Backpack Bushcraft 2017 Christmas Special

Hey guys and welcome to a very merry Backpack Bushcraft blog! Before we get started I do want to take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, however you choose to celebrate. The end of the year has very special meaning to me, not just because it's a time to get together with family, it' also a time for me to reflect over the year and analyze whether I have met my goals or not. I thought this would also be a good time to do that with my website and my YouTube channel. I wanted to share these reflections with you the viewer because if weren't for you I wouldn't be where I am now.

I would like to first begin talking about the website. I started it up in March, it's been about 10 months now. Overall the website has got 6,971 views which is phenomenal. I never would have imagined that I could have achieved this when the first time I tried to write a blog I was barely getting 7 views a week. I was also able to break three milestones that I had set for myself in getting 500, 750 and 1000 views in a month. We broke 500 in March, 750 in July, and 1000 in November and I couldn't be happier. In terms of the most popular blogs on the website, number one is 1, 2, 3 Start Lashing With Me, with 345 views overall. I don't know why. The title seemed silly to me and I came up with it on the fly. In second place was Bet You Never Saw it coming with 325 views, this was a discussion about saws in the middle of my cutting tool series. Finally number three is All Packed Up and Ready to Go with 292 views, just barely on the cusp of 300 and I am waiting every day for it to roll over. Again, none of this would be possible without you all.

Now let's talk about the YouTube channel. It has been active for 5 months now and in those 5 months I have posted 24 videos. Those 24 videos have gotten me 25 subscribers, about 3 comments per video and 804 views across my channel overall. This is breathtaking, guys. If you enjoy the blog, check out the YouTube channel. I make videos that correspond with the blog so you can see exactly what I'm doing.

While we are on the subject of YouTube I would like to take some time to shout out three people who have helped me out a lot this year. This isn't in any favoritism order, this is just the order that I met them in. The first guy goes by the name of Hike ‘N’ Deep: Click Here He does have a YouTube channel with a trailer on it, but his own videos will be coming out next year. He considers himself a curator of Bushcraft videos with various playlists of useful information. If you ever find yourself bored, check out some of the playlists he's compiled and that ought to get you in the bushcrafting mood. I met him because he had commented on almost every one of my videos so I messaged him to thank him for the support. This opened up a dialogue which lead to a phone conversation in which we spoke for 3 hours and each of our phones died twice. Guys, if you get time, check out his playlists, subscribe to his channel, and buckle in for some great content in the future.

This next guy I've known since grade school, he ended up marrying my cousin and moving 10 minutes away from me. The reason he is second on the list is simply because I didn't know he was into bushcraft until he sent me a picture of him and his little girl watching my videos on their tv. Since then we have talked a little every day. I've tried encouraging him to write for the blog, but he is a busy man. He doesn't have a YouTube channel or anything either for me to point you in his direction, he just asked to be called "Ol' Nick" when I shouted him out. So, Ol' Nick, this is for you. Next year he is going to be teaching me a few things so hopefully that means I will be able to teach you a few things.

The third and final guy I'd like to thank is Yankee’s Outdoors Adventure: Click Here. I met him through Hike N Deep who recommend that I get in touch with him. Yankee does a meet and greet every Thursday where he introduces a YouTube channel into the community. I sent him a personal message that said I would like to do a meet and greet, but I didn't feel like I was at that level where I should do one yet. A few hours and several views to my channel later I get a reply back that says "Yes." My Meet and Greet video has not been released yet, but keep an eye on his channel for that. He's also given me a shout out on a different video when he received his ornament, he was the other winner of the contest besides Nathanael Desmedt: Click Here. Not only is it the meet and greet, but Yankee is just a great guy to get to know anything. We have talked about everything from black powder guns to Bigfoot. So I just want to return the shout out to Yankee.

Before 2017 ends I would like to make a few announcements for what is coming up in 2018. Starting January the 3rd we are going to be posting the Bumbling Bushcraft comic drawn by my wife. I have several years of buschraft experience and she has had several years of laughing at me through those experiences. If you just want to laugh or have an "I know what that feels like," moment, check out the comic. Next is another YouTube segment I am going to be doing called Gear Gab. Basically I am going to get a piece of gear, talk about it, tell stories about it, share with you how I got it, and so on. I am also going to take that time to shout out another YouTuber and have them review the gear, and so on and so forth. The first one will be coming out in January and we will try to continue on in February. If you are interested in being a part of the Gear Gab, email me at the community email address bpackbushcraft@gmail.com. Of course this isn't exclusive to Gear Gab, you can also use this email to ask me questions, give me a topic, and so on and so forth.

