To Bushcraft or not to Bushcraft? Expedition Skills

Following on from last weeks post reviewing the Karrimor Trig rucksack this week we are going to discuss the idea of using bushcraft skills on expeditions.

Samuel Hearne who we mentioned on the blog just the other week adopted bushcraft techniques out of necessity on his journeys because the most up to date modern equipment and techniques of the time were simply too heavy for long distance exploration and he accepted that he needed to rely on native skill and knowledge to feed himself and maintain his kit over long periods. Nowadays with very light weight equipment being readily available it may be possible to carry all the kit you need for longer periods but it's the law that is the main thing that prevents us from heading into the wilderness for long term bushcrafting or to use bushcraft skills on our expeditions.

       By Nessmuk (George Washington Sears) - http://www.oldbookart.com/, Public Domain, Link

At the time of writing his 1884 book Woodcraft and his articles for Field and Stream magazine the kind of camping George Washington 'Nessmuk' Sears's was advocating was considered light weight. Nowadays the heavy canvas, tool kit and cookware would be considered grossly heavy by almost anyone contemplating an expedition on foot.

At the time though his approach was not practised by recreational hunters and campers and even the frontiersmen and mountain men of the early 1800's would, out of choice, travelled in companies sharing heavier kit between them and relying on their survival skills in extremis rather than as a routine. 

Compared to the heavy canvasses and iron cookpots of Nessmuks era though we can carry a titanium cook pot and a small gas stove that weighs less combined than the small hatchet he would have carried to process his fuel wood. Out tents or nylon tarps weigh a tiny fraction of his canvas tarpaulins and while they might now not be suitable for using to drag firewood or stretcher a casualty as they are much thinner and not as abrasion resistant as an old fashioned canvas they are more waterproof and far, far lighter.

bivibag, thermarest, sleeping bag and fly sheet; a combined weight of about four kilos, probably half the weight of an old canvas tarpaulin. 

A modern light weight camping shelter. 

Because the kit we have available nowadays is so light weight we can afford to carry more food than we might perhaps once have had the capacity to carry so we might be able to travel a little further without re-supply or without having to resort to fishing or hunting. Nowadays carrying hunting and fishing kit would be considered by many to be additional unnecessary weight on expeditions, but that's not the main reason that bushcraft and modern light weight camping an expedition seem to have parted ways. 

In the UK land ownership has been such a contention issue over the centuries and laws so restrictive regarding access to and passage over land that many of the rights exercised by Nessmuk during his adventures are denied us now. We couldn't go on an expedition across the UK and expect to hunt, fish and trap our own food or to be able to have fires wherever we camped in the evenings. Because we can't do those things we then have to rely on the modern light weight camp stoves, freeze dried food, and other modern equipment. Because we are then tied to using a modern stove instead of a fire we don't need an axe and saw to process firewood or a firesteel or bow drill kit to light it. Ye we might be able to whittle beside the camp stove in the evening but it's not the same as a camp fire and whittling for whittling's sake might be good practice for real bushcraft skills but without a purpose to you're whittling it's not really bushcraft. 

It's a great shame that we don't have the right to practice bushcraft in the countryside here in the UK, a right that is protected in law in Scandinavian counties. Allemansrätten in Sweden allows people to access more or less the whole countryside as long as they follow some sensible rules. These rules might include bans on fires in high risk areas during the Summer or completely in specific nature reserves, bans on fishing in certain conservation areas and the need to abide by relevant firearms and hunting laws. But largely access to the countryside is unrestricted as long as you practice courtesy and don't approach near peoples dwellings. 

At a camping shelter in Tyresta National Park in Sweden, due to fire risks and the need to maintain this pristine piece of primeval ancient forest fire, other than in designated areas like this one, is banned and you may only use wood supplied at camping shelters like this one rather than being allowed to cut and gather your own wood. But this is the exception rather than the rule and outside of these protected areas there is even greater freedom to experience the outdoors. 

 While I do love this principle and regularly take advantage of it on my trips to Scandinavia I can't see it working in the UK. The much larger population, the fact that most of the land is intensively managed lowland agriculture rather than forest and upland does not suit free access and neither does the mentality of many people here in the UK. We certainly aren't as a nation as closely linked to the landscape as out Scandinavian friends and I worry, having worked in the countryside my entire career, that the general level of respect for nature and the countryside here is far too low for people to be trusted with full access to the countryside.

The number of times I've seen people flout signs saying not to disturb undergrowth or cut live trees, even a few years ago at the 2014 Bushcraft show I watched a man and his young son, systematically cutting down willow coppice stems to make way for their shelter despite signs asking people not to cut vegetation.  The amount of litter I find in the countryside, the poaching that goes on, the gates that get left open, the dogs that are allowed to freely roam and terrorise livestock I'm not sure our nations countryside could survive the kind of access that Allemansrätten gives the Swedes.

Bushcraft when practised properly does not impact the countryside negatively, a neatly coppiced hazel rod here and there, some harvested fruit, fungi or some legal caught fish or game, a fire carefully extinguished and the ashes scattered, shelters taken down after use do not disfigure or endanger the countryside. That is not the perception though and and any thought of cutting wood, having fires or harvesting wild food on a hike, camping trip or expedition is fairly likely to be met with disdain by modern light weight campers, especially because of the weight of the kit and equipment that allows you to do those things. Additionally the though that you would burn wood or cut a piece of living hazel to make a spoon, whistle or bow for your fire set will shock and horrify people who don't understand the nature of hardwood trees and the benefits of coppicing. Leaving no trace is a good moto of campers but actually if more people engaged with bushcraft instead of insulating themselves from nature with modern light weight kit maybe they would feel inclined to leave a positive trace in the environment.

Chris Loynes of the University of Cumbria gave a great talk about this idea of leaving more trace at the Nature Connections Conference in Derby in 2016 and published a blog post on the topic HERE.

With the availability of modern light weight kit camping and bushcraft have become two very separate things to most people and that is a shame in some respects.

We'd be really interested to know how you link your practice of bushcraft with other outdoor activities and would love to feature some guest blog posts on the BushcraftEducation blog with peoples thoughts and ideas. Please get in touch with us through social media or in the comments section on the right of the page. We look forward to hearing from you and perhaps to publishing a guest post from you soon.

Holiday Bushcraft Part 2 (Solo)

A big part of bushcraft is using those skills to make journeys and expeditions possible, one of the first people to adapt bushcraft skills to major journeys and explorations was British Explorer Samuel Hearne. During a failed attempt to find and map a route to the copper mine river he was robbed by some Indians and left with nothing more than a knife, awl, razor, needle, file and soap. Despite the apparent inconvenience the misfortune turned out to be a stroke of luck as he found the return journey with such a light load much more tolerable, and even enjoyable than the outward journey laden down by equipment and supplies. 

Public Domain, Link

After the revaluation about travelling light he tried again to find the coppermine river, with the help of a Dene Indian named Motonabbee.  This time rather than relying on equipment and supplies they travelled a circuitous route staying within the wooded areas where they could find food during winter before heading out over the tundra in Spring following herds of migrating caribou and moose which provided them not only with food but with leather for repairing their boots and other essential material. 



Samuel Hearne's map of his expeditions (By w:Samuel Hearne, flickr upload by [1] - originally posted to Flickr as A Map of Part of the Inland Country to the Nh Wt of Prince of Wales Fort Hs, By Samuel Hearne 1772 (1969) Uploaded using F2ComButton, CC BY 2.0, Link)

Samuel Hearne was the first European explorer recorded to have used first nation skills in his explorations and not only did it pay off but it caught on and many expeditions and explorations that came later learned from his. 

I've been lucky enough to be able to attempt some solo expeditions of my own on my holidays and during my spare time over the years and have seen the benefits of using bushcraft skills to help me travel lighter, further and without reliance on modern kit;

Light weight kit and a willingness to adapt and improvise served me well while hiking in the Brenta Dolomites after a conference and meant that I could fit all the kit I needed to teach a workshop on outdoor learning in my rucksack as well as my hiking kit;

Being able to trap and skin possums while I was working in New Zealand several years ago allowed me to earn some extra money and make the most of my free time while I was there;

The extra cash meant I was able to travel extensively and practice and learn even more bushcraft skills;

Climbing in the Southern Alps

A week as a volunteer ranger for the Department of Conservation on the Tiri tiri Matangi bird reserve looking after Takahe's one of the worlds most endangered birds. 

A visit to Rotoroa and the Maori school of carving and weaving where I learned how to make cordage with flax. 

Bushcraft skills mean that not only can you pack light, safe in the knowledge that your simple tarp will keep you sheltered at night but you can even build your own shelters from natural material. 

My home on my nights off from teaching at a residential environmental education centre in Devon a few years ago, it wasn't strictly a holiday but it was a very busy and hectic Summer and my nights here felt like a holiday. 

Building an A-frame shelter on a solo trip, although this one is probably big enough for two. 

Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, is one of my favourite places, having spent several years living and working there I jump on any available chance to go back; 

Contemplating the crossing of a frozen lake on the way to the 'cabin' I was heading for. Not worth the risk at that time of year. 

Travelling light, bushcraft style, on this trip meant carrying a knife, hatchet, sleeping bag, wool blanket, change of clothes, cup and fork. A shopping trip to Lidl after arriving gave me a tin of soup, among other things, which I then used for the rest of my trip to cook all my meals in. 

Sweden is a bushcrafters paradise with it's Allamansrätten laws allowing for hiking and camping almost anywhere and a deeply ingrained love of the outdoors. 

On top of Kopparhaugene on a trip to Oslo 

Using bushcraft skills is only a part of going on trips and expeditions during holidays, learning about bushcraft skills is a great attraction too;

Bow drills for working wood and bone in the Fram Museum of polar exploration in Oslo

A boyhood dream come true, a visit to the Kon Tiki museum in Oslo.

Beautifull carvings, in bone and walrus ivory. 

The Fram, one of Roald Ammundsens Polar exploration vessels. 

Meeting Ötzi the iceman in Bolzano

Applied Bushcraft; Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Wisdom

This article used to appear as a separate page on this blog but has been updated somewhat to appear now as part of our Applied bushcraft series and provide a bit of added context to what we consider to be applied bushcraft.

TEKW

T(raditional)

E(cological)

K(nowledge)

and

W(isdom)

Bushcraft skills were once more than recreation, without knowledge of plants people would have been without food, medicine and material for construction. Without a knowledge of animal ecology and behaviour people would not have been able to efficiently hunt and trap and would have gone without food, clothing, bone for making tools, sinew for strong cord and hoof and hide for glue. While a knowledge of ecology is still important in many modern professions there may seem to be less use for the traditional skills and knowledge which can also be applied in the countryside and which we might choose to call bushcraft. 






An Australian Aborigonee encampment depicted in a 19th Century engraving, first nation peoples like these are often credited with having a wealth of TEKW which is what puts them miles ahead, in terms of their familiarity with the natural world and the things that live and grow in it, of those of us more reliant on modern conveniences and technology.
Public Domain, Link

In the UK we have no first nations people left to pass on their skills and can really only speculate as to the skills they used, guided perhaps in part by archaeological discoveries such as those at Must Farm in the Cambridgeshire Fens and the work of experimental archaeologists. We do still have a wealth of traditional ecological knowledge through the anecdotes and experience of those who have worked the land for decades in professions such as forestry, game keeping, agriculture and perhaps, although as a game keeper and deer stalker by trade I hate to admit it, the old poachers knew a thing or two as well. So although we don't really talk about traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom in the UK it is there. 


There is an awful lot of literature on TEKW from other countries though, a lot of it is about the importance of preserving and passing on that knowledge for cultural reasons and to preserve the identity and culture of the first nations people who have that knowledge and practice the skills related to it. 


While the traditional skills of first nations people would once have been taught to their children just as children in modern schools in the UK learn history, maths and phonics now those skills are in much less demand, the person in this picture is Pîhtokahanapiwiyin (c. 1842 – 4 July 1886), better known as Poundmaker, and was a Plains Cree chief known for his skill at using buffalo 'pounds' or corrals. These skills are now for the most part lost and if it wasn't for the efforts of remaining first nations peoples there would be very little attempt to teach these skills to a new generation at all.
Image by; By Prof. Buell, O.B. - Library and Archives Canada, Public Domain, Link   

In some parts of the world traditional skills are still very much in everyday use but with improvements in technology, and therefore less demand on young people to learn traditional skills, the number of people in these areas who have well developed practical ‘bushcraft’ skills is declining. Particularly, according to a study of the Transmission of Environmental Knowledge and Land Skills among Inuit Men in Ulukhakatok, in specialist areas such Polar Bear Hunting (Pearce, et al., 2011), making skin clothing (Kritsch & Wright-Frazer, 2002), Fur preparation, hunting, fishing and trapping (Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997). 

Modern technology may have made many hand tools and traditional skills less efficient than modern methods but by no means have they become obsolete. For example in many parts of the world subsistence agriculture relies solely on the traditional knowledge and skills of the farmers (Beckford & Barker, 2007) (Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1990) and researchers agree that TEKW is valuable and valid even when you consider the availability of modern farming methods and improved scientific knowledge of agriculture (Agrawal, 1995) (Colorado & Collins , 1987) (Posey, 1990) (Schultes,1988) (Hunn, 1993).

Today we are far removed from the ancient skills that would once have been used by native peoples living in the British Isles; the hunter gatherer societies of the Maesolithic (10,000-5,500 years ago) were the last people in the British Isles to operate without agriculture (Darvill, 2010) and would have used bushcraft as their means of survival. In other parts of the world primitive survival and bushcraft skills have been used by native peoples in living memory and in some parts of the world is still a way of life (Wescott, 2001). As Pearce et all (Transmission of Environmental Knowledge and Land Skills among Inuit Men in Ulukhatok, Northwest Territories, Canada, 2011), Kritsch& amp; Wright-Frazer (2002) and Ohmagari & Berkes (1997) explain, the successful transmission of these skills is a vital part of preserving the skills, traditions and way of life of surviving native peoples. Formal schools have been set up in some parts of the world to ensure these skills can be taught to younger generations such as the Samernas Utbildningscentrum (The Sami’s Training Centre) in Jokkmokk, Sweden, and the TePuia in Rotoroa, New Zealand.

Craftsmen at Te Puia, Maori Arts and Crafts institute in Rotoroa New Zealand where the traditions of carving and weaving are kept alive and strong.

These types of skills have already been lost, or at least only practised by a very small minority, in the UK and to teach them now is to re-introduce them rather than to preserve them. But they can be relevant in a range of applications, from developing social skills, to influencing environmental decision making (Ellis, 2005) and, conservation (Berkes, Gadgil, & Folke, 1993) (Richards , 1997) (Schultes,1988) (Ellis, 2005). 

TEKW related literature (including references from above);

Agrawal, A., 1995. Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge. Development Change , Volume 26, pp. 413-439.

Beckford, C. & Barker, D., 2007. The role and value of local knowledge in Jamaican agriculture; adaptation and change in small scale farming. The Geographical Journal, 173(2), pp. 118-128.

Berkes, F., Gadgil, M. & Folke, C., 1993. Indigenous knowledge for biodiversity conservation. Ambio, 22(2-3), pp. 151-156.

Colorado, P. & Collins , D., 1987. Western scientific colonialism and the re-emergence of native Science.. Practice: Journal of Politics, Economics, Psychology, Sociology and Culture , Volume Winter , pp. 50-65.

Darvill, T., 2010. Prehistoric Britain. 2nd ed. London: Routledge .

Ellis, S. C., 2005. Meaning ful Consideration? A review of Traditional Knowledge in Environmental Dcision Making. Arctic, 58(1), pp. 66-77.

Hunn, E. N., 1993. What is traditional ecological knowledge?. In: N. M. Williams & G. Baines , eds. Traditional Ecological Knowledge; wisdom for sustainable development. Canberra: Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, pp. 13-15.

Kritsch, I. & Wright-Frazer, K., 2002. The Gwich'in Traditional Caribou Skin Clothing Project; Repatriating Traditional Knowledge and Skills. Arctic, 55(2), pp. 205-213.

Ohmagari, K. & Berkes, F., 1997. Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge and Bush Skills among Western James Bay Cree Women of Subarctic Canada. Human Ecology, 25(2), pp. 197-222.

Pearce, T. et al., 2011. Transmission of Environmental Knowledge and Land Skills among Inuit Men in Ulukhatok, Northwest Territories, Canada. Human Ecology, Volume 39, pp. 271-288.

Posey, D. A., 1990. The Sience of the Mebengokre. Orion, 9(3), pp. 16-21.

Reichel-Dolmatoff,G., 1990. The Forest Within; World-viewof the Tukano Amazonian Indians. s.l.:Themispublishing.

Richards , R. T., 1997. What the natives know: wild mushrooms and forest health. Journal of Forestry, Volume September , pp. 5-10.

Schultes , R. E., 1988. Primitive Plant Lore and Modern Conservation. Orion, 7(3 ), pp. 8-15.

Wescott, D., 2001. Introduction. In: D. Wescott, ed. Primitive Technology II; Ancestral Skills. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith.

Why It's OK to be bad at Bushcraft

Practising bushcraft can be wonderfully empowering for children and having a chance to use 'grown up' tools and make fires like a 'grownup' can give children a real sense of achievement and build confidence.  But we shouldn't expect children to be able to replicate the skills that we try and teach them straight away.

Friction fire, fine carving, tanning skins and trapping are all part of Bushcraft but children need to start somewhere and perhaps just playing with saw dust is a good place to start. 

Just taking part in bushcraft activities will be beneficial, and developmental and although I have

said in the past that bushcraft can be more than just fun, for children it doesn't have to be. It would be very easy to scare a child off bushcraft if we are too insistent that they produce results, work hard and do things the 'right way'. 

I have had cause for disappointment a few times of over the last few years by some opinions I've heard, particularly in a survey I carried out a while ago, that described programmes of nature engagement, such as Forest Schools, as 'namby pamby'. Perhaps because it's not 'hard core' enough, or because the skills taught aren't advanced enough, but where do you start with children?

A Sami Family in Norway in 1900; (public domain).
Even though the children pictured here would have had very different experiences from your average child in the UK today, even these children would not have been expected to carry out the tasks that adults performed. Like the Huron (Wyandot) mocasins pictured below, children wouldnt be expected to produce work like this strait away although they might begin to learn young and have been able to to play at these skills from an early age. 

By Daderot (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

 We need to understand that children can't do everything we adults can do and adjust our expectations and approach to teaching them accordingly. Even real hunter gatherer societies and First Nation peoples, who still practice primitive or traditional skills have to start somewhere with their children and that isn't by expecting them to bring down large or dangerous game before they are able, or expecting them produce exquisite craft items before they have the strength, skill or knowledge.

Think of the bushmen whose children start making bows at a very young age or the Yanomamo Indians of South America whose children make tiny bows with sharpened slivers of bamboo as 

arrows. They are not expected to feed the entire village, they are expected to play and learn, perhaps 

quicker than in a westernised society, but they are not expected to function as an adult straight away.

Yanomami Woman & Child

By Cmacauley [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

We need to be careful that we are teaching our children bushcraft and allowing them to experience nature and giving them chances to play at bushcraft and develop a healthy relationship with the natural environment. We should not be training them for an impending apocalypse, attack by zombies or SAS selection. 

I'm not criticising those whose practice of bushcraft has a 'survival' orientation at all what I'm suggesting is that when dealing with young children we should be 'playing' bushcraft rather than 'training' bushcraft, and children don't have to be good at bushcraft to be able to play at it.

Bushcraft doesn't just have to be about the acquisition of skills and the ability to survival in any situation, the Scandinavian philosophy of 'Friluftsliv' typifies this: While most Scandinavians have a much closer relationship with the outdoors than we do in the UK and are probably as a result of this much more practised in the skills of outdoor living than most people in the UK, the idea of the ‘Friluftsliv’ culture and philosophy is not one of technical skill, expertise or mastery, but one of a relationship with nature and positive experiences in natural environments. This is what we can provide for our children through bushcraft.

I feel particularly strongly about this at the moment because I think I have put my son Michael off bushcraft a bit recently by making it too much about getting things done rather than having fun. I work a lot out of doors and a lot of my opportunities to practice bushcraft with the children have been when they accompany me to Riddy Wood while I get some coppicing done, mill ash planks, burn charcoal, split firewood or build outdoor classrooms. So Michael, who is six, has spent a lot of time stacking, bagging and sorting firewood, making dead wood habitat piles and feeding the fire. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but when we spoke about going to the woods during half term the other day he wasn't as keen as he normally would be and said he didn’t want to stack wood, he wanted to play. So in a few weeks we are off to the woods together to build a 'yoda hut' and play. 

Bushcraft isn't all about skills it's about playing in the woods, being bad at things and getting better, 

learning and enjoying nature, and every child should have a chance at it.

Geoff

Coppicing

Coppicing is a very ancient traditional method of woodland management, all hard wood trees will re-generate to a certain extent if cut and we can take advantage of this to provide us with a sustainable source of timber for a whole range of tasks. We can probably thank the longevity of our native ancient woodland to hundreds of years worth of management but now it is easy to find woodland that I would class as derelict, which has not been sympathetically managed for many years and which certainly wouldn't be productive as a commercial coppice woodland but also does not support the same level of wildlife as it might if managed properly. 

A sign of unmanaged woodland, scars where trees have rotted all the way down the ground, including their roots. 

Another sign of unmanaged woodland, hazel is normally coppiced on a 7-10 year rotation, this is more like 25 years of growth and certainly won't yield useful poles for walking sticks or hurdles. The problem is hazel is a relatively short lived tree and if it isn't coppiced may only live to  seventy or eighty years, there are coppiced hazel 'stools' still alive that are several hundred years old.

An old hazel 'stool' that has recently been coppiced. The caut faces should be angled to allow water to run off so it doesn't pool on the stool and encourage rot. 

Plenty of useful material can be harvested from each coppice stool. 

Managing a woodland can be a battle and if you'r not careful your nicely coppiced stools will end up like this, this stool has been browsed by a muntjac which has left no leaves on the newly emerging shoots. 

This stool was 'brashed over' protected by hawthorn branches stuck into the ground all around it to stop the deer browsing the new growth. It was coppiced at the same time as the stool in the last picture but has clearly been much more successful.

Throughout history just about every hard wood species has been coppiced at some point and each different species would have had it's unique uses, some are explained here;

Species	Normal Habitat and Distribution	Uses
Alder (Alnus glutinosa)	Damp ground, wet woodland, marsh and water courses.	Durable when wet, traditionally coppiced for charcoal and gun powder production. The wood has also been used for sluice gates and pipes.
Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)	One of the most common trees in Britain and common throughout Europe as well. One of the dominant canopy species in a lot of lowland UK woodlands.	Coppiced for firewood and charcoal, makes excellent tool handles as it is shock resistant and very strong. It burns green due to the oil content in the wood.
Beech (Fagus sylvatica)	A species of free draining chalky soils, where there is a lot of beech there is often very little growing beneath the canopy as the dense carpet of leaves and nut husks and the shade of the dense canopy suppresses most other growth.	Fuel, furniture making, tool handles, the nuts are edible and beech trees were often planted to mark boundaries. They are now also often used as hedge plants.
Birch; Downy (Betula pubesence), Silver (Betula pendula)	The two British Birch species are very similar and often hybridize. The Downy Birch is more common in Scotland but both are common in down and heath land and are among the first tree species to colonize grassland and scrub-land which will eventually revert to woodland.	Birch is one of the bushcrafters friends, the bark from these trees makes excellent tinder but was also once used to tan leather.
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Common Hawthorn (Cretaegus monogyna) and Midland Hawthorn (Cretaegus laevigata)	All thorny species yielding edible flowers and fruit. And commonly planted in hedgerows.	Walking sticks and tools, charcoal and woodwork. The wood of all these species is incredibly hard and tough.
Elm (Ulmus sp.)	We have a number of elm species in the UK the English Elm, Smooth Leaved Elm, and Wyche Elm. All have suffered to one degree or another from Dutch Elms Disease but are now most commonly found in hedgerows and some woodlands, there are very few large mature elms left anywhere in the UK.	From a bushcraft perspective the bark can be put to use as cordage and containers. The wood is particularly touch and useful in applications which bring it in contact with water. It has been used to make pipes and also in turnery and woodwork.
Hazel (Corylus avellana)	One of the most commonly coppices species it is found throughout the UK in lowland areas often forming dense stools.	Thatching spars, hurdles,
Lime (Tilia sp.)	Common to lowland Britain and present throughout most of the Northern hemisphere , it is very rare to find woodland dominated by lime today. Limes prefer moist but well drained soils.	Exceptionally good for carving and the bark makes excellent string. Lime sprouts strongly at the base with or without coppicing producing long strait stems which can easily be harvested.
Oak; Sessile (Quercus patrea) and Pendunculate or English (Quercus robur)	These species are superficially similar and do hybridize, they can be distinguished by the shorter leaf stalks and long acorn stalk of the English Oak.	Oak was traditionally a building timber, boats, gates and beams for building. It is also used in expensive furniture and flooring. The bark is used in leather tanning and the wood burns long and hot for excellent cooking fires.
Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa)	An introduction to the UK (probably during the Roman occupation) but planted extensively since the 18th Century.	The species coppices easily and is useful for building, fencing and green wood crafts.
Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus)	Another introduction to the UK but common enough to be very important to people who spend time in the UK woods.	Sycamore can be coppiced easily and for those concerned with the spread of a non-native species coppicing it does prevent it from setting seed. It does produce useful wood for craft projects.
Willow (Salix sp.)	There are many species of willow in the UK and all favor wet habitats.	Willow produces soft wood some of which is durable and the larger species can be used for traditional crafts, cricket bats are traditionally made from Willow. Willow coppice can be used to produce withies. And for weaving and basketry.

