Tea and Coffee

Bumbling Bushcraft Comic: Bush Cake

Cooking the Fat: Making Hide Glue

Last week as we wrapped up our review on our W. Smith and Sons canvas needles, I said we were going to start this week on cargo tape. However, this week we are not going to be focusing on traditional cargo tape or duct tape, we are instead going to be focusing on making our own glue out of raw hide chew toys.




The first thing I did was place the raw hide chew toy into the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, filled the bucket with enough water to fully submerge the chew toy, and placed a mason jar over top of it to keep it from floating to the surface.

After a few hours, the raw hide toy was soft enough to be unrolled into a flat piece which is much easier to work with. At this point I laid it out on a cutting board and cut it into small strips keeping in mind that they all need to fit into a pot.





After making sure all of the small pieces of raw hide fit sufficiently in the pot, I am going to take
them out and place them elsewhere. In the mean time I am going to add water to my pot, let it come to a boil, and then turn it down to simmer and re add the raw hide strips. At this point I am going to let it cook for about an hour and a half being cautious not to let the water boil. The higher temperature will cause the glue to weaken. I also want to be sure to stir occasionally with a chop stick.

After the cooking process finished, I tested the liquid on the chop stick I was stirring with and it definitely wanted to bind to my fingers. I will say that I didn't do the best job keeping the water from boiling, but I tried to manage it the best I could. Now I want to remove the large piece of raw hide from the pot so that all that is left is the liquid, which is our glue. Using a flour sack towel, I am going to strain  the glue into a small mason jar that I am going to store the glue in.

It is also worth noting to make sure you leave a divet in the center of your flour sack towel so that glue doesn't spill everywhere as you are pouring it in the jar. The glue did leave some residue on the top of my towel, but it's nothing I shouldn't be able to clean up. The mason jars I used were $6-$7 at Walmart, however if you had a metal container to store the glue in that would be preferable. I just like to use something that should be cheap and easy for anyone to find and purchase. After about 6-8 hours, the glue has cooled and set.

You can tell the glue is finished if you tap it and it jiggles. In my experience I tried scraping a piece out and rolling it between my fingers to activate it, but it didn't work. It's unfortunate because I didn't want to have to heat it up since I did store it in a glass jar, however it's not big deal. Just set the glass jar into boiling water and the glue will return to it's liquid state, ready to use. I hope you guys learned enough to try this out for yourselves, and I would love to hear your results. Next week we will be talking about cargo tape. I'll be showing you my favorite brand and some super glue from that brand as well. 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.

Homeward Bound: Day 3 of the 3 Day Camp and Review

At last we have arrived at Day 3 of the 3 Day camp. Last week we talked about basic camp hygiene and we packed up as much as we possibly could on Day 2 so when it was time to go in, the only thing we really needed to pack up was the bedroll. After breakfast, that will be the plan to pack up and go in, but the day doesn’t end there. Once we get inside we will need to do some maintenance on our gear to keep it from becoming ruined. Let’s get into it.

Packing up our bedroll is as simple as packing everything up the way we took it out. First I lay my tarp out flat, layer in my wool blanket, garbage bags, and inflatables, and roll it up into a bedroll and secure it with paracord. Easy. Now all I have to do is pick up my pack which should already be ready to go and head inside. The first order of business is to take a well-deserved shower and check for ticks.

The first gear item I am going to turn my attention to is my

mess kit. I used my garden hose to wash out as much as I could but there are still some problem spots on the inside. I am just going to wash them in the sink with a sponge, soap and water. After cleaning them up they are not sparkling and shiny new, but there is a big improvement. Overall I am happy with how they cleaned up and I anticipate being able to get many more uses out of this mess kit.

It is important to note that you should deal with these items 24-48 hours after your camp. With that being said I am now going to work on my bedroll. It did rain during the camp so I know that at least my tarp is wet. My wool blanket being a cloth item could mildew if any moisture gets into it so what I did was drape it over my bathroom door and let it air dry. It didn’t appear to be wet when I got it out of the bedroll, but I hung it up as a precaution. The trash bags that I had used a moisture barrier were wet, but they are also easily replaceable so I chose to toss the ones I had used. The large inflatable that was supposed to serve as my mattress was a failure on this trip so I decided to dispose of it as well. Now to dry my tarp. What I decided to do was stake my tarp out over the large bush in my yard. A quick note, one of my tent stakes became bent during the camp and will need to be replaced. I actually had planned on replacing the whole set, but for the time being this is what I have. All I did was drape the tarp over the bush and used the stakes to pull it tight. This allows it to air dry in the sun. An alternative method to drying the tarp would be to wipe it down with some clean, dry towels, but I chose this method because I didn’t have to fool with it any more once it was staked out.

