Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
Winter is here. For some of you it is here with real gusto. Growing up in Missouri and being sent out to 'play' no matter what the weather or who was around I learned a lot about how to entertain myself. Snowfall in the Mississippi valley could be heavy and wet throughout the winter and …
Continue reading "Quinzhee Snow Shelter"
Excellent work from our Tuscany comrade. I hope to find the magazine and make one myself!
One of my dreams comes true!
Last month I’ve written a tutorial on making a wool bush shirt and this article… has been published in the Autumn issue of “The Bushcraft Magazine“!!!
View original post 134 more words
Thanks to Survival Sherpa for posting this look at making a pack frame. Making a quick, three stick pack frame is a valuable bit of knowledge. How serendipitous that this came up (seems to be a lot of convergent thinking around my world lately) as I am beginning to tweak my own wooden pack frame …
Continue reading "How to Improvise and Use a Three Stick Roycroft Pack Frame"
A fun and relatively tame primitive technology event for a good price located in southwest Missouri put on by good friends of mine. Here's some information from their website: This unique event has two parts - a free knap-in/native arts-crafts show starting Thursday, with top-notch knappers, artists, and crafters from a 20-state area making and …
Continue reading "Bois d’Arc Primitive Skills Gathering and Knap-In"
Here is a great little instruction set on how to make a European Medieval-style belt bag. You see these in paintings and illustrations on just about every traveler. Not only will you come out with a nice bag but it is a fine and simple introduction into leather working and sewing. All makers need to start somewhere and this might be the right project.
Old style bushcraft: a medieval possible pouch
During the Middle Age was common carrying small items like coins, keys, inside pouches or purses attached to the belt.
There are many archaeological and iconographical documents, you can search for your favorite patterns, but there is a model that in my opinion, is one of the best for a bushcrafter.
View original post 298 more words
I wanted to re-blog this excellent post about functional pottery construction from “Survival Sherpa”. I’m no great pottery maker but appreciate the craft for sure. Have a look.
by Todd Walker
Coffee drinkers like myself usually have a favorite mug or cup. My all-time favorite “tankard” developed a crack and DRG trashed it. A sad day indeed!
My sob story may seem petty, but there’s nothing trivial about not having a way to “contain” stuff. Think of all the ways you use containers daily. Then imagine all your modern containers being gone… poof, no more. Welcome to the Stone Age!
Here’s what else disappears with your containers. Your ability to…
This is why containers are king!
After attending a local two-day primitive pottery class, my respect and appreciation for the humble container grew…
View original post 1,005 more words
Starting as a field scientist in the heady days when men were men and GPS was not available to common civilians, I learned my way around a compass pretty well. I thought I knew something coming out of Boy Scouts but putting those skills to the test mile after mile in order to locate a …
Continue reading "Magnetic Compass, a Gimme from an Iron-Rich Earth"
This is part of an ongoing theme to document travel and camping gear that has served me over the years. These will be mirrored on the Traveler's Gear page as I get them up. As a traveler, primitive technologist, peaceful survivalist, affected provincial, long-time Idler, and sometime field scientist I find the necessity for a …
Learn them, use them. I understand that some folks are topologically challenged but knots are always a great skill to have under one's belt. Learn 'em. Have someone teach you. Carry a bit of rope and practice until they come naturally. Teach your kids! I suggest learning the dozen or so from the Boy Scout …
For the Ultra Minimalists, Part 1, click here. More Historic Minimalists - religious wanderers from the East Wandering Monks part 1 - The Buddhist monks that travel much of the year throughout Asia are about as minimalist as one can reasonably get. Early Buddhist monks were instructed to own, as based on the Pali Canon, …
