All Packed Up and Ready to Go: Packing For the 3 Day Camp

We’ve spent the past few months talking about all different types of gear that fall under the category of David Canterbury’s 5 C’s of survivability, why they are important, what options you have, and comparing and contrasting those options. This week I am going to pack a backpack full of some of that gear we’ve discussed and go out on a 3 day camp using only the items I’ve packed. 

Now I have set up some rules for this camp and they are as follows: 

1. Once I have left the house I am not allowed to go back inside for any reason whatsoever. (No going back for forgotten or broken gear, restroom needs are an exception to the rule.) 
2. I will be treating all of my water which I will obtain from a garden hose as if it is an unsafe source and follow all of the necessary steps for purifying it. 
3. I will only be using gear that we have talked about in the last six months of blogs with the exception of one item.

Now, let’s get into what is actually going into the backpack. First I want to talk about food items. I have packed with me canned goods such as soup, which I can heat over my fire in my mess kit or in the can itself, and fruit cocktail which is quick and easy for breakfast and does not need to be cooked. Both of these canned items have a pull tab on top for convenience. I also have with me a flour kit with flour, sugar, salt, and coffee, which I can use to bake bread over my fire. Lastly I have brought some Slim-Jims along as a snack or to be paired with my other meals.

I have chosen these items because if I work strategically I can get most of my cooking done over one fire and that is less work for me. For example, once I have set up camp and started a campfire, I can boil my water, cook my soup for dinner, and bake some bread for lunch the next day. In the morning I will have my fruit, lunch will be premade, and I will have no further need for a fire until dinner time the next day. This way I get the most out of my resources.

The next personal item I will be talking about is a medicine kit that I have put together. I purchased a medicine organizer and sorted out allergy medication, ibuprofen, multivitamins, and sleeping pills. I chose these as I figured they would be what I would most likely need outside. Honestly, the sleeping pills will likely be the most useful to me on this trip as I will likely have trouble falling asleep on the ground so I anticipate needing them at least for the first night.

The last two personal items I will be taking are some simple dish cloths and some insect repellent. The cloths will be used for cleaning or drying out my mess kit, cleaning my gear, other hygiene needs, and maybe even to wrap my bread in to keep bugs out. The insect repellent is for the mosquitos which are awful this time of year. I purchased the sportsman max and have been left completely alone by these little pests after using it.

Now that we’ve gotten the personal items out of the way, we will talk about the gear I have chosen to take with me, starting with my backpack. I have chosen the Arrowhead bucket pack from Outdoor products. It has two side compartments, a compartment in the front, a larger and smaller compartment on top and the inside is one large compartment large enough for a bucket which I have inside. I chose this pack for the simplicity and how easy it is to pack, which I will show you how to do now.

First is the bucket in the main compartment. Truthfully this is more useful for an extended stay in the bush with such uses as a seat, latrine, or washing bucket, but for my purposes it will just make my pack sturdier.

Now a good rule of thumb for packing a bucket pack is to place the items you will need sooner than later on the top. My food items I won’t need until after camp has been set up and I have a campfire going so it will go on the bottom. This includes my canned goods, flour kit, and Slim-Jims. Next I will add my medicine kit and dish towels.

These next items which will be closer to the top of my pack fall under the category of the 5 C’s. I have chosen the mess kit that I put together myself that we talked about in a previous blog as well as a water bottle that I can boil water in. The mess kit consists of two large bowls, one with a rounded bottom and one with a flat bottom that can be used for frying. There is also a smaller bowl that I can use as either a cup or a mixing bowl. I also have included a tripod to cook over my campfire, a vice grip for taking my bowls on and off the fire without burning myself, and lastly, a fork and a spoon to eat with.

Next is my cordage. I have about 10’ of 555 paracord and a large roll of 36

bank line. Now, I have other cordage with specific purposes spread throughout my kit. This is more for backup in case I have forgotten something or something goes wrong. If needed I could use either of these items to set up my tarp or for my tent stakes.

