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Welcome to my Bushcraft website! I hope you have a great time exploring my website and maybe even making some of the items in my articles section. The articles section is ever growing and gives you a chance to see what  have been up to lately. I'm only 18 years old but have a great deal of knowledge to share which is growing by the day. I hope this website can inspire you to join the fun of Bushcraft!
Latest bushcraft... 
 
Today I have been working on this wood splint basket. I chose to use Ash wood because I heard that the growth rings separate quite easily. However the growth rings on my in my piece of Ash wood were quite thick and needed quite a lot of pounding with a hammer before they separated. The thick splints were also harder to weave.
   
Three new tutorials have recently been added to the articles section!

Making and using a Bow Drill, collecting Birch tar and Making a whistle from Elder

This is one of my finished fletched arrows. In the end I uses swan feathers for the arrows because they keep their shape better and make a better flight. In this picture below you can see how I have attached the feathers to the shaft so that they twist to one side slightly, this makes the arrow spin when flying through the air and makes a more accurate and fast arrow.

 

 

I have tied and glued the feathers to the Ash shafts.

Normally I just make arrows from some straight shoots of Hazel or Holly wood, but today I've been working on some arrows made from wood that I have split down from a large log.

To start I got my log of Ash wood and split it into 16th's I then took one of these and split it again into 2 with my knife. Then using a plane i shaved the long thin piece of wood into a square dowel 3/8" thick. I then shaved off the corners of the rod so that it now has 8 sides and then shaved the rod again until round.

I plan to use Pigeon feathers for the fletchings but I am not sure if they are strong enough.

 

 

I've been working on this bow for quite a while now. I've only made a couple of good bows before and I'm really pleased with this one! At full draw it has a draw weight of 40lb. I steam bent the recurves on today, I'm really pleased with the shape and the added draw weight that has given. I think I've done a reasonably good tiller on this bow too.

I'm really getting into bow making so I've got 2 more bows on the go, another elm bow and a sycamore. I am aiming to make a bow with a draw weight of at least 50lb next.

This was my first ever attempt at steam bending wood. I didn't have any proper equipment so I put a bit of water in a Billy can and then put the bow end into this, I then sealed it all round with tin foil.

After quite a while of steaming I quickly removed the bow from the can and put it into the crude jig I had made. I left the wood to cool down fully until cold and then removed it from the jig. It worked really well and the wood has stayed in that position since!

 

I have made this Shaving horse so that i can use my draw knife properly. It has to be one of the most useful pieces of equipment that i have made. I have used it most days since i made it. Its ideal for making my bows.

 

Finished making my Flatbow from Ash wood. The wood is a 1/16th segment of a 12" wide log of wood. I had a few problems whilst making it because it looked like it might have started to produce a hinge in one of the limbs but I solved that problem. The bow is now a lovely shooter and i'm very pleased with it. The tiller is not perfection but its its not bad for one of my first bows...

More info about the some of the problems i faced on the paleoplanet forum: http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/14008
 

I also made the arrows, they have Hazel shafts and swan feather fletching.

Its been a while since i did any to the fish trap so i thought it was time to give it another go and start making the main cage.

I made several more hoops and then lashed those together with some Dogwood wands to make the main cage that you see here.

Notice that the widest part of the cage is level with the end of the entrance funnel. This should make it harder for the fish to find their way back out. The trap is quite big and i hope to catch some larger fish this time, maybe some Perch and even small Carp.

I then moved onto carving this Green man. Considering i havn't had any lessons on wood carving i think i have done a pretty good job. I'm very pleased indeed! The wood type Is Ash and i oiled it with linseed oil to finish. Overall it took a few weeks to complete.

Ive been using Flexcut tools, (www.flexcut.com) i cant talk from experience and compare them with other tools but they seem to be doing an incredibly good job and sharpen to a razor sharp edge easily.

Because i like working with wood so much i purchased a couple of sets of carving tools so that i can carve some more extravagant things. This picture shows the first little pattern that i carved. I followed this Tutorial

 www.carvingpatterns.com/kiss/kiss-intro.htm

This comb is made from another piece of Ash wood. I carved the whole thing with just a knife. I have used the grain of the wood to make sure it is strong horizontally and vertically.
Carved this Buck Saw from an Ash log. Its incredibly strong and big enough for cutting large rounds of wood.

The Blade is made by Sandvic Bahco and is extremely sharp! I would only ever buy a blade like this one now because they are so good! Highly recommendable!

 

Latest Articles...
Collecting birch tar

 

Making an Elder whistle

 

Making and using the Bow Drill

 

Cantact me via email: jonathan@planetlara.com