Tea and Coffee

Bumbling Bushcraft Comic: Happy Mother's Day

Pickin' Up a Bouquet: Wildflower Identification

How It's Crafted: Paracord Belt

Bumbling Bushcraft Comic: Vow of Silence

From Trash to Treasure: Recycling Items For Survival

As you know this month we are doing a recycling series, and we are moving right along this month with the recycling blog. Last week I showed you some items that you could reuse several times on the trail. This week we are going to look into things you can recycle that you might otherwise throw away. These could be items that you bring with you that you choose to hang on to so you don't leave garbage behind, or items that you find on the trail that are theoretically clean enough for you to pick up and use.

The first item I have is a water bottle, or in my case, a pop bottle. Any kind of bottle like this will do, especially if its plastic. This pop bottle went fishing with me and when I finished my pop, I kept it in my pocket. Remember what we talked about before, if it's not important to you, you are more than likely going to leave it behind. That's why I kept this on my person after I finished with it so it would make it back with me. Now what you can do with this bottle is make a nice survival fishing rod. What you want to do is take some fishing line and tie it around the bottom curve of your pop bottle as shown to the right. After it is secured around the bottle, just wrap your line.

Another thing Yankee and I talked about, (Yankee Outdoor Adventures on YouTube) was how often you find fishing lures in trees where people have to cut and run. You can take those lures that you find and store them in your water bottle, or of course bring your own. You can store lures, rooster tails, small hooks, bass hooks, sinkers, artificial bait, jigs and more. With all of these stored in your bottle along with the line you previously tied around your bottle, you have a tackle kit ready to go.

The next thing we can work with is a pop can. Now I find pop cans lying around all the time, I do NOT recommend doing this with a random pop can you find on the trail. First you want to cut the can straight down. You can use the edge of the nutritional info box for a reference. This cut doesn't have to be straight, but it helps if it is. Next you are going to cut a line a quarter of the way around the can horizontally in both directions at the top and bottom of the vertical line you cut. This will allow you to open the can like flaps. We now have a reflective candle holder. I placed one of my squat candles in the can and lit it and wow is it bright. However if you are really in a pinch, you could always light up a crayon.

Well guys that will do it for today. Next week we will be finishing up this recycling series and you know you 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.

How It's Crafted: The Mock Inferno

How It's Crafted: Char Cloth

Bumbling Bushcraft Comic: Wiping the Lens

Trails With Ole Nick: Making the Square Tarp

The Cargo Tape King: Reviewing Gorilla Glue Products

Okay guys, this week the unthinkable has happened; I've broken my axe handle. Now I could drop down and use it the way it is, but I am not going to get any work done. The best course of action would be to replace or repair the handle using Gorilla tape, and maybe even a little Gorilla glue. I wanted to test and see if something like this happened, if I could repair it or if I would have to completely rehang it. Would this be the end of my camp, or could I get this tool to hang on just a bit longer until I could properly repair it? Now this isn't going to be like other reviews we have done in the past. This review is not just on one product, but instead on the Gorilla brand itself and how its products work together.

The products I will be using are the Gorilla Crystal Clear Tape, Gorilla Glue (the same glue I used in the fire starting video), and some black Gorilla Tape for grip. What I am going to do is use the glue to bond the handle back to itself. The bottle states that this glue will bond to wood which is what we need it to do so I am going to be careful to follow the instructions on the bottle.After having it set, I am going to bind the handle with the clear tape about to inches above and two inches below the fracture, similar to when I make sewing repairs. Lastly, I will use the black tape and a grip where my hands will hold the axe to prevent it from slipping while I am working.

To apply the glue you first wet the area that you will be applying the glue to and spread it thin. I did this for the axe handle and spread the glue with a stick. After making sure the two pieces of handle adequately fit together I used to crystal clear tape to bind it in three places across the fracture; the top, middle, and bottom. By doing this it helps clamp the two sides together so they can bond together. I also took apart my chair (which will be featured another time) and laid one piece on the ground, sandwiched the axe between it and the top piece, and used a large rock (though you could use any significantly weighted object like your pack, a large branch, etc...) to place on top of it, again to clamp the two broken pieces together. After letting this sit for two hours, I will come back to check on it.