Now I would like to take this time to review the camp itself. I think overall it was a success. I also learned a lot from my experience during the camp and we are going to talk about some of those things now. I’m going to talk about my gear that falls under the category of the 5 C’s. My cutting tools did their job and did it well. I was impressed by how they maintained their edge throughout the camp. When I inspected them after coming in I found that none of them needed sharpened which was nice. My combustion kit worked the way it was supposed to as well and I know I will need to replace the charcloth I used for the next time I go out. However, I know this is an expendable resource that I will need to continuously replace. I never needed the cordage that I packed, however I did have some there if I needed it. I would like to add another container to my pack. The purpose of this being that I can have water boiling on the fire and water that I have already boiled cooling down to drink. This gives me more purified water to work with during my camp.

I would like to talk about my cover more in depth since this item did the most work and took the most hits throughout the camp. The tarp did its job well, the only issue I had was from a failure in one of my tent stakes. I do want to replace my metal stakes with plastic stakes because I think they will be more robust, so that will be something to look for in the future. The wool blanket was also very helpful. I don’t think I could have stood it out there as long as I did without it so I will definitely be using that item again. I was really surprised by how well the contractor garbage bags worked out in my camp and I think next time I will pack four instead of two. My inflatable mattress as I stated earlier was thrown away. The next camp I am going to try and use a yoga mat as my cushion between myself and the ground. The downside to this is that it may make my bedroll bulkier, but it is much more reliable than the inflatable. Speaking of inflatable I had much success with the smaller floaties in the pillow case and I will definitely be using those again as well.

Now for the personal items. The insect repellent spray easily earns the MVP for the camp. Without it I would not have made it. The mosquitoes were absolutely awful when they would hit, but spraying that spray got them off my case. I was very happy I chose to bring my washcloths along, they helped when it came to cleaning my gear and myself. The medicine kit helped out a lot too. Every time I have been camping I have always slept in a tent. This was actually the first time I have slept on the ground in a Bushcraft setting so the sleeping pills were very helpful in getting me to fall asleep and getting a good night’s rest. Another thing that I never would have thought would help me get a good night’s rest were my boots. By using them as a place to rest my head, I was much more comfortable and well rested the next day. That just leaves my food items. Overall the items I chose to pack with me were very good for the setting I was in. The bread was even good, however I did not have a good enough control over my fire to get it to cook properly so I will definitely need to work more with that. I packed enough food to have 6 meals, two per day, one for one afternoon, and one at night, plus my Slim-Jims. Next time I think I am going to pack enough food for four meals per day plus an extra day’s worth of food because frankly, I was still hungry. This could be attributed to a few things, but it is definitely something to change about my pack in the future.

I hope you have enjoyed this camping adventure as much as I have. I would like to add that next week there will not be a blog or a video, I will be taking a week’s break, but I will be back the week after with a whole new series. 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.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub the Bushcraft Tub: Day 2 of the 3 Day Camp

Last week we talked about day 1 of the 3 day camp where we set up the tarp, did some cooking, and went to sleep for the night. Today we will be talking about Day 2 of the 3 Day camp. A couple of things I want to talk about first; during the night my mattress deflated. I continued to sleep on it as it served as a secondary moisture barrier. I also used my boots as sort of a headboard and place to rest my head and it actually helped make me much more comfortable and give me a better night’s sleep.

To start the day I enjoy a breakfast of canned fruit cocktail and some water that I had purified the night before. The fruit can has a pull tab, however if it were to fail, I have my Camillus Trench to open the can with. The goals for day 2 are to collect more firewood to make another good fire tonight, and also to go over some basic camp hygiene.

I checked the nearby trees for dead, dry branches that I could use for firewood. I can tell how dry they are by how easily they snap. Once I found a good bough, I took it from the tree and brought it back to my camp to be processed.