I have several options in the way of cutting tools. I have my hatchet for processing wood, the Camillus Bushcrafter which I have as my fixed blade knife, a folding saw, and the Camillus Trench for my pocket knife. Now typically these items would go on my belt and they will in the field, but for now they can be stored in the pack. The folding saw is used for processing wood with a larger diameter down to a manageable size to be split with my hatchet. The Trench has various uses such as a can opener in case the pull tabs on my canned goods fail, or any fine carving tasks such as making feather sticks. Finally the Bushcrafter will fill in for any equipment for tasks such as splitting or carving.

I want to take a second to talk about the combustion kit I will be taking with me as well. The container for my fire-starting items is a chocolate covered pretzel can that I have spray painted and drilled a hole in so I can make charcloth. Its content are a piece of flint, some charcloth, a ferro rod, two bic lighters, and a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass comes with a simple cover with cloth on the inside so you are wiping away debris when you put it away.

Lastly is my bedroll which we made in a previous blog. This will serve as my cover. It consists of an 8x8 tarp that we had made, a wool blanket, and other essentials. I will be placing my bug repellant in the top of the pack so when I step outside I can spray myself down and I will be ready to get started. I hope you are as excited as I am to see what these items can do over a three day span. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. If video is more your thing, check out my YouTube channel Backpack Bushcraft or just click here to watch now. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Sharpest Tools in the Shed: A Review of Camillus Knives

We’ve talked about all the different types of cutting tools and how to properly care for them. Today we are doing a review, but we’re shaking things up a bit. Today’s view will be done in video form! Click here and here to watch. I will be talking about a brand of cutting tools that is one of my personal favorites; Camillus knives. I will be talking about six pieces of Camillus equipment today.

First we will be talking about the Camillus Trench, a Swiss Army Knife like tool which I spent about $15 on at Walmart.com. Its attachments include a 3” knife blade, a can opener which is oddly enough not sharp at all, a bottle opener which doubles as a Phillips head screwdriver, and an awl which is eyeless. I do not like the eyeless awl because you can’t use it to sew with. It also has a metal strap on the back which you can put a piece of wood through and create a spear. It has a metal scaled handle which is good for keeping a grip. In field testing, I know right away that this knife will not strike a ferro rod because the knife is not locked into place. You could actually cut your hand trying to strike the rod so I would not recommend it. When woodworking, this knife debarks the wood very well. It is not so good for taking off large chunks of material at a time, but it could get the job done. It was also able to form some nice curls in the wood. Testing out some of the attachments on this tool, I tried the can opener which was pretty easy to work with despite the fact that it is not sharp. It took me about one full minute to open a can of food. Next I tried out the awl. It took it a bit longer and a bit more work than I would have liked to get it to make a hole in the leather. It did get the job done though.

Next is the Camillus Seize which I paid $30 for at Walmart. It is a folding pocket knife with a 3” blade and thumb studs for single handed open. Unfolded the knife is 8” overall. It also includes a pocket clip and a lanyard hole. There is also a locking mechanism in place when the knife is completely unfolded and has to be undone before folding it back off. Finally, the handle is a nylon scaled grip. The Seize unlike the Trench locks its blade into place and has no trouble when striking a ferro rod and getting sparks. A very good carving knife for taking off big chunks of material and debarking. This knife was able to make tighter curls than the Trench as well.

Moving on to the Camillus Drop Point, the knife that got me into Camillus, which I found at Walmart for $10. This knife has a 4” blade and a rubber handle which makes for an excellent grip. Part of the spine is 90 degrees while part of it is beveled. This knife like the Seize, has a lanyard hole. You can also purchase this knife in black if the brown color is not for you. The Drop Point can cast spark with no problem whatsoever when striking a ferro rod. For woodworking purposes this knife took off large chunks of materials and debarked well, but due to its size it had difficulty making tighter curls. The Drop Point when used to baton a piece of wood about 1” in diameter did very well and there were no issues to report.

Here we have the Camillus Sin, $32 on Amazon.com. It is a tomahawk that
is 16” tall with a 4” blade. You will also notice the spiked edge. The handle is 18.5’ of 550 paracord wrapped. The circle behind the blade could be used for seize up, fleshing, or possibly even a draw knife. Find a place to strike the ferro rod on the Sin was a bit challenging, but when I found a place to strike it there were sparks made almost effortlessly. I did not try to do any fine woodworking tasks with the Sin for hopefully obvious reasons. When it came to processing larger pieces of wood, I simply used the tomahawk to chop unlike the knives which I used to baton the wood. With about a minute of work the Sin was able to separate a larger piece of wood about 4” in diameter.