Before I go I just wanted to take this chance to thank you all again for everything and give you the same advice I gave a friend of mine. Bushcraft doesn't have to be just blogs and YouTube videos. Anyone can represent bushcraft as long as they have the knowledge, passion, and their own individual skill. As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

This Little Lamp of Mine: A Review of UCO's Collapsible Lantern

Last week we wrapped our candle selection video and I said that we would be reviewing another candle lantern that I purchased this week. This lantern is light, compact, super tough, and the candles themselves are very powerful. I am of course talking about UCO's collapsible candle lantern. This lantern is 6" tall, 4" when collapsed, and there are two main parts to it. There is the candle chamber and the lantern body itself. The lantern's body has a 3" long, 1.5" wide glass globe, the body of the lantern which is just a bit bigger than the globe that has a peep hole in it so you can see how much candle you have left, and the top of the candle which fits into the grooves of the body, a cap to protect against weather, a bell, and a chain. The chain is a bit annoying because it gets caught on everything. When assembling the body of the lantern make sure you line up the fingers of the lid with the grooves of the body and slowly slide it into place. Once it is fully collapsed you want to make sure you get each finger around the glass globe at the bottom. If you go too quickly you could scratch the globe or break one of the fingers of the lid.

Now let's move on to the candle chamber.  This is made up of the candle shell, a spring and a plug. There is also a cover plate for the spring to protect it from melting wax. To assemble, insert the candle into the candle chamber wick first. Then you are going to find the cover plate and insert it concave side first. Next take the spring and the plug and carefully put it behind the candle. You don't want it to spring back on you. Once everything is fit together you will take the candle chamber and insert it into the body of the lantern and twist to lock it. Now, you can light the candle in the candle chamber prior to putting it in the lantern, or, you can slide the globe down, light the candle, and slide the globe back up into place and lock it.

We will be repeating the same tests from last week with this candle. First we will try to light this candle with a spark, with charcloth, and the candle itself. This was the first candle I was ever able to catch with a spark. Let me explain what happened. So I lit the charcloth and had my ember going and I held the candle over the embers and some of the wax melted into the charcloth. When I noticed this I started to blow harder to get the ember to melt that wax and get it to release the gas that keeps the candle burning. Once I got that to happen and it started to create a flame, it was as easy as holding the candle to it and lighting it. Honestly, now that I know what I'm doing I think I could light any candle this way, but I have to give it to the survival candle for being the first.

Next is the illumination test. This candle claims to have 20 lumens, but I am mainly going to see how well it lights up my area and we will take it down to the track and see how well we can read the signs. This lantern is very similar to the electric lantern in its ability to light up my work area. I estimate it to have about a 5 foot area of illumination. I could very easily be doing something at night at my camp with this lantern on hand. On the track I had to get about 1 ft away from the sign to be able to read it, however, I didn't have to be right up on it like I did with the other candles, so I'll give it props for that. I will say that it has done much better than the other candle lanterns I've made, but I do think I can improve them. Since I haven't yet I'll give it to this candle. The only problem I have is that it didn't do as well as I wanted it to on the track, however, UCO makes a cup that looks like it may be for this lantern that covers the back and makes the light more concentrated in one spot. Honestly, I always carry a flashlight with me, but it may be something  you're more interested in for your kit.

Now we will be doing a burnout of this candle. It claims to burn for 9 hours. This candle burned for 13 hours and 40 minutes. I lit the candle at 3 pm and it didn't go out until 4:40 am. It was a long night. This is more than double the time its competitor the squat candle burned.

On to field repair. The only concerns I have are with the glass globe or the fingers of the lantern body. If the globe were to crack, I'm not sure how well this lantern would work. The globe puts pressure on the fingers and the fingers put pressure on the body to hold everything in place. With the globe gone, it's uncertain how well your lantern will actually work. The second thing I worry about are the fingers. If one finger breaks the whole system will be unbalance and will likely not work. Now I don't think they are so flimsy that they will just snap, but I do think you could easily break one if you are being careless while inserting your globe. This lantern is made out of stainless steel and is pretty sturdy. As long as you keep maintenance on it, it should last you a long time. This is another point I want to make. It's not necessarily about field repair, but it is a relevant point. The only candles that will work with your UCO lantern, is a UCO candle. Surprising right? You MIGHT be able to get by with a stick candle, but no other candle will fit.

