Woodlore Blog

The following post was kindly supplied by Woodlore customer Kelvin Wong, who used the Julius Pettersson Knife Blade to create his own custom Bushcraft knife:

Hi everyone,

I’d thought I’d share some photos of my new Julius Pettersson knife. It is my first attempt at knife handle making and I’d love to hear what you think.

Kelvin Wong's finished knife

I used reindeer antler pieces, purple and white liners, and a piece of dyed box elder burl, with nickel silver end cap and bolster. The end piece of antler was a bit small and didn’t polish up as pearly white as the front piece, but I am still quite happy with the results.

Any comments/advice on how to improve would be appreciated!

Kelvin Wong

In early 2011, Thalia Georgiou took her first steps into the world of Bushcraft by joining Ray Mears and the Woodlore Team on our Arctic Experience Expedition. Her time spent in the wilderness of Northern Sweden helped Thalia to gain not only new skills, but a greater understanding of the isolated environments of the world and the peoples who call these places home.

Upon returning to her life in the UK, Thalia took this newfound appreciation and put it to use, travelling to Canada to help support a number of First Nation and Inuit communities. Hers is a fantastic story of how even a short time spent in the wilderness can be both humbling and incredibly inspiring, and it is moving to hear how Thalia has used this boost to provide help to others:

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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.

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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.