For lunch I ate the bread that I had made on the campfire the night before as well as some Slim-Jims. I would like to add that if you are taking Slim-Jims, or any other kind of jerky with you into your camp, have water. These food items are cured and quite salty and can make you very thirsty. This is why I didn’t have any Slim-Jims the night before. My water was still too hot to drink and I could have easily become dehydrated.

At this point during the camp it begins to rain. I decided to take advantage of this in a few ways. I have a large bough that I took down from a tree that needs to processed into firewood and kept dry so I decided to use this time to do that. The smaller kindling pieces I broke down and stored in my large bowl from my mess kit and the larger pieces that would be used as fuel I sat to the side near the back of the tent. Another way I took advantage of the weather is trying to harvest rain water. I used my empty fruit can to collect the water in. I took my bandana and set it on top of my tarp. Once it became saturated with water, it dripped into the can. I didn’t collect much, but it was something.

Once the rain stopped I started my campfire. There is no need to make more bread tonight since I will be going in after breakfast in the morning so I am going to do something a little different with my fire tonight. For starters I decided to try cooking my soup out of the can rather than in my mess kit. Next I also took some water and placed it in my large bowl and began to heat it over the fire to wash myself down with. Once the water is heated I get one of my washcloths wet and when it has cooled to a tolerable temperature, I wipe myself down with the cloth. It’s no shower, but it is refreshing after being in the hot, humid weather all day.

My fire is burning out and there is not much left for me to do. I figure now it is best to pack up as much as possible so when it is time to go home in the morning, I really only need to take down my tarp and pack up my bedroll. I make sure that I wash out the pieces of my mess kit and dry it as best as I can before I pack it and put it away. When I get home, I can actually put it in the sink and wash it a bit more thoroughly.

Well that’s about it for day 2. I hope you have enjoyed this blog. Next week we will be packing up the camp and talking about how to take care of our gear after we come in from the outdoors, as well as what I might do differently next 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, 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.

Settling In and Cooking Out: Day 1 of the 3 Day Camp

Last week I showed you all of the gear items that I have chosen for this camp, some of them we had talked about, but some were personal items I had chosen that we had not previously discussed. I showed you how I packed my pack, and now we are ready for the 3 day camp. This week we will be talking about the first day of camp from the time I walked out the front door, to the time I went to bed for the night. Let’s get started.

For the first night I need to accomplish a few things. The first and most important thing is setting up my camp. Next I will need to collect some firewood and some water. Then I can build a fire at my camp site that I can use to boil my water and cook my food for the night and some for the next day as well. I need to try and get all of these tasks accomplished before it gets too dark that I cannot see to work, or that I will be too tired to do anything else.

For my camp I will be using my bedroll to assemble the wedge, or plow point tarp set up that we had talked about in a previous blog. I have chosen this set up because there is a possibility it could rain during the three days I am out here and it will provide the most space and cover. Another bonus is that it is the fastest to set up and also to tear down. After getting my tarp set up, the next thing I am going to do is place the industrial size garbage bags in my bedroll on the ground to provide a moisture barrier not only for myself, but for my gear to rest on while I go gather firewood and water.

I collected my water from the nearest source which was my garden hose and stored it in the canteen that I packed in my pack. This water may not be unsafe, but according to the rules of my camp, I will be treating it as an unsafe source and will boil it over my fire later on in the camp before I drink it.

Now for gathering firewood. Tinder and kindling are easy enough to process as they can be broken up by hand. The fuel is much thicker so I will be using my hatchet to process it. To do this I take the wood I will be processing and place it on another piece of wood so there is space between the ground and the branch. This protect my blade from hitting the ground and damaging it. 

To get my fire started I lay some fuel branches on the ground, placed some tinder on top and placed a piece of charcloth in the tinder. I could cast sparks with a ferro rod but for this instance I just chose to use my Bic lighter. Once the charcloth was alight I layered in tinder, kindling, and then fuel until the fire had taken off on its own. 

At this point I am ready to start cooking. The first order of business is to get my water boiling. I can boil it in the canteen itself by placing it close to, almost in the fire. Next I am going to take out my mess kit. I used the larger bowl to pour my soup in and used my tripod to get the bowl into the fire enough to begin warming the soup. I used the smaller bowl in my kit as a mixing bowl and started making pancake batter for my lunch on day 2. I used a couple of spoonfuls of flour, a few pinches of sugar, a bit of salt, a scoop of shortening and some of the water I had purified to make the batter. I also used some shortening in the flat pan in my mess kit to grease it as the plan was to use it as a griddle. In the end my bread did stick to the pan. It wasn’t pretty, but it was edible. After dinner I needed to get my mess kit cleaned up for the next day. I simply took the pieces of it over to the garden hose and sprayed out the contents.

Now it is time for bed. The first thing I need to do is inflate my inflatables. First is the mattress which is a large pool float. Next I have four arm floaties that I inflated and stuffed into a pillow case that I used for a pillow. To keep them from shifting around I pack them in the way I want them and then tie off the excess length of the pillowcase to keep them in place. Lastly I have my wool blanket that I will cover up with. After my fire is out, I am ready for bed.

I hope you have enjoyed this first day of camp. Tomorrow is a new day with a new set of goals and new challenges to face. 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.

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.

Fire Inside: A Review of UST Paratinder

As we go through the five C’s, I’ve unintentionally have been ranking them in order of importance. The next set will contain knives, which I believe is the most important. With a good knife you can do or make anything. But immediately after that, I’ve got to give it to cordage. Whether it’s putting up your shelter, lashing together a tripod for cooking, and can even be used in the fire making process if made from natural materials.

Unfortunately for us, most of our cordage is either paracord or bank line, and being synthetic, it melts instead of burns. In David Canterbury’s book Bushcraft 101 chapter 3, page 71 under rope, he says,

 “Unlike cord, I prefer my rope to be of a natural material such as hemp. The main reason for this is its flammability, which aids in fire-making and when creating a bird’s nest.”

You should have a synthetic cord at a diameter smaller than ¼” and a natural rope being bigger than ¼” for the fire making process. But, what if we have a ¼” cordage that would burn, yet have the strength of paracord or bank line? UST have made 550 paracord with one of the seven strands being flammable, unlike the others. Before we get into the review, I want to state as always, “I am not being paid to endorse this item. I paid for it with my own money under my own volition. My review is genuine and accounts are from my, and mine alone, experiences with this item.” And with that, let’s get into the review!

So, it’s paracord with a flammable cord, big deal right? Just tell us, is it good or bad? End the blog there, right? Well I actually spent a little more time on it than just that. I wanted to make sure that the paracord I bought was just as good as or better than the paracord I already had. There would be no point in carrying paracord that would only be good for starting fires. I decided that I would first start off seeing how well it put up a ridge line. I used the Siberian Hitch and the Trucker’s Hitch and both knots held just as well as any other paracord. The ridge line itself held well, just like it always does, so no noticeable difference.

Next, while I was out there I wanted to try my lashings. I tied my Clove Hitch, wrapped it three times in the square formation, frapped three times, and tied off with a Clove Hitch on a bight. This also held just as well as the bank line lashing we did last week.

Next I wanted to cut open the paracord and see what I was getting inside. When broken down, I had the mantle in a bright orange and grey pattern, the customary seven strands slightly pinkened I assume from the fire starter, and last is the Firestarter itself which seemed slightly thicker than any of the other seven strands. Right out of the box you will notice while looking at the end of the cord, the seven fire starting strands surrounding the fire starting core.

The next three tests involved the seven strands more than any other part of the cord. First I tested feeding it through a needle for sewing purposes. It did fine with this and since it did fine at this, it means it would be fine to be used as fishing line in case of an emergency. Next, taking a fishing jighead, I fashioned a small end of the paracord into a fishing lure. This again made a very nice lure, especially with the bright orange.

After all of these tests, I concluded that this paracord was on par with any other 550 paracord purchased from UST. So with all that done, I decided to move on to the fire starting core. After trying all of the fire starting methods I could (ferro rod and magnifying glass) the only thing that actually got it to light was direct flame from a lighter. While lit, the flammable core worked more like a match than anything else. It was still susceptible to wind, water, and oxygen deprivation. But, it did give an extended burn. Adding this to part of a bird’s nest would greatly improve your success in producing a flame. Once the flame was out, the cord was reduced to ash and could not be used as char-cloth.

Overall, if you were buying paracord, it couldn’t hurt to pick up this product to try for yourself. Having your items multitask for you is what every bushcrafter needs to look for when purchasing gear. Next week we will be having two pieces of equipment battling it out for your primary cutting tool position. One will be a fixed blade knife, and the other, I’ll let you guess. Comment below before 11 pm EST July 22^nd, 2017. The first person with the correct answer will get a shoutout in the next blog!  As always feel free to comment, 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.

