Having been a bowdriller for many years, I've learned from others and my own experiments that there are a lot of ways to use a bowdrill other than the classic. For example, the notch isn't absolutely necessary. Here in America, there are many swampy wet areas where fires have to be built on log platforms. Turning up a coal on such ground is difficult. So someone thought this up. Use a fireboard somewhat thicker than usual, about 3 or 4 cm and at least twice the diameter of the spindle. Now, the…See More

When my buds and I (I guess you might call them "mates?") sit around a campfire or gather at someone's house, we like to play a game we call Whatayagot? Someone tosses out a tool, piece of gear, even trash. Then the rest of us try to think up uses for it that might be handy in the bush where resources may be limited. For example, I'm tossing out an empty tuna can. It's circular, made of thin steel, about 4cm high and 8cm in diameter. Most non-bushcraft type people would throw it away without a…See More

I am a 57 y/o man from the middle of the US. I got interested in bushcraft as a young Boy Scout many years ago and have spent a lot of time in the wild places practicing and learning the skills of the woodsman. As a young man, in military service and out, I took survival courses, plant identification classes, and general nature classes to learn all I could. I figure in another 800 years I'll have learned it all. I've travelled the world and always took every opportunity to gain as much…See More