Woodlore Blog

The following post was kindly sent in by Woodlore customer Nick, who purchased the Julius Pettersson Knife Blade:

Hello Woodlore,

Having a look at the blog I noticed that there were a few pictures of completed knives and I thought I would send in a couple of mine:

Nick Murphy’s Julius Pettersson knife

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The 2011 UK bushcraft course season is now underway at Woodlore.  This year’s season started off with two Fundamental Bushcraft courses, a Wilderness Navigation course and a Camp Craft course.  All of the courses so far have been a great success and the weather has been fantastic; we haven’t had a drop of rain!  So plenty of happy, tanned students around the campfire! It’s also been fantastic to see the field team back out in the woods again.

This week sees the start of the Introduction to Bushcraft courses over the Easter weekend, which is forecast for even more sun and higher temperatures.

Di and Steven from the office popped up to visit the Camp Craft course last week, where the groups were putting the finishing touches to their own shave horses, as well as working on other carving projects:

Shaping a wooden peg for a shave horse

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Richard Spencer, a Woodlore customer from Australia, kindly sent in the following post:

Dear Woodlore Team,

Having received the Fire Stick Rods from you, I had a bit of fun making handles for them:

Richard Spencer's Fire Stick, complete with gumnut handle

I used spent gumnuts. These things lie in their countless millions on the ground, in the woods and on the side of the roads where the gumnut trees grow. You’ve probably heard of them. They’re light, they float and they’re very tough yet easy to work with few tools. I used one tiny flat file and a bit of sandpaper to make this handle. There’s a small brass picture hook for a lanyard.

The gumnuts contain seeds which drop out, leaving these tough, smooth shells, which just beg to be used for other things.

They can be stuffed with cotton wool and after a few drops of aromatic oil, they’ll keep the car smelling fresh. If you soak them in paraffin then fill them up with melted candle wax, they make great firelighters.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Spencer

Wild Britain with Ray Mears on DVD

The brand new DVD of Ray’s latest series, Wild Britain with Ray Mears, is now in stock and ready for dispatch from Woodlore. This DVD contains the extended versions of all six episodes, which until now were only available on the Sky channel Eden.

Click here to order your copy now

On the 18th – 20th March this year, Woodlore held an induction weekend for the new field staff whom we recruited in the winter.

The new staff were put through their paces learning the ropes of setting up and taking down camp, learning where the sites are that we use for courses, as well as the routes to local supermarkets and hospitals.

On this note, we would like to welcome Rob Bashford, Mark Booton, Ross Burt, Steve Corbyn, Iain Gair and Susan Hipkin to the team this year, and we wish them all the best for the forthcoming season.  Some of you may remember Rob from a few years ago, who has now returned to Woodlore after a couple of years pursuing other avenues.

With the Induction weekend over, the new hands were then joined by the rest of the outdoor team for the annual Training Week.  As well as a good chance to catch up, the week offers valuable training and refreshers in vital areas such as first aid:

Just one of the first aid scenarios

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