For $30 at Walmart you could pick yourself up a Camillus Carnivore, a machete. The blade is 12” long which is good for a measuring tool. About 9-10” of it is a saw blade and above it is the gut hook. At the top it is chiseled and then flat which makes for an excellent digging tool. There is a plastic grip handle with a lanyard hole. The Carnivore is good for large woodworking tasks, but not good for fine details. With your purchase you will find a smaller knife, good for finer woodworking skills with notches on the blade for making it into a spear. There are two hexbolt wrenches, the smaller is 7mm while the larger is 9mm. When trying to strike the ferro rod I tested both the machete and the smaller knife. I struck against the bottom of the knife blade and the bottom of the machete below the teeth and got sparks off of both blades. I did not try to do fine woodworking with the machete, however I did give the smaller knife a go. It debarked well and struggled to take off larger chunks of material. It couldn’t really form a curl well, but I am will to give the benefit of the doubt that it is just out of the box and may need a profile touch up. Now, the gut hook on the Carnivore should be sharp enough to cut paracord if I needed it to. Unfortunately the gut hook on this product was not sharp enough to do that and barely broke the mantle on the cord. I chose to process larger pieces of wood with both the saw blade and the machete blade of the Carnivore. The saw itself did pretty well and worked perhaps even quicker than the Sin, however the effort was straining on my hand. When using the machete blade to chop it was much more inefficient than the Sin and would take longer to completely separate the wood.

Last but not least we have the Camillus Bushcraft, which my wonderful wife got me for $68 onAmazon.com. It has a 4” coated blade with the hump of a butcher knife. It is a full 90 degrees and full tang as well. The handle is canvas with a lanyard hole and makes for a very good grip. It stows away in a leather sheath with holes drilled all the way through it which you can use to tie the knife into it. The Bushcraft got sparks off the ferro rod, but I wasn’t too concerned with that due to the design of the knife. This knife performed the fine wood working tasks effortlessly. It took off large chunks of material, debarked, and formed tight curls with ease. For a larger wood working task I used the Bushcraft to baton a piece of would about 1” in diameter and had no problems with it whatsoever.

To wrap this up, I think we all can agree that these tools are all unique and have their own individual talents when it comes to certain tasks. I’m sure you’re wondering which one I would recommend taking with you, and as I’ve told you before, the tools you take with you are going to depend on what tasks you are trying to accomplish out in the bush. If you are looking to process large pieces of wood while you’re out, the Camillus Sin may be a good choice for you. The same if your pack has some canned goods stored away for you to eat. The Trench will be your friend come dinner time. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. If video is more your thing, then check out my YouTube channel Backpack Bushcraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

The Daily Grind: Maintaining Your Equipment in the Field

Over the past few weeks we have talked about various cutting tools you would take into the field such as knives, axes, and saws. But let’s be honest here, these tools are going to do absolutely nothing for you if you do not care for and maintain them. With proper maintenance, these tools could last you for years and you will find that they even perform better, but without it, you will be out a considerable amount of energy trying to work with them and money having to replace your tools because they have fallen apart or are now completely worn down. So as you can imagine, this week we will be talking about proper maintenance for your cutting tools while outdoors so you can get the most out of what they have to offer.

The biggest problem with taking maintenance tools into the bush, is the amount of weight and space they can take up in your back. While I’m sure your Japanese water stones are the best when it comes to sharpening your blade, it can be highly impractical to take it with you, along with a belt sander or various other things that you may use to sharpen your knives. However, some items are sold to be taken into the field to help you keep that edge.