Now onto our price point. Before telling you the price, I will say that this lantern has been so much fun to work with and use. I highly recommend you get one and try it out if you have the scratch. The lantern itself is about $17 and comes with one candle. I also purchased a set of $3 candles for about $8 so I spent about $25-26 total. There is a combo pack with these items that I've seen for between $21-23 on Amazon (it changes daily). In hindsight I should have done that, but, oh well. For $8 you get 3 candles which equals out to about $2.66 per candle. If you subtract $2.66 from the $17 for the lantern you get the base price for the lantern which is $14.33. For $14.33 I could make 3, maybe 4 of my candle lanterns including the tools I need to make them. This is if you are going for quantity, not quality. You could also make my candle lanterns a lot brighter by adding more holes, I just don't like to do that. Now for $2.66 I could buy 5 squat candle that give me 30 hours of lighting. for a full $8 which will give me 3 UCO candles, I could buy 15-16 squat candles and get 90-96 hours of lighting. Now that is a lot more candles I will have to carry with me. And yes, I understand that the UCO candles are more expensive because they are smaller and more powerful, I'm just playing devil's advocate to show you what options you have.

In the end I don't think I will be packing this in my bush kit, mostly because of the fears I have with field repair. I do think this would be good for an ultra light backpacking kit (which I am going to make eventually), maybe a hunting kit, and definitely an EDC kit. This won't be going into my EDC kit because as you know, mine is filled to the brim and cannot accommodate it. But another point I want to make is that my bush kit is designed around higher quantity and not higher quality. That's just a sacrifice I'm willing to make. But that'll do it for this year. We will have a Christmas special next week, though. You won't want to miss it! As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Wax & Wick: Choosing A Candle For the Tin Can Lantern

Last week we talked about electric illumination devices and chose one for my pack. This week we're going to be talking about the candle lantern, or specifically the candle inside them.  Now if you want to know the ins and outs of how a candle works, go to YouTube and search "how does a candle work," there is a lot of great information there. I am just going to give you the overview.. A candle is made of a wick and a hydrocarbon wax; that is, hydrogen connecting to carbon. When you light the wick, the wax begins to melt releasing a gas which is what keeps the flame burning. You can prove this by lighting the gas above the candle.

What we have today is a contest between three candles. We have a stick candle, what I call a squat
candle, and a tea candle. They will be competing in four different categories: being lit from a spark, how bright they burn, how long they burn, and overall cost effectiveness.

For the first test we must first char all the wicks of the candles. I then got some ferro rod  shavings on a board and was then going to try to use those shavings to ignite a spark from the candle. The only candle that was able to participate in this test was the stick candle and it did not cast a spark. The next test was to get some charcloth in a char tin and cast a spark. This gave us a nice hot ember to try to light our candles on. This time the stick candle and the squat candle got to participate however both failed. I was able to get an ember on

the squat candle, but was not able to light the wick.

For the second test of illumination, we are going to go back to the same track that we tested out our electronic illumination devices. First up is the tea candle which we have to get right up on the sign to see. The same with the squat candle. The stick candle performed slightly better than these other two due to the fact that it has a larger flame. Now none of these did well in comparison to the electronic devices, but this is what we are working with.

For the third test we are going to take a fresh version of each candle, put it into a lantern and burn them until they go out by themselves. For the stick candle we will be using and open top lantern due to the height of the candle. The tea candle burned for 3 hours and 50 minutes, the stick candle for 4 hours and 6 minutes, and squat candle for 6 hours and 15 minutes. I really thought the stick candle would burn the longest since it appears to have the most wax and there fore the most fuel to burn. However, I think where it was in an open top lantern a lot of the gasses that keep the flame burning simply escaped out of the top. Also the squat and tea candles have a metal base that pulls their wicks down. I think for the stick candle there was a moment where the wax was lighter than the wick and it nose dived.

Now looking at cost effectiveness. The tea candles come in a pack of 50 for about $3-5 so individually they are between five and ten cents. Next is the squat candles which are 50 cents a piece and can be purchased individually. The stick candles are 88 cents a piece and are purchased individually. Two tea candles can burn longer than on squat candle, so if you are looking for over all cost effectiveness, the tea candle is the way to go.

Before we talk about which candle I will be using, let's talk about why each candle got the ranking it did. In third place was the stick candle, which technically got a disqualification simply because it does not fit in the lantern. It's not the candle's fault, it's not the lantern's fault, it's just reality. The tea candle is ranked second because it was always playing second fiddle to either the squat or stick candle. It only really excelled at being cost effective, however, I'm not just looking for a cheap candle, I'm looking for a powerful one. The clear winner to me is the squat candle. I almost lit it with a spark, it was only average in illumination, but it burned for an entire 6 hours. Plus, to me there isn't much of a difference in 5 cents and 50 cents.

You may be wondering why we put so much into working with these candles. Next week we will be reviewing a candle and candle lantern that can supposedly burn for 9 hours and I wanted the best candle I could find to contend with it. This will also be the last blog of the year aside from our Christmas special so you definitely don't want to miss it. As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Lighting Up the Night: Deciding on an Electric Illumination Device

Last week after we finished building our tin can lanterns, I said we would be looking at "electric candles" this week, or rather electric illumination devices. This week I have a few items I purchased from Walmart for about $1 each, one item was about $5. I also have an item that I have for any years that I am going to show you today that is a bit on the high end side. Let's get into it.

