Ahhh... Saturday. What better way to spend Saturday than out in the woods?

This Saturday, I actually visited Cloak and we went in to his neck of the woods. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />





We practiced various buchcraft tasks. Mainly the most basics such as making walking sticks, making spears, splitting wood using the wedge method, cutting small saplings (wrist+ width, so fairly thick) with the RMD, and of course whittling and fuzzying sticks up! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Here's Cloak, in all his wisdom <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> , calmly making a walking stick.



Next, I felt the need and attempted to destroy my RMD. In return, the RMD laughed at me and helped destroy a fairly thick log.



No FBM needed. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />



No chopping. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />



Then, Cloak had this idea of trying out the wedge method of batoning. It involves a wedge. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I think the pictures will show what we mean. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />







I guess the purpose of using the wedge method is that a knife is only so thick. If you can get some wood that is fairly strong you can make a fairly thick wedge. Because of how thick the wedge is, it takes much less effort to baton through with a skinny knife.

Here's the wedge.



After a few whacks, it's down and Cloak can pry it apart with his hands.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0014-5.jpg[/img]

There it goes.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0015-4.jpg[/img]

After all that we decided to take a break. For food, we had nothing. I got so hungry I started eating wood. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Hell, if the beetles will eat this stuff, I'll eat it. (Wow, I just noticed that look a lot like Bruce Lee in this pic, with the hair and eye expression, weird.)

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0016-6.jpg[/img]

No, just kidding. We actually got some sour patch (again) and several liters of water. That was just me making a nice fuzzy stick with the RMD. You can see the long and thin shavings.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0017-7.jpg[/img]

So after our little break, we decided more things needed to be destroyed. Our little camp area was already ladened with combustible shavings of wood. Death and destruction was all around us. So what the heck, more batoning. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0018-4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0019-3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0020-3.jpg[/img]

There goes the wedge.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0021-4.jpg[/img]

But that was a bad trial. So we started over.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0022-6.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0023-4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0024-6.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0025-4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0026-5.jpg[/img]

Almost there...

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0027-4.jpg[/img]

CRACK!!!!

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0029-1.jpg[/img]

I actually didn't have a go at this method of splitting wood ergo I got mad and had to hack a whole tree down with one swipe of my RMD. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> You can see the wood splitting from all the shock.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0030-2.jpg[/img]

But, no, seriously, this was another new bushcraft method that we had to try. It involves batoning the knife through the wood length wise and down the grain structure, not into it. It worked fairly well and I think in some cases could be better for chopping, but I'm not sure. For certain, it is one way a little knife can be a big knife.

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0031-3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0032-4.jpg[/img]

The RMD definitely performed and left its marks on the tree. Green paint, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/The_Aaij_1/DSC_0033-3.jpg[/img]

All in all, it was a day wrapped up. We were able to use fairly new techniques that worked really well.

Fun stuff and good company. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />