Into The Wilds Challenge

[randyt]

For anyone wondering how to make a smudge fire portable in short order of course using just the knife and the saw - I went ahead and made a sloppy quick one and took pics for ya. This task literally takes less than 5 minutes- if you have to twist your own cordage it'll take longer obviously- but I figured this would demonstrate what I'm talking about. 9/10 times I dont need it to be portable and just put some punky wood over some coals in a divet ive dug into the ground or I've already been out for a day or two and smell completely like smoke anyways and the bugs stop bothering me. If they are really bad I prefer to rub some ferns or some wax myrtle (if i can find it) on my skin till the exposed skin has some green on it and that usually does the trick.

this particular method is in my opinion very niche, but what nice is that its universally doable in basically any environment and it has several other uses.

dry punky wood works best imo, but leaves and pine needles are usually so common you can just grab crap as you walk. For practicing primitive crafts I like jute twine for quicky natural cordage- in this case the fact that the cordage doesn't catch fire (y'all know how flammable jute twine it) is a good litmus that you built your container tight enough that your not letting any fire out.

Use a fist sized green tree (or bigger if you want) for a small little pot- this one happened to have a hollow pith, which acted as a nice little air hole- if you don't have one just carve some divets in the sides of each quarter for small airholes or carve a thin channel by flattening the parts where the split occurs when you baton. Shav down the sharps of each quarter and youll have nice hollow tube. Do the same for the sharps near the bottom for a second shallower hole like the top and you can place it on a pole/stake that you square off to fit it. Just remember to cut/carve a channel for your cordage (so it doesn't slip) before you split the round so you are messing with it more than you need to.

You can travel with live coals using this method, and the smaller ones make the best hand warmer ever if the sides are thin and you fill it up with coals and cap it.

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So yeah- give it a shot it's a super easy one- play around with different materials and whatnot. It's a cavemans thermacell- if you put plants with bug repellant qualities in this thing it's even more effective.

Coffee can awesome a great smudge container

 

[elkhound]

500Ft spool of 1/16" Stainless 7x7 Aircraft Cable
1000ft spool of tarred nylon seine twine, size #36
10x10 tarp (quality)
Dutch oven
Long nose vice grips

Axe for a blade.

The wilderness is a place you’d better be comfortable in already. I’d head for the swamp. Grew up hunting and fishing there, trapped too. Cordage is king in the swamp. With it you can make anything, without it, nothing. I don’t really need the water but the jug would be handy so I’ll take it.

No mention was made of useful items we find at our destination. Here in the southeast the wilderness isn’t so wild and empty as most would think, especially if you know what to look for. Europeans have been here 300yrs, natives much longer. Both left useful items where they lived, metal, cordage and lots of flint.

Indications of where they built homes/huts is always near good clean water. Lots of springs here, the best always have signs of man. And where there are signs of man… there are tools/useful material. I’m not throwing away a good flint cutting edge. Finders keepers on tools I happen across! (they also planted medicines where they lived, all peoples did this)

It’s best to know the history of the area you are going. The entire southeast has been logged in the past, including my swamp, only tiny pockets of old growth left. Did I mention loggers built a temp railroad through the middle of the swamp about 1890? There were camps set up to house the workmen on high ground with good water. Lot’s of metal available at these sites.

And trash, never been to a wilderness that didn't have trash laying about, especially plastics. Plastic jugs make great crawfish and minnow traps, if you have cordage...

The above clues mean I don’t have to find the best place to hide out and survive. That’s already been done. People have lived and worked in wilderness areas for hundreds of years. Just have to be able to recognize what is natural or unnatural in a swamp or forest, be able to recognize the signs of man hundreds of years later.



Beauty berry, black walnut and dog fennel in eastern woodland. All are good insect repellents but Dog fennel is the best, 20yrs ago the usda found it has an interesting chemical. It’s now the active ingredient in the spray used to kill mosquito larva in standing water. In early summer the dog fennel stalk is pliable. I tie it around my ankles, very effective against ticks also. (there are several more plants that can be used but are harder to deal with)

A friend found these in creeks around here which flow into the swamp, anywhere there is erosion. Bird and fish points are plentiful, shark’s teeth are harder to find but available. Tools are common in a wilderness if you know where to look. - below…


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Historical records both public and just family records show where many resources were.I believe the easiest have been harvested,mined etc. but often theres still there,especially plant stuff if it was given time to recover and populate.

Often the names of places give the hint to what was main resource there.

 

[Peanut]

In a survival situation i wouldn't need to mine coal or cut timber. It's the materials those activities left behind that are useful. I often find items in the woods that'd be very handy, from old roofing tin to metal rings off barrels to barbwire. I find great stuff at old cabin locations. The indicator is usually an odd shaped mound under leaves, what was left from the chimney base. Take a stick, move the leaves around.. I've found jars, various metals, sometimes boards and nails. Old door knobs with a heavy square shaft, found a few of those.

Then there are the unusual items out in the woods. Junk cars with trees growing out of them. I actually found a sail boat in a pine forest once. Posted the pic it here in the forum! I was dumbfounded when i saw it... WTHeck! But it makes my point, the woods are full of survival materials.