After two hours, I notice that some of the Gorilla glue has come out of the sides of the break. This is a good thing.  What this means is that the handle had enough pressure on it for the glue to spread out inside the fracture. At this point I wrap the Gorilla crystal clear tape in one continuous wrap from two inches above the break to two inches below. Afterward, and this is an optional step, I used my mini cargo tape roll (the black tape) to create a nonslip grip for my hands. After a few good test swings on a very sturdy tree, I'm convinced that the Gorilla products have done their job.

And that does it for this week. I want to thank everyone reading this for going through this with me and I would also like to think Gorilla brand products. They did not sponsor me or ask me to do this review, but without them I don't think this repair would have been possible. Next week we will be starting on our last C: cotton, and 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.

Trails with Ole Nick: Pre-Trip Repairs

Music: "Georgia's Banjo Brigade" by TeknoAXE's Royalty Free Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7gJZ...

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Waiting on Pins and Needles: Review of Sail Makers Needles

Last week we looked at all other possible uses of a canvas needle other than for sewing purposes. This week we will be reviewing the iconic green and white package that is W. Smith and Sons Sail Makers Needles. Before we open into these there are a few things on the outside of the package that I feel are worth pointing out. The first thing I notice is that it says "Manufactured by W. Smith and Sons, Redditch, England." If you recall on the package of Dritz needles we purchased they are labelled as "European quality." This could mean that this brand claims to be of or similar quality to the W. Smith and Sons needles, or it could just be a particular way that the needles are manufactured. Either way, I thought it was worth bringing up. The next thing worth noting is the "forged and hand-made." This to me says that they were manufactured with some sort of human involvement, meaning that there are going to be less imperfections. For the price of these needles, less imperfections are certainly a better deal. Their saying "Made by hand, not to cut the twine," is printed on the package. It is also labelled "Reduced Edge" meaning that the point of the needle is made into a wedge shape so not to fray the thread when going in between the fabric.

The last thing I would like to point out on the package is the qty. 5 and the sizes 13-19. I'm now going to open into the pack to show you what these mean. There are 5 needles with varying lengths and thicknesses, however if I had to estimate the height difference between the smallest and largest needle is roughly 1/4-1/2". Based on diameter I can infer that the smallest needle is the size 13, and the largest is the size 19. I believe the second largest needle to be a size 14 because it appears to be the most versatile. It is about the same length-wise as the 13, but  slightly heftier. This leads me to believe that the other two needles are a size 15 and a size 17. I have arrived at this conclusion because I have seen the needles referred to in odd numbered increments. I also know that David Canterbury and the Self Reliance Outfitters sells a size 14 needle on its own so the sizes 13, 14, 15, 17, and 19, seem to make the most sense.


I have with me some leather, the same leather in fact from last week. My goal is to see how well these needles can awl through leather. Last week I could only get one needle to perform this task and that was a challenge in and of itself. I am going to start with the size 19 needle since it is the biggest and I will believe it will go through the leather easier than any other needle in this set. I am correct in saying that as the needle does go through and it goes through like butter. I tried to awl the leather with both the 13 and the 14 as well and I was just as successful in that endeavor. I am thoroughly impressed by that. If I had thread I would be able to sew the leather or if I need an awl tool on hand I have one.

Since I have my leather out I am going to try to make what is called a leather palm for sewing. The cool thing about this is that I am making it for my needles, but I am going to use my needles to make it. The first thing I am going to do is cut my leather into a strip that takes up most of my palm and is just a bit wider than my palm (I want a bit of excess on both sides of my hand. Now I am going to take the largest needle I have (in this case the 19) and I am going to thread it with frayed bank line. Of course you can use anything you have like paracord or what have you.

Now I am only going to knot my bank line at the tail end, not near the needle, and there is a reason for this. So first I am going to make a hole in the leather with my needle and I am going to pull it through until it stops at the knot I made.






Now I am going to pull the end of the thread that is not knotted through the hole I just made and bring it to the opposite side of the leather. The knot in the other side will keep the bank line from coming loose.






Now I am going to come straight across from the hole I just came through and make another hole keeping the needle in the eye.








Once the bank line is through I am going to make a knot in the end so that it cannot slip back through the hole.








Now I am going to repeat this process two more times on the middle and bottom corners of the leather so that I have three straps of bank line. All I have to do is cinch them down on my hand and I have a leather palm that keeps the needles from digging into my hands when I am using them to awl leather.




