26.07.14 Carving Continues

Today I had a few hours spare so thought I would continue with my carving projects.

First I wiped down the oiled kitchen utensils that I had started to make the other week, I spent about an hour sanding them (basically till I got bored) wiped them clean again, sanded some more the lightly reoiled them and put them into a plastic bag.

I then carved down a crook from from a branch, stripped the bark and carved it down a little to make a slingshot, got to order some elastic and lead shot now to give it a try.
I've been meaning to make one of these for the last two years now, and always got sidetracked, but with all the Lime wood I had collected recently from a pollarded tree, I chose a piece with this in mind, I'm just left hoping that once dry it will be strong enough.
Gave this a light coating of oil and added it to the utensils.

I then returned to the figure I've been carving recently, and spent about an hour tidying up some cuts, shaving bits here and there and have now got to a stage that I'm happy with.
So I added him to the bag (I have a feeling I will go back to him though).

I completed all the carving using the TBS Boar folding knife, no blisters this time although the carving was not so heavy, since doing the heavy carving with the knife I have gave it a strop and it redonculously sharp again.

19.07.14 Thornden/Blean Woods

 I had arranged to take a young person to the woods for a Bushcraft activity, we had spoken about this upon occasion through the week.
When we left the house to go we stopped off and purchased some bits for the activity, we shopped to a budget for lunch, on the trip there we spoke about the plans and what particular activities she would like to do.
We arrived and went in a different direction than usual finding a place to stop after walking for a while, I showed the young person several navigational methods as we walked and explored the new area, when we stopped we made a drink and I showed them how to make a bracelet out of grass, they struggled to get the hang of it put persevered for about an hour before I suggested that we try this again some other time, and gave them the one I had made, we had some lunch of Noodles, Pancetta and Onion, before packing up and attempting to find out way back to the car we followed the track most of the way using a reverse of the story we had created whilst walking in but then lost direction as we did not start the story until we were quite a way in to start with so I explained some other natural navigation techniques we could use, pointing out were the sound of the road was this meant that we knew roughly which way to travel and we also knew that at some point we would come across a larger track that would lead us back to the car, I cut a walking stick for the young person and we followed this method taking us back in short order.
 Once back we went to a part of the woodland that we thought we knew and found it had recently been changed to a sensory walk with carvings and things in the woodland so we followed these stopping for another drink, I taught the young person how to make a fire using flint and steel, again they found this difficult but managed it eventually blowing a bundle of dry grass into flame, that we put out immediately as it has been so dry, we were using a Trangia to cook with rather than an open fire.
On the way home we spoke about what we had leant that day, covering natural navigation, tree identification and some uses for them, cooking, how to budget for shopping etc, planning for different eventualities, and even finishing the day with clearing away and the next plan in mind, with all this being covered in how we had planned the day and may even be able to help their future.


18.07.14 Carving Continued...

Next stage of carving kitchen utensils set has been underway, as I split the wood I found some noice staining in the grain, I decided to go with this hoping that it does not split out as it dries.
I started with the spatula, then the spoon followed by the butter knife, I mainly used the TBS Boar folding knife, it was beautiful to carve with managing every cutting technique I could think of, towards the end of the carving session a blister showed up and I also used the Ben Orford crook knife for the bowl of the spoon.
 Once I finished this stage of carving, I have soaked them in oil, I will leave them for all of Saturday and Sunday, then dry them then re sand them on Monday and soak in oil again till the end of next week, then gradually dry them out.

11.07.14 WiseUp School Course

Been running a school course today with Craig, both working for WiseUp. 
Had 20 kids working in 2 groups of 10, I ran two water lectures/workshops and 2 paracord bracelet workshops, Craig did fire and shelter. 
My water session was even more comfortable than last time and easily filled an hour each.
The paracord workshops were almost rushed as all the kids want to be able to make on and no one wants to wait, so quickly added "wait and watch" into my patter.

10.07.14 Carving Project

I have started a project of carving some kitchen utensils for somebody I know who is moving into their own flat soon, today I made a start on it making a small dipping ladle.

I have a few more to carve over the next few days, a spatula, spoon and a butter knife.

06.07.14 Kids home carving

One of the kids I work with asked me to help them make a gift for someone, I arranged to being in my carving set and luckily a tarp or two as it rained,  we drew up some designs and decided to carve a mushroom, I went through a full knife safety lesson.
We used a piece of Lime branch, I showed her each technique using my TBS Boar folding knife and helped with any questions.
She worked very hard and concentrated all the way through using a selection of knives.

The pictures shown are the one I made.