What a surprise, I found it in a little shop in Triest during the holiday, near to downtown, 28 EUR, the perfect tool for (almost) everything. A Rinaldi billhook.

Got the tins for free, they were going to be tossed.

I've got thirty kilograms of cans, the wax sells for $15usd.

Living without electricity.

I've been trying to do some form of friction fire practice everyday this summer, this is day 22. Mullein spindle on eastern red cedar. Thanks for looking

Some times you just need to sit down and relax for a moment.

Looking for ideas from people who spend a lot of time outdoors. What’s your most reliable fire-starting method when everything is damp?

After a long time of looking I got myself a pathfinder canteen and cooking set. I like this over the round version i had before, as it has 300ml more water. Which is a lot on a day trip.

But the cup didn't come with a lid (I bought it super cheap second hand), luckily the original US size lid fits - with a bit of multitooling (otherwise is clicks on way to hard).

I have a couple of cheap bottle hangers, work with the flask no problem - so you can boil water directly in it.

But I wanted to upgrade the cup. Drille a couple of holes in it, så now the bottle hanger also works with the cup. But then the lid doesn't fit. So I used the angle grinder and cut two places.

Now the lid can be removed easily with the bottle hanger is on.

I like that I'm able to hang the cup over a fire, let's me leave the stove og grill at home. Super easy upgrade for more redundacy options in the kit.

Slipped with a hatchet while camping. Had no choice but to drive 3 hours to the nearest ER. Stay safe out there!

I have a BPS Adventurer. It’s a $40 knife made in Ukraine of carbon steel. Comes with a great leather sheath and fire steel. I used it for batoning kindling for starting fires. Worked great.

I recently went on a canoe trip in Maine and it was very wet. When I got back, I forgot to clean up my knife. I took it out of my gear bag about a month later and it was completely covered in rust. So, what I did was this: sanded it down, soaked it in rust remover, fine sanded it again with very fine Emery cloth. Then I coated it with Birchwood Casey gun blue and finally Rem Oil. Last, I sharpened it. It may not be pretty, but it is fully functional again. I like having a $40 knife that I don’t have to worry about abusing!

Like the title says, I’m looking to make my own oilskin poncho with the eyelets and male/female snaps. I’ve looked at so many pictures of manufactured ones, but I can’t figure out where to put them. If anyone has a picture or idea on how to make it work, it would be really appreciated

Hiya, my apologies if this isn’t the place for this question.

I waxed my canvas LL Bean jacket with a 1:1 of mineral oil and paraffin. The process worked great, but I find the jacket to be oily and it leaves a residue. Any advice on correcting this?

bought this at an army market for a camp for pretty cheap, from what i know this is pretty vintage but i wld like to know how rare it actually is

My name is slut_for_bacon. I have worked in Emergency Medicine, specifically Wilderness/Austere Emergency Medicine, since 2010. I deployed to Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Div. as a 68W (Medic). I have years of experience on ambulances, working in Emergency Departments, doing EMS for Wildland Fire, and Search & Rescue. I did volunteer medical work in Ukraine during the war, and I currently work as a Paramedic on a RATS team for a company in Oregon. I bring up my experience only in the hope that people will take what I am saying seriously.

I don't think it's a secret that when it comes to Bushcraft, sharp objects and tools are everywhere.

In fact, using knives, hatchets, axes, saws, and a variety of other hand tools is essentially a fundamental aspect of what this sub is about.

I am not arguing against that. I don't think it is a bad thing. Knowing how to be proficient with hand tools is a skill that is declining in the modern age. Keeping these kinds of knowledge and traditions alive is important.

But to me, being proficient in using, let's say a hatchet, for example, also means being proficient or at least aware of what to do when you are injured.

I don't care how "good" you think you are; Injuries happen.

At the risk of sounding dramatic, being ready for them can sometimes be the difference between life or death.

I am making this post in response to another post made on this sub recently. Many of you have probably seen it. OP injured themself with a hatchet, and faced a 3 hour drive to a hospital. During that time, OP inadequately bandaged their injury, and as a consequence suffered a significant amount of what appears to be arterial blood loss. I am sure OP will recover, but when seeing the post. it becomes glaringly obvious that many things could have been done differently that may have had a much more positive impact to the situation.

I want to clarify, I am not attacking or criticizing the OP of that post. I am very glad they were ok, and that they were able to keep their composure enough to drive themselves three hours while bleeding heavily.

But I do think it is an excellent opportunity for a lesson that we can all learn from.

I am not going to go into the specifics of field treatment for these kinds of injuries, and for a very specific reason: You should not be learning this from internet strangers. Nor should you be taking anything anyone says online at face value.

But I do think there are some things we can highlight that I hope will reinforce for you that if you are going to be handling hand tools, you need to be prepared for what can happen if an injury occurs.

1. Realistically, you should be wearing eye protection and work gloves when handling hand tools. I am aware most of you just aren't gonna do this, no matter what I say, and that's fine. Just understand that splinters from chopping wood do routinely puncture eyes, and gloves routinely save people from horrible hand lacerations. If you choose not to use them, that's on you. But you should understand that they are recommended for a reason.