Now I am going to test the needles to see how well they can actually sew. I have some canvas and I am going to start with the size 14 needle, the inner strand of some paracord, and I am going to do a simple running stitch. I am pretty satisfied with the results. The grouping is even and looks nice. Next I am going to use the upholstery thread with the size 19 needle. Now this time the gauge of the needle was a little to big for the thread so I am sure that if I had used the size 14 or maybe 15 I would have had better results. I was able to use the needles with the bank line when we made the leather palm, so the only material that leaves is...the jute. As you can see from the photo to your right, I was able to sew with the jute which tells me that if I can make natural cordage in the bush, I can sew with it using these needles.

This needle has awled leather, sewn with every type of material I have given it, and now we need to see if it will perform as a redundant compass. Now you can magnetize your needle using magnets, but I prefer to use a battery. If you are using the battery method, use Duracell batteries. The reason being that I tried the Energizer batteries and the positive end actually repels the compass needle and the negative in pulls in, but the pull is not as strong as the pull from the positive end of the Duracell battery. After 50 swipes of the needle on the Duracell battery I suspended my size 14 needle from a thread and watched as it found north, and now I am going to repeat the test with a bowl of water and a flotation device. Instead of using a tea candle this time I am going to use my new invention which is a bottle cap with a groove cut into it to fit my needle. Once again, it successfully finds north.

As before with the other needles you can use these to clean you nails, teeth, and pull grit out of your equipment. For hunting, fishing, and trapping you could use these as a gig or some type of windless trap for small animals. You could hold down the fish while you could descale it, heck you could descale it with a different needle, and you could also do things like testing your bread dough. For my final thoughts, this set of needles will set you back about $12.99. The other needles will set you back roughly $2. Out of the Dritz pack you will get two half way decent needles, with W. Smith and Sons you are getting 5 high quality needles. If you are just getting into bushcraft I recommend going with the cheaper option to get comfortable using them. Once you get comfortable you can definitely upgrade to the better option. Now the W. Smith and Sons needles are all different sizes, but it is my opinion that you could pretty well divide them up  between your different packs that you may have and  have pretty similar results. Now it is time for The Packening. The first thing I am going to pack is my W. Smith and Sons needles because I have been using canvas needles for a while and I need to upgrade. I will be taking along with that: the bottle cap floating device, the upholstery thread, a thimble, and my sewing palm.

And with that we have reached the end of our canvas needle series. I had a blast doing this, although I think I say that every time. Next week we will begin our cargo tape series. I have a lot to show you and 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.

Getting to the Point: Other Uses for Canvas Needles in Survival Situations

Last week we looked at different fabric and threading materials. This week we are going to look at our canvas needle as a multi purpose tool to really see what this thing can do. You may have several ideas spring to mind, number one being a compass. To start off with I am going to show you a few things you can pack to make sure you have a compass with you at all times.

The first thing you want is a AA battery and to make sure that your battery has power, you can hold the positive end to your compass and move it around to see if your compass needle will follow it. If it does, you have a good battery. I am now going to take an iron or steel sewing needle and I am going to swipe the tip against the tip of the positive end of the battery about 40-50 times. This magnetizes the needle. The next thing I am going to need is a tea light candle. Now if you remember in the candle blog I said that I wasn't going to pack a tea light candle, however, I am going to keep one wherever I keep my needle because I will be using it as a flotation device. Now I am placing my candle in the bowl of water and placing the needle on top of it. At this point it is as simple as waiting for the magnetized end of the needle to find north.

Now there are other ways to create a compass without having to float your needle. If you use some of the thread you have with you like I recommended in the last blog, you can tie a loop around the middle of your magnetized needle. You'll have to be careful to make sure that your needle is parallel to the floor for this to work. Now it will begin spinning but when it comes to a stop the magnetized end will be pointing north. It's a little creepy.

You could think of it as a cleaning/maintenance tool. You could use it to clean under your nails. You could roll or scrape debris out of an open would to prevent an infection. With that being said you could use it to patch yourself up with stitches or field medicine, but I think, or at least I really hope, we're a long ways away from having to practice field medicine.You could use it as a toothpick or if you get cysts like I get in my earlobes, you can use it as a lance. You could use it to pick out splinters or other foreign objects from your skin as well.

Now we are getting into the realm of fishing and trapping. Some people would tell you to heat it up and turn it over into a fish hook, but I am not one of those people. You would have to get it very hot and bend it very slowly because it would snap. I do think that it would work well as a gouge hook if you had something to help it float and prevent it from sinking to the very bottom. Theoretically you could put multiple needles together and use it as a frog gig. These ideas are all fine and good, however, if you're fishing for survival I think your best bet is going to be some type of netting system. You could use this in a windless trap for small rodents so it will stab them in the head and pin them down. I wouldn't recommend using it with a mouse trap though as it would likely break.

In terms of cooking you could use your needle to test if your dough is cooked all the way through. You could use it to pin your fish to a board if you choose to cook it or descale it that way. You may even be able to use your needle to descale the fish. If your needle was thick enough and able to bear the weight, you could use it as a toggle for your water bottle when you are boiling water over your fire. Of course you should be sure to test all of your equipment at home before taking it out and trying it in the field.

Well, I am now out of ideas for what you could possibly use a needle for. If you have any more ideas feel free to comment and tell me. I would love to hear your ideas. Next week will be our first review of 2018. We are going to review my Walmart canvas needle vs. some other canvas needles. Now the ones I've purchased are supposed to be the same ones the Dave Canterbury uses but I was unable to purchase them off of his website so I purchased them off of Amazon so they would arrive a little quicker. Either way, you know you 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.

Survival Sewing: Testing Sewing Materials for Survival

Last week we opened into our homecraft sewing kit and practiced some very basic stitches that you can pick up and learn easily. This week we are going to look at sewing for survival in terms of making repairs by using different threading materials on different types of fabric. This way we will see which thread is best for which type of fabric.

To explain the parameters of the test, I am going to be using two different types of needle, a canvas needle and a sail needle, and use various different threads on various fabrics you may need to repair in a survival situation. The thread I will be using is the upholstery thread from last week (this will act as our control thread), the inner strands of paracord, a smaller strand of unraveled bankline, and some jute twine that will act as natural cordage. The fabric I have selected is the pillow sham we used last week, (this will act as our control fabric), denim, canvas, and supple and non-supple leather. We will be sewing the fabric together using a running stitch. If we are unable to perform the running stitch then we will attempt the whip or loop stitch. We will then be testing the strength of the thread and the fabric by trying to pull it apart.

After preparing all of my materials I am going to begin with the canvas needle, the upholstery thread, and the pillow sham. The running stitch with both the canvas and sail needle was very strong on the pillow sham as I expected of the control group. The upholstery thread performed well on the denim with both needles as well. I did have one issue when using the upholstery thread with the sail needle on the canvas. The stitches did begin to pull apart, but I do believe it was my sewing rather than the thread not being strong enough. I didn't have any problems with the canvas needle however. The leather I did not believe would hold the upholstery thread when I began to sew with the canvas needle so I didn't even try with the sail needle.

 Now we will go through the fabric again, this time with the inner strand of paracord. I was able to sew the pillow sham with both the canvas needle and the sail needle, however, the inner strand of the paracord was so strong and thick that when I began to pull it apart, it actually ripped the fabric around it. The experiment was also successful for both denim and canvas with both needles. The paracord was strong and held the material well. I was able to do a whip stitch into the leather with the sail needle. The difficulty I was having was getting the needle to pierce the leather. I would have had more luck if I had an awl. As for the paracord, it was able to hold the leather together.

Similar to when I sewed the pillow sham with the paracord, the bank line was so thick and strong that it caused the fabric around it to rip. Unlike the paracord, I am able to break down the bank line into finer strands. This may be more compatible with the pillow sham, but that is an experiment for another day. I had great success with both needles, the bank line and the denim. Unfortunately when using the bank line with the canvas, it ripped with both needles. Again I believe that if I broke the bank line down into finer strands I would have more success, but for this test I would consider this a fail. The canvas needle was able to do a whip stitch with the bank line and it held the leather well.

The jute twine was so thick that I was unable to pull it through any of the fabric, including the leather, with either needle. I did attempt to unravel the jute in the beginning into finer strands, however, the finer strands by themselves are so weak that they will break if you pull on them.

After finishing the test I compiled a chart with all of the data. On the left side of the chart is my fabric material and at the top are the thread materials I used. Each box has a section for the canvas needle and the sail needle. Basically if the combination of needle, thread and fabric was a success I marked it with a check. If the combination was a failure, I marked it with an X. The winner between the two needles was definitely the canvas needle since it was able to make a hole in the leather as well as use all of the same materials as the sail needle even though it was narrower. And the upholstery thread was definitely the handiest of all of our threading material since it was able to sew and hold almost all of the fabric material well.

