Woodlore Blog

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

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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

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