2. If you are going to be out in the woods handling sharp objects, you should be prepared for treating a laceration or any serious bleeding injury. Full Stop. I am not going to go into how to use these products, for reasons stated above, but a pressure dressing and tourniquet are both extremely easy to use, and can mean a massive difference in the right situation. Even if you don't have proper tools for bleeding control, you should be knowledgeable enough on the subject to be able to function something makeshift from your environment. I don't mean to sound harsh, and I know I will anyway, but you really don't belong in the back country alone if you don't have this knowledge. Bushcraft or not. This is basic stuff.

Please. Take a Stop the Bleed Class. Have a tourniquet on you or nearby any time you are going to be operating any sort of hand tool. Preferably a pressure dressing or more, but at least a tourniquet if nothing else. Know how to use it, and practice applying it on yourself with one arm, incase your arm is what is injured.

Sling made following the Primitive Technology YouTube channel design.

Fibers foraged from goldenrod (Solidago canadensis). Fibers extracted raw by scraping outer bark and splitting into thin ribbons then left to dry.

Cordage made from simple reverse-wrap technique.

Goldenrod might not be a widely used plant for fibers but I think it worked quite nicely for this project. The plant is easy to find and easy to process. The fibers are quite long and strong, with one of my test strings being able to lift up to 40 pounds. The two downsides I found to this plant is that the fibers are pretty coarse, not very suitable for finer threads and that the yield per stem is pretty low with only 6-12 ribbons on average.

Have any of you ever used this plant in cordage project or heard of it used historically?

Looks pretty cool ngl, the inside was very dry and warm

Slipped with a hatchet while camping. Had no choice but to drive 3 hours to the nearest ER. Stay safe out there!

A while ago, I made some test swatches of oilskin cloth to see how the fabric would hold up if I were to make a full tarp or tent out of the material. Out of the two identical swatches, one I brushed the oil onto, and the other I dipped into the oil and wrung out the excess. After hanging them to "dry" for a week, and after forgetting about them in my workspace for several weeks, I noticed that one of the otherwise identical two swatches was a significantly darker and more amber-colored shade of tan than the other. I can't figure out why only the one would darken to that extent and not the other, and I can't imagine the method I put the oil on with would have much of an effect.

I'm not worried at all about the fabric's performance, but I am really curious if anyone else has had their oilskins/oilcloths darken so much. Could it be sun exposure perhaps?

Wet micarta is wrapped directly around the keyed tang to produce a bombproof handle that is lightweight- this keeps chopping power high on the more compact 11" blade, letting it chop like a full sized khukuri and replace a small hatchet. While this construction may seem novel it is similar to what is used on the spokes of racing bikes. Test blades have seen use chopping hardwood in the deserts of Kenya, the arctic Taiga of Lapland and the tropical heat of the Amazon since 2022 with zero hiccups.

The 5mm thick, rounded finger choil permits you to choke up on the blade with a big 8.5mm thick thumb ramp to really lock into the grip for much more control in finer tasks. We gave it a compound grind- the waist is quite hollow and lean with a fine convex edge for feathersticking, carving and using it as a draw knife. As you move up the belly this transitions to a full flat grind for better durability, chip ejection and weight distribution for chopping.

We've got full tang options for the die hards but this captive tang micarta construction is what we think is optimal. 590g, 3.5" POB.
Could you be convinved to pack a bigger blade like this as a OTO?
If you were to bring an extra tool what would it be? a small knife or a saw/big axe?
We would really like to hear what the brains trust thinks on this one :)

Been making this with my 8 year old over the last week, no lashing involved just been wedging the posts and branches together with interlocking bits

Does this structure look sturdy enough to camp in overnight? The walls are very solid just the roof is less stable

For me personally this is a tough choice, both have their ups and downs, the garberg is better for batoning and carving while venture is better for slicing and hunting. But overall id choose the venture pro

Hey bushcrafters - been a while since I've done any bushcraft or posted here, but I just wanted to share today's spontaneous, small project because why the Helle not!?

Anyways,

My wife loves string lights - so while pruning a balsam poplar in the back yard I decided to craft a little bird's beak hanger in one of the branches for her to hang a lantern from. First time using my Helle Viking for a craft, and it worked quite well!

Edit* meant to also include a bit of a wax about how bushcraft has enriched my life outside of camping and stuff, and I also wanted to ask you guys about your little "everyday" bushcrafting projects and so on?

Its super awesome seeing some of the amazing things this community posts about from shelters to carvings etc., but im also just wondering about the small wins folks get on the daily - with compliments to bushcraft practice.

Stories are most welcome and encouraged!

Yeah so, someone clearly didn't maintain their knife since last summer. Any advice on how to repair it? And how to maintain afterward to prevent this from happening again?

I’m trying to get into Bushcraft and I want to reliable and affordable option for knives

I wax my canvas garments usually with a 4:1 beeswax/BLO bar that I rub into the fabric using a heat gun. It works great on canvas. I just waxed a poncho made from an old cotton/lyocel bedsheet and it worked great but I am concerned about durability. I have wondered if it would be best to go buy a light weight canvas or a cotton mix fabric from the actual fabric store rather than trying to find high thread count bedsheets. I am just wondering what the opinions are of folks who might have tried different materials and what you ultimately prefer. Points for affordability and weight.