Next week we will be looking at our needle not just as a sewing tool, but as a  multipurpose tool. What else can this sewing needle do for us in a survival situation? 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.

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.

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.

Burning Bright: Construction of a Tin Can Lantern

Last week we finished up our compass series and I said we would be talking about candles. This week I have prepared a craft relevant to this subject that is very important bushcraft, and, it is relatively cheap to make. This week, we will be making tin can lanterns. Now this has many uses for bushcraft and I am basically going to make my sales pitch for why I think Candle should be one of the C's. In addition to providing heat, it also provides lighting. When I did my camp with items from just the first 5 C's, there would times I would want to be reading, but I was completely at the mercy of the sun. The sun would set around 7-8 pm and with 8 hours of sleep that would have me waking up at 4 am, which is not great. With a lantern I could read, write, twist cord, sharpen arrows, construct a trap, or basically anything that I could do to prepare for camp the next day even after the sun goes down. Instead of building a campfire for light and expending all that fuel, a lantern provides enough light while using little fuel. Just wax, tallow, or any lipid substance.

The first item we need to make our tin can lanterns is a tin can. Specifically a can with a sealed top, not one of the "pop top" cans. The walls of these are weaker and they will split when you fill them up and freeze them, but we'll get to that later. The other thing is corn. Corn is not a mushy vegetable and won't get stuck when we cut a hole in the bottom to drain out what's inside. Mushy vegetable like peas  will get stuck and are a mess to clean out. You will need a hammer and nail, some type of snips to cut the can with (I got mine at Walmart and paid $5-7 for a pack of 3), a bowl to catch the corn, and a towel to protect your work space.

The first step is to use the hammer and nail to poke holes in the bottom of the can in the shape of a circle. We will then use the snips to cut out that circle shape, and drain the contents of the can into the bowl. An important thing to note here is that you should not consume the food that comes out of the can. There is a possibility that a piece of metal could have gotten in and contaminated the food. Please, do not eat this food. The next thing we are going to do is fill the can with water and freeze it for 24 hours. By freezing water inside the can, the ice braces it so that the can does not dent when you hit the nail into it. To make your design, your are going to poke holes and make  a sort of "connect the dots" image. You won't be able to get much detail, but what you can do is use bigger holes for the main points of the image, and use smaller holes to guide the eye and fill out the image a bit more. There are two ways you can do this. I actually drew out a star and traced the image over the can by making holes, but I wasn't too pleased with the outcome. This time, I am going to free hand.

After making your design (I made the Viking rune for fire, light, etc. "Kenaz") I am going to go on either side of my design near the top of the can and make a hole on each side. This is going to be where I put the bell of my lantern. The next thing we want to do is create an opening for the candle. You can create a circle or a square; I am going to make a square because it is easier to make the square safe in my opinion. On the opposite side of the can as your design, you're going to find the middle of the two bell holes you just made, and make a hole near the BOTTOM of the can. I am then going to measure 3/4" to the left and poke a hole, and 3/4" to the right and poke a hole. This gives me a line about 1 1/2" long. The reason I have picked this length is because that is the size of candle I am going to use. I will then measure 1 1/2" up from the corners and create my square.

To melt the ice quickly, I simply place it in the sink and run hot water over the can for about five minutes. Now I can cut out the shape of the square we just outlined with the snips. Now I am going to take some steps to make the lantern safer to handle so I don't get cut on the jagged metal.  You could use a file to file down the sharp points, but I am going to use duct tape. The duct tape will heat up with a candle lit inside the lantern, but it will still stick. Plus, even if it does eventually melt away, if I have a kit made up of the 10 C's of Survivability, repairs are no problem. To make the bell I have taken a metal clothes hanger and cut a section of it about 20" long. Take one end of the clothes hanger and feed it through the two bell holes you made at the top of your can. Line them up at the top and slowly begin to fold the ends over each other. You really need to do this slowly because the hanger will crack. Once the ends are folded over, I like to wrap them in duct tape to, again, keep the ends from scratching or cutting my hand. And again if the tape were to come off repairs are easily and quickly made in the field.

And with that our lantern is finished. Just another word of warning when your lantern is lit, do not
touch the can above the top of the square as it will heat up quickly and it does get pretty hot. These lanterns are cheap and very easy to make. You can make them this way or find other methods that work for you, either way, I definitely recommend these. Next week we will be talking about flashlights, the "electronic candle." 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.

me.