour before you wake up one morning and know the summer is over. The day when it seems the birch leaves have turned yellow and started to drop almost overnight; it always makes me feel a little sad. I love winter, and I love autumn but the end of the summer means the end of the course season and a few months until I’ll be back outdoors properly again.

Spring is a season of firsts – the first Woodlore course, the first butterflies and bluebells, the first bumblebees. The woods are so alive with the hustle and bustle of life that it’s impossible to ignore. The changes are so much more tangible than in other seasons too. For two weeks I watched buds on the beech tree near the store tent swelling almost imperceptibly, then burst into a riot of vivid green in the space of three days. The leaves start thin and crinkled, like a butterfly that’s just emerged from its chrysalis, but quickly spread into a beautiful emerald canopy, until the whole wood is dusted with a delicate sprinkling of green. It looks good enough to eat – and some of it is – nettles, hawthorn, dog rose shoots, ramsons and beech leaves are all spring delicacies.

The sun setting over one of Woodlore's bivi sites

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The following entry was kindly provided by Woodlorean Justin Burns, who made his own handle for the Julius Pettersson Knife Blade:

Hi all,

After browsing your website it got me thinking about making my own Julius Pettersson knife handle. I loved the idea of having a handle that you could put your own stamp on.

Justin's knife, in progress

I have made many knife handles before, yet I loved having a blade made by such a talented craftsman.

Ready to be shaped

The handle has buffalo horn in two shades, mahogany and red acrylic. It is shaped in a similiar manner to that of the Ray Mears Bushcraft Knife.

The finished article

It is a strong, sturdy knife which is achieved by having a blade with a full tang and also using strong materials for the handle. The knife is designed to endure all different elements over a lifetime.

Thanks for the opportunity to own such a knife!

Justin Burns

Regular followers of the Woodlore blog may well be familiar with the name John van Zanen thanks to his fantastic hammock-making guide, which we posted on these pages last year. Well, John has been busy once again, this time sharing his enthusiasm and bushcraft skills with a group of scout leaders in his homeland of the Netherlands. Here he shares with us photos and videos of the group working together to create a hangi – a traditional Maori method of cooking food outdoors in a heated pit oven:

Hello Ray and Woodlore Team,

I attended the Woodlore Camp Craft course in 2011 and was challenged by your team to spread the knowledge of bushcraft. Not long after, I spent a few days with a group of scout leaders to teach them some of the skills I have learnt in the past years attending courses with Woodlore.

Each year, scout leaders come together to open the new season and to get new energy and inspiration for the year to come. This year I was invited to join them and teach some bushcraft skills. We talked about quite a few topics, but the highlight of the weekend was surely eating the food from a hangi. Instead of rocks, we used bricks and covered the pit with wet towels, branches and soil. The result was really great and the food tasted fantastic. During the four hours that the food was cooking underground, we all carved a spoon to eat our dinner with.

Digging the hangi pit

 

The prepared food in steel baskets, ready for cooking

 

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The following post was kindly sent in by fellow Woodlorean Campbell Metcalfe:

Hi Woodlore,

After coming on a Fundamental Bushcraft course in September I’ve been enjoying walks around the forests near where I live in Scotland. After seeing a traditional Kuksa in a couple of Ray’s programmes, I thought I’d give it a go; having only carved one or two spoons before I knew it would be quite a challenge.

On one of my walks I found a recently fallen ash tree with a large enough burr on the side of it to try to make my cup. I started by hewing the rough shape out with the Small Forest Axe and carving the bowl out. After a slightly over enthusiastic hit with the axe I unfortunately snapped the handle. A quick repair job later and the cup looked fine, so kept on going.

Campbell's in-progress Kuksa

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After attending our Fundamental Bushcraft course last year, Woodlore customer Stan Intihar had a go at making his very own knife for the first time, with great results:

Howdy,

Here are some pics of my completed knife and leather sheath; a carbon steel Enzo blade and desert ironwood handle with red liners:

Stan’s hand-finished knife and leather sheath

The desert ironwood handle complete with red liners

I used two excellent online tutorials and they turned our purdy good, I reckon. Leather stamping is quite addictive, too, I found out… as did my wife and kids!

A close-up of Stan's leather stamping

I’ve used the knife plenty of times already and love it.  Have also settled on soft rush being my favourite “go to” firesteel lighting tinder; that stuff is everywhere and is just brilliant at taking sparks.

All the best,

Stan