I hope you've enjoyed this introduction to coppicing, there will be more to come on the topic of woodland management over the next few days.

Geoff

Bushcraft Tools: Old vs New

The vast majority of bushcraft tasks we undertake require one tool or another. Most of the tools central to bushcraft are ancient in origin, but there have been developments over time - the development of the main tools we use in bushcraft is discussed in brief here. A few woodland management tools have been thrown in for good measure because this forms a large proportion of our work at Riddy Wood at present.

Trying to describe tasks which these tools are used to performed would be futile - everyone uses their tools slightly differently and for a range of different tasks. Indeed this versatility is one of the features which has contributed to the longevity of these basic - as in essential or fundamental - tools. 

Knives

The most simple and versatile of the bushcraft tools. In extremis a knife, and the knowledge of how to use it effectively, could literally be the difference between life and death. Obviously knives have their origins in flint tools, with advances in metal work throughout history then changing the material the tool is made of, although never really changing the basic design principle, nor the uses thereof. Most recent advances in metal alloys or manufacturing methods have changed the knife very little. Aside from the folding knife, which is really a portability innovation allowing a knife to be carried more safely, one difference worth noting in modern tools is the prevalence these days of synthetic handle materials. While there may be some advantages to this in terms on grip, comfort, price and 'findability' - bright handled knives are easier to find if you drop them in vegetation - again, the actual design principles of the knife as a functional tool have not really changed in hundreds if not thousands of years, nor has the tasks it is used for.

It goes without saying that there are many different types of knife, but that isn't a new development either - even during the era of flint tools, specialist versions of 'knife' for want of a better word were used. The advent of metal enabled easier customisation, but also as civilizations have advanced, the number of jobs undertaken has increased, requiring more specialised tools than would once have been needed.

Everyone reading this knows what a knife looks like, here are just a few examples of modern knives,
one folding 'Swiss-army' style knife, and another cheap but perfectly functional fixed blade synthetic
handled knife - perfect for a range of bushcraft tasks.

Axes

Another tool which is used extensively in bushcraft, and another tool which has origins in stone. Stone axes again exhibit pretty much the same design principles as a modern axe, with the exception of attaching the head.

The efficiency of axes has probably increased more than knives. Flint edges not being robust enough to withstand the sort of cutting tasks an axe in used for other stones were used which did not hold the same sort of sharp edge that can be achieved using flint. Certainly metal tools would have been a leap forward in terms of both the edge they could hold, and the ability to fix the head onto a handle. Where as with stone axes a hole was typically made in the handle, with metal axe heads it was possible to cast the head with a hole for mounting the head onto the handle. As with knives advances in different types of metal have made little change to the design principle. although different metals would have been able to a) take a better edge and b) hold that edge for longer. Again, synthetic handles are becoming common, typically of fibre glass type materials which provide very strong handles and to some extent potential less vibration than a wooden handle but, for the traditionalists, certainly don't have the same aesthetic appeal.

