Two In A Row!

For the second Sunday in a row, I hit the woods with Dan from JRE Industries for some gear testing, some relaxation, and some hard core bull shooting. :)

Today I tested the Fallkniven 3G F1 for the first time. It has been sheathed on my pack strap since I got it and today it made its way into the woods and I no longer had an excuse to avoid using it. I carved fuzz sticks, split down branches with a baton and by driving the point into the stick and twisting, and I struck my firesteel to get a fire started.

I know friction firestarting is sort of the ultimate bush craft but using a knife and firesteel to get a fire going is really cool when no prepared tinder is being used. If I have my knife and a firesteel and the knowledge that has come with experience, I can start a fire in most situations using what is around me and some basic preparation techniques. As I told Dan, "There's something primal about the connection between man and fire. Once I had a small fire burning I was confident that I could survive a cold night out."

Dan has a new Silky Pocketboy 170 and it blew away my Bahco Lapplander saw when it came to cutting both green and seasoned wood. The cuts were smoother, the wood cut faster, and the cuts started faster with his saw. Despite the fact that he's using the coarsest blade, the cuts were very smooth. He also showed me a technique last week that I found interesting where he used his saw to cut the notch in a stick which could be used to hang a billy can, as part of a trap, or used as the relief cut when felling a tree with the saw.

There's more to tell and more testing to be done but that'll have to wait for now. I've got dinner on the table waiting on me.

What a way to spend an afternoon...

Thanks for reading,


B