The first item is a $1 LED Flashlight that takes 3
AAA batteries. It is very simple, there is one button to press to turn it on and off. The thing I like about flashlights is that they are very bright. If you are looking for something or need to see ahead in front of you, a flashlight is definitely what you want. however the one thing I don't like is that if I hold the flashlight above my head, you aren't going to see much around me. This is because the flashlight doesn't have any radiating illumination, but it is more geared toward focused illumination.

Our next item came out about ten years ago or so. This one I got for $1, but they used to go for $30 or so. I'm talking about a headlamp. The one I have can point straight a head, two different downward pointing angles, and straight down. When I point the lamp straight down it shines more in my face than anything. I used to use the headlamp for frog gigging. You would angle the headlamp down and look for the reflection in the frog's eyes, then use the gig stick. The headlamp is great for this because of the hands free illumination. Now the headlamp has a second feature. If you have a clear water bottle filled with water, and you attach your headlamp to it with the light source facing inside the bottle and turn it on, you now have a radiating light source. Now it's not as good as other items, but you could definitely use it to illuminate the inside of your tarp or tent. Another item I have similar to the headlamp is the cap light. It's just like the headlamp, but you attach it to your hat.

In my opinion it is a lot brighter than the headlamp and it eliminates the only problem I have with it. Since it wraps around your head it can very easily be too loose and fall off, or too tight and give you a headache. Unfortunately the flashlight is still brighter than both of them. The other thing is that both of these items take what I consider to be a watch battery so that is inconvenient as well.

Next we have an electric lantern that was $5 at Walmart. It has three different button press features. One click will give you radiating illumination, by which I mean the light radiates out from its central source. Two clicks gives a solid red light. It could be used for emergencies, signaling or stalking. Three clicks is a strobe red light which is clearly meant for getting attention in an emergency situation. The lantern also has a bell, which unfortunately isn't rounded or humped, so it is prone to sliding on whatever you hang it on. Lastly, if I need focused illumination, I can wrap my hand around the walls of the lantern and shine it in any direction I need to see in. This is not something you can do with a fire, candle, or oil lantern. If you touch the lantern with your hand you will burn it.

The next item and my favorite item is a solar powered flashlight and lantern. When you turn it on there is a beam of focused light, and it pulls apart like an accordion into a lantern. It has another setting to make it brighter, a well as a strobe for emergency situations. I really like this because it is solar powered which means I don't have to carry any batteries with me, however, if you don't charge it every day, it will not work. It also has two different ports, one for a USB. Theoretically you could use these port to charge other devices, however, I have never gotten this feature to work. Now we are going to set up a test for our electric devices. I will have a paper with a word written on it and we will stand at 10, 20, and 30 feet to see how close we need to be to read the words with these devices.

So starting off at 30 ft. I can see the paper clearly with the flashlight, but can barely make it out with the headlamp, cap light, and lantern. At 20 ft. the paper is still very clearly visible with the flashlight and I am now able to start making it out with the headlamp, cap light and lantern. At 10 ft. with the flashlight I can now see that there is a word on the page and I will begin walking forward until I can read it. At about 8 ft. I can see that the paper clearly says "Miniature." Tearing that sign down I tried again with the headlamp. I had to move up to about 5 ft. to read the sign that said "Allergy." With the cap light I could read the sign that said "Yesterday" at 6 ft. So like we thought the cap light is a bit better than the headlamp, however neither are as good as the flashlight. With the lantern I get to about 7ft. before I can read the word "Calzone." No we are going to start over at 30 ft. with the solar power lantern and see how it fares. At 30 ft. I can see the sign with the flashlight, but not the lantern. At 20 ft. the paper again becomes visible with the lantern. At 10 ft. I can almost read the sign with the flashlight, but I need to move up  about a foot to see that it says "Spaceship." The lantern unfortunately can't make out the word until I am about 4 ft. away from it.

We have now reached that part of the blog where I choose an item to put into my pack. I have decided to call it "The Packening." Yeah. While trying to put my solar lantern away I managed to drop it and break the handle so I'll need to do some repairs with some pipe cleaner.  So now I have to choose between the other four items. I won't be taking either the headlamp or the cap light. While I do appreciate the hands free illumination I think these items would do better in a hunting kit. The lantern I won't take because it's a bit bulky and honestly, it is only one more battery, but it is still one more than the flashlight requires. The flashlight ultimately was the best out of the four items and I could always use another one.

Next week we will be choosing a candle for our lantern and talking about what your candle should be able to do. You won't want to miss it! As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.