A modern axe with a synthetic handle, this is in fact a splitting axe and it works fantastically well,
but for the traditionalist, and I must admit in some respects I consider myself to be one, it just doesn't
look right - something like the Gransfors small forest axe (below) just fits the aesthetic bill better.

(Gransfors Bruk Product Illustration: from
http://www.gransforsbruk.com/en/products/forest-axes/gransfors-small-forest-axe)

'Make-in-the-field' tools

I 'ummed' and 'arghed' about whether this could qualify as a heading; my 'umming' resulted in me deciding that it qualified for an entire post of its own - one which I need to research a bit more to do it justice.  Watch this space...

Woodland Management tools

Bill Hooks

Bill hooks were, and to some extent still are, the basic tool of traditional woodland skills and crafts whether that be coppicing or hedge laying or other tasks. I've let the caption to the below picture do the talking for this section.

The two bill hooks I own, couldn't be much more different if they tried.

The first (above in this image) is a 'hand me down' but 'heirloom' may be more appropriate. It was given to me by my Father-in-law who was given it by his Grandfather. Based on the fact my father-in-law has just turned 70 this bill hook may well be approaching, or even have exceeded, the 100 year mark although with no date stamp I can't be sure. It also serves as an example of the many different styles of bill hook which were once available. While this is slightly off topic this link shows pages from a tool catalogue from around the turn of the 20th century listing all the different styles available. It is fascinating! Based on these pages my bill hook is either a 'Suffolk' or 'Offley' style, and based on the fact my Father-in-law still lives within 10 miles of the Suffolk village where he was born, and always has done, I'll go with 'Suffolk' style I think!

The second is brand new: composite handle, teflon coated blade, different style of bevel, very different blade shape, much lighter weight blade, as well as, I suspect at least, a quite different type of steel. Never the less it works well, in fact if pushed I would have to admit, for some jobs at least, it works better than my old, traditional bill hook. There are three main advantages that I can put my finger on: 1) The thinner blade makes cutting smaller wood easier because there is 'less blade' to push through the cut (does that make sense?) 2) The length of handle gives much greater flexibility in how it can be handled, especially by allowing a longer handed swing, resulted in greater speed at the cutting end and 3) the significantly lighter weight means you don't get fatigued as quickly and it is easier to control.

Click this link for a website dedicated to bill hooks and their history.

Saws

As the history of tools goes saws are a more recent development - the cutting edge of a saw is a far more complicated design problem than a knife or an axe and as such are harder to manufacture. To some degree a serrated flint edge could replicate what we now recognise as a saw but wouldn't have had any sort of longevity, especially not if used on harder materials such as bone or wood. Until relatively recently (historically speaking) saws were still made by hand, with individual teeth filed out separately.

These days of course we have saws ranging from 'fold-into-a-penknife' small right up to chainsaw bars several feet long! To a bushcrafter a good folding saw or a small bow saw is a very useful tool, especially when cross cutting a piece of wood, which with an axe requires the removal of a fair chunk of material just to keep the cut accessible.

In woodland management, larger bow saws and chain saws are the weapon (tool) of choice, mainly for their speed in cutting. I would say ease, but even though you are not providing the cutting power chain saws are heavy and can be tiring to use... although compared to the old school methods I think easy could still apply! A chain saw actually works more like a series of small axes or chisels rather than a normal saw - these teeth a link together forming a 'chain' which rotates around a fixed bar. As with any tool there is an element of risk in its use, a risk which is reduced significantly with appropriate use and training. 

Little & Larger... a few chain saws which form the mainstay of the woodland managers felling equipment these days.
Below: the old school option, a two handed saw, requiring a person at each end, and a lot of co-operation and
effort to get the job done, but get the job done it certainly does!

There are obviously other tools we could explore, and other activities linked with bushcraft skills we could describe. Tools, their manufacture and use really does form a back bone upon with bushcraft skills have relied since they were everyday skills. They remain an instinctive fascination to many people (perhaps especially young boys - I don't think that's sexist, though it is a generalisation) along with fire - a link I feel to the days when the survival of human kind as a species relied upon these skills. Whether these skills are 'required' today is a largely irrelevant point, but without question these tools are still required and used today.

RG