 

[elkhound]

Thinking out loud...coal can be used in a forge to take bits of metal found at old sites and make tools and more.You wont necessarily be mining yourself as much as just picking it up from day to day activity.Even road building here exposes small coal seams easily picked up by hand.

Old logging sites often have old sawmills left behind along with various 'junk' you mentioned.Best source of high quality steel are the old big blades.

One of main sources i was thinking about is water and salt historically.

Prime example of historical water is Jericho and springs under Jerusalem.The small ones will be way lesser known and often only in local history and family knowledge.

 

[elkhound]

on recent hike the other day...easy pickings...small seam of coal exposed back in the day on old logging skid road.

 

[Peanut]

I remember going to a great uncle's house when i was a kid. He had a small seam of coal, about the size of your photo, 3 or 4 inches thick. The men (several) would spend the day with sledge hammers/drills and bust out several tons of coal. Once there was enough for both families they were done til next year. At some point it became cheaper to buy a ton than mine it themselves.

I still know where that seam of coal is located, always been at the back of my prepper mind. A place to get a load of coal, knowledge for a rainy day.

 

[Old Whatshisname]

For anyone wondering how to make a smudge fire portable in short order of course using just the knife and the saw - I went ahead and made a sloppy quick one and took pics for ya. This task literally takes less than 5 minutes- if you have to twist your own cordage it'll take longer obviously- but I figured this would demonstrate what I'm talking about. 9/10 times I dont need it to be portable and just put some punky wood over some coals in a divet ive dug into the ground or I've already been out for a day or two and smell completely like smoke anyways and the bugs stop bothering me. If they are really bad I prefer to rub some ferns or some wax myrtle (if i can find it) on my skin till the exposed skin has some green on it and that usually does the trick.

this particular method is in my opinion very niche, but what nice is that its universally doable in basically any environment and it has several other uses.

dry punky wood works best imo, but leaves and pine needles are usually so common you can just grab crap as you walk. For practicing primitive crafts I like jute twine for quicky natural cordage- in this case the fact that the cordage doesn't catch fire (y'all know how flammable jute twine it) is a good litmus that you built your container tight enough that your not letting any fire out.

Use a fist sized green tree (or bigger if you want) for a small little pot- this one happened to have a hollow pith, which acted as a nice little air hole- if you don't have one just carve some divets in the sides of each quarter for small airholes or carve a thin channel by flattening the parts where the split occurs when you baton. Shav down the sharps of each quarter and youll have nice hollow tube. Do the same for the sharps near the bottom for a second shallower hole like the top and you can place it on a pole/stake that you square off to fit it. Just remember to cut/carve a channel for your cordage (so it doesn't slip) before you split the round so you are messing with it more than you need to.

You can travel with live coals using this method, and the smaller ones make the best hand warmer ever if the sides are thin and you fill it up with coals and cap it.

View attachment 125156View attachment 125157View attachment 125158
View attachment 125159
View attachment 125162
View attachment 125161

So yeah- give it a shot it's a super easy one- play around with different materials and whatnot. It's a cavemans thermacell- if you put plants with bug repellant qualities in this thing it's even more effective.

Excellent post, Mr. Canon. I liked the pictures; it makes the instructions easy to follow. I particularly liked the paracord(?) handle on the saw-blade. I have one just like it that I was getting ready to throw away; now I'm going to try my hand at doing the same thing with the paracord.

Thanks!

 

[Canon29]

Excellent post, Mr. Canon. I liked the pictures; it makes the instructions easy to follow. I particularly liked the paracord(?) handle on the saw-blade. I have one just like it that I was getting ready to throw away; now I'm going to try my hand at doing the same thing with the paracord.

Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed it. That pattern is a simple overhand pattern- that saw is a little custom piece that started as a silky natanoko blade- I wanted something lightweight and sharpenable and most of the super efficient tri-edge Japanese saws are impulse hardened and not sharpenable. Silky makes a specific file for this task so the longevity of this system is excellent.

Concerning the handle, I clear coated the metal underneath and wrapped it in hockey tape so the paracord had something to bite into. So far it's been extremely reliable and very solid- I never liked paracord on knives because it absorbs blood/fluids from cleaning game- on the saw however it works excellent as a lightweight grip. If the psracord wears I can easily replace with various cordage or even some braintanned leather strips.

 

[elkhound]

Glad you enjoyed it. That pattern is a simple overhand pattern- that saw is a little custom piece that started as a silky natanoko blade- I wanted something lightweight and sharpenable and most of the super efficient tri-edge Japanese saws are impulse hardened and not sharpenable. Silky makes a specific file for this task so the longevity of this system is excellent.

have you been able to find the files for silky? i seen them once and didnt buy one and kicking myself since.

i have some other saws and they have a very specific angle and was able to get files for them.

 

[Canon29]

have you been able to find the files for silky? i seen them once and didnt buy one and kicking myself since.

i have some other saws and they have a very specific angle and was able to get files for them.

Yeah- they are tough to get ahold of.

Had to order both the file and the saw from a European supplier- dont quite remember which one (my brain is thinking dutch) i just remember the shipping took a while.