The first thing that I want to introduce you to is a two-stage portable knife sharpener. This will resemble a square with two open slices into the top side and the bottom side. One side will contain sharpening stones and be called the “coarse” side. This will be used to take off large amounts of material as you begin to treat your blade.  The other side will have one labeled “fine” which will have ceramic rods in it. Now I am going to be honest with you, I am not the best knife sharpener and when I was young, I always believed that you had to start with coarse side and move to the fine side. However, now, I have been told that you should only use the coarse side for fixed blade knives and that the fine side is for something different. So when you begin to use this product you want to slowly draw the blade across the stones. You will end up having to apply pressure and you will more than likely pull it at an angle than straight across. It make take a few swipes to get it sharp enough. This will be good to sharpen most pocket knives.

Fixed blade knives such as my old hickory butcher knife, to ensure that I get the entire cutting surface, I want to use a different set up. The sharpener that I use for it only has the coarse stones, and, has a guard for your fingers so that you are able to draw the knife across the whole thing without worrying about cutting yourself. It may take you a few swipes to get your blades as sharp as you want. Be patient and check your knives frequently by using the paper test.

 

Now as I said earlier, you can’t take your giant Japanese water stones, however, you can find some smaller versions that can be used to hone your blade while in the field. A good rule of thumb while using them, you want to maintain a good 20 degree angle. To do this, take the corner of a piece of paper, fold it in half making it 45 degrees, then fold it in half again making it 22.5 degrees.

Sometimes you’ll even find tools that do them all. I picked up this device at a gun store on a discount. It has three sides to sharpen your knife on, and a 20 degree guide, along with a fishing hook sharpener. This could be an all in one device that you take just for your maintenance. That’ll just about do it for knives. Now let’s move on to your axe.

When working on my axe in the field, I like to have a bastard file with me. You can pick these up at Walmart in the tool aisle. The reason I always like to pack my file with me is to treat a nick that can be very common when using an axe, or just to touch up the face if I had made a previous mistake. Remember that files only cut one way so once you figure out how that file cuts, you only want to use it in that direction. Unlike with the others that give you a rudimentary guide, you really just have to eyeball this one. What has always helped me has been to look down the edge and you will be able to see the thickness of the metal that is still left.

Once I have removed a good deal of material, I like to follow up with a Lansky Duel Grit Sharpener Puck. It is $7 on Amazon.com. Take my advice, only use water when using stones like this. If you use oil, you’ll have to bring oil in the field. However, if you use water, it’s easier to come by and gives you pretty much the same result in my opinion. I submerge my puck in water until the bubbles stop coming up. Then I find the coarse side and in a circular motion rub it on the edge of my axe blade. The goal is to take off a enough material to bring my edge back.

Lastly I like to follow up all of this with a diamond rod. This really could be the only device that you may need for your maintenance out in the field as it gives you something to hone your blade. The one I have has a flat face, a round face, and a pointed end. This allows me to make sure that I can run the length of my blade no matter what I’m working on.

That will have to do it for this blog. If you are looking to purchase any of these items to take with you I suggest getting, a file, a diamond rod, and a 2 stage knife sharpener. This will give you a great start. If you have an axe I highly recommend getting a puck too. Next week will be the final week in this series of cutting tools. Thank you guys so much for tuning in each week to read my words. However, the next blog will be a little different. Not only will you get the blog, but I am also going to put up the first episode of backpack Bushcraft on YouTube. Both the blog and the video will be a knife review, so you don’t want to miss out.

As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Also check out my YouTube Channel: Backpack Bushcraft for video updates and corresponding tutorials. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Bet You Never “SAW” it Coming: Which Saws to Take Into the Woods

When it comes to working with lumber no tool is handier than a saw. With a saw you get precision and ease when compared to knives and axes. A saw is a series of serrated or offset material that cuts when being drawn back and forth over a softer material. The offset or serrated part of the saw is called the teeth. Modern saws are made by sectioning part of the blade off and making a series of cuts in the blade which become the teeth. To make the teeth sharp, they use a triangle file to turn the material into triangles offset from each other which allow them to cut. However, the one big drawback to saws is that the larger they are, the harder they are to take with you on excursions into the woods. However, as with most things in this day and time, items have become smaller, so now you can have the perfect size saw to take with you to accomplish any task at hand.

I’ll be going over four different sizes of saws that I believe are simple and easy enough to use that any bushcrafter will be able to take them along. The first one I will be going over is a pocket saw. With the ever changing Swiss Army Knife and other knock offs being produced, it was inevitable that eventually in the list of small tools that they would add a pocket saw. The one that I own and my knockoff SAK is 2 ½” long. It’s perfect when trying to make small notches or cuts into wood. It allows me to be more precise than trying to whittle a notch into the wood. This is perfect for smaller pieces of wood. However anything much bigger than fuel for your fire and you will need to move up to the next size of saw.

Next we have a folding camp saw with an 8” blade. For this one I am unsure of the brand as it was gifted to me, but you can find these or at least something similar at Walmart in the camp section. This saw has the power to cut wood with a larger diameter, and in the hand of the bushcrafter can accomplish the finer tasks of the pocket saw. It’s also really nice to use to get those overhead branches because it provides a better reach. Even though it can do very well at cutting down saplings and some things bigger, the next saw can cut down the bigger saplings and small trees.

The next one is the UST Chainsaw. Basically it is a chainsaw blade attached to two handgrips.  To use this saw, you place the chain around the back side of what you are cutting and drawing the chain across the back side of it by pulling on the hand grips back and forth. This couldn’t be used in any other process except for cutting down trees. Notch making and precision cuts sort of go out the window due to the process which is used to saw the wood. However the next saw can make notches if you are skilled enough, process wood, cut down saplings, and buck larger trees, and all you need to buy is the blade.

The next saw is called the bucksaw. Bushcrafters have for years knows the benefits of only carrying in pieces of an item, and manufacturing the rest from the land. Using this principle, the bucksaw really stands out. All it takes to begin this project is just a bow saw blade. The basics to making a takedown bucksaw, you will want a good, strong piece of wood, a little shorter than the length of your saw blade, and two uprights of the same size, recommended 16”. You’ll then want to drill, carve, and lash together, the three pieces of wood into an “H”. Next you want to have grooves in the bottom part of the H where your saw will fit in. You’ll want to make sure everything lines up. Finally, using some cordage, you will want to string up a piece of wood in the top portion in the center that can place tension on your upright pieces of wood and that can also be held by the center piece of wood. Once the uprights have been tightened, the saw will be able to cut your material and you now have a bucksaw. Many bushcrafters do this at home, with proper wood, and take all of the pieces into the bush. However, most of them place their bucksaw in PVC pipe to transport and protect the blade. I thought it would be a good idea to take this PVC pipe use for transportation and turn it into the parts for my takedown bucksaw.

I began with a 30” piece of PVC pipe 1” in diameter. I split it evenly into two 15” sections and drilled/carved a ½” hole in the middle of both, 7 ½” up. Next I decided which ends would hold the blade, and which ends would hold the rope. For the end that would hold the blade I split it in the middle along the diameter. I did this to both sides to make sure that the drilled holes would face inward toward each other when set up. I drilled holes perpendicular to the cuts to hold the saw blade. By placing correct sized bolts through then ends of the saw and tightening it down with wingnuts. For the uprights about an inch or two down below, same on both sides, I took out a small section of material so that my rope would have something to hang into. This is on the opposite side of the center hole. For the center hole I placed a ½” in diameter PVC pipe that was the same length as the saw blade. I took ½” sections of this off at a time until the length was to my liking. If you cut off too much you will have to start over with a longer piece. 

Finally after everything was assembled together, I took some paracord and a scrap piece of PVC pipe to windlass tension using the center beam as a hold. Now you have a functioning bucksaw that stows away in its various pieces. To stow away, you will need two 1” slip caps and a 1” coupler. To build the travel tube, disassemble the bucksaw. Take the slip caps and place them one on each upright. Take the coupler and place each end where the blade hold into the coupler. Next, opening one of the slip caps, place the blade and the center rod inside. On top of that you can place your paracord, bolts, and wingnuts. In mine, I am unable to place my tensioning windlass rod. However, this will be the easiest part to create off the landscape.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog about saws. To me they are a lot like a sweater. It’s better to have one and not need it than to need it and not have it. – Roger Smith (American Dad)  Next week we will be going over field maintenance. Your knife is only as good to you as you are to it. (That’s my own quote.) As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.