1 2 3 Start Lashing with Me: Basic Lashing Knots and How to Use Them

The answer to last week’s blog was the Cove Hitch. What it goes to is lashings, as I’m sure you can tell by the incredibly punny title I chose to use this week. Now before we get into lashings, I want to give you reassurance that they are not going to be nearly as bad as you have them set to be in your mind. Before I did this blog, I was very nervous to try lashing for the first time, mostly because of what they are used for, such as chairs, rafts, shelters, meat poles (what you hang animal carcasses off). Once I watched a few videos from, Eastmans' Hunting Journals, I really began to learn that lashings are as easy as 1, 2, 3. Before we get into lashings and all that stuff, let’s go over the clove hitch.

Clove Hitch Knot

To perform the Clove Hitch, you are only concerned with the working end in your right hand (I like to leave out about a foot). Lay the working end over what you are tying the hitch to, in this case a piece of wood and wrap once crossing over the top of the working end, really focusing on make the X-shape that is essential to the Clove Hitch. Take the working end all the way back around and feed it underneath the X that the two strands make and cinch it tight. We use the Clove Hitch because regardless of whether you pull on the working end or the static end, this knot does not come loose unless you pick it apart. I remember it as being called a Clove Hitch because it is split like the hooves of an animal such as a cow.

Before we go into square lashing, I just want to talk about the terminology real quick. You’ll need to know that when I say “wrap” I mean to place the cordage in a particular pattern based on which lashing we’re doing. And the “frap” which is wrapping the wrap to strengthen and tighten.

Square Lashing Knot

To begin our square lashing, we first want to begin by placing a Clove Hitch slightly off center (I chose off right to the center) on one of our lashing poles. For this lashing, I am going to be lashing a 1 1/2” diameter branch to a 4” diameter tree. I can go in any pattern that I want, but what I mainly want to do is wrap BEHIND the pole in the back and in FRONT of the pole in the front. You want to keep it as tight as you possibly can. After each pass, ratchet it down. Once I have done this three times, I want to begin the frap. With this, I want to wrap around the cordage in the space between my two lashing poles. Again, crank down as tight as you can after each pass. I watched a video that said that this can be as tight as steel spikes if done correctly. I end it with another clove hitch after my final frap. This should secure it onto the pole without loosening it all.

Diagonal Lashing Knot

This lashing is very similarly constructed to the square lashing. The only differences are instead of going around the pole, you go in between them, and instead of starting with a Clove Hitch, you start with a Timber Hitch. So go ahead and tie that Timber Hitch. You want to tie it diagonally on the lashing poles. Next you want to wrap three times in whatever original direction you started with the timber hitch, which itself does not count as a wrap. Next you want to wrap in the opposite plane going in the other direction diagonally for another set of three wraps. Next you want to frap again three times around the cordage in the space between the two lashing poles. At the end I tie off with a Clove Hitch, and again I am done. While I haven’t tested it, I do theorize that one could do the Timber Hitch in one diagonal, then instead of wrapping that diagonal, wrap the opposite diagonal, then come back and wrap the same diagonal as the Timber Hitch. I believe that it would give this more stability. I have not been in a place where I could really test my theory out, so anyone who could help me out with an answer to that, please leave a comment below.

Tripod Lashing Knot

The last lashing is called the Tripod Lashing. A lashing that every woodsman should know, especially if they plan on cooking via a tripod. For this lashing, you will need to again tie a Clove Hitch onto whichever pole is to the far right, a little bit below the top. Next you will want to wrap the other poles in a weaving pattern. To do this, start from the Clove Hitch and go under the middle pole, around the leftmost pole, over the middle pole, and around the rightmost pole, and so on until you have about five wraps on the outermost poles. Make sure that each weave is tightened down. Next you want three fraps around the cordage in between the poles. To stand it up, take the middle pole and pull the bottom of it backwards while pushing the tops of the outermost poles together at the top. This will form your tripod.

Sort of a shorter blog this week. There are other lashings out there and we may go over them again in the future if that’s something you guys would like. Also, we may try our hand at making furniture with these lashings, but that will be another blog. Next week we will be going over the cordage review. It seems that this month has just flown by. As always feel free to comment, 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.