Pot Hook

This is an improvised pot hook that I made a while back. It is held together by placing a small wedge into a carved notch at the center of the two hooked pieces. The hooks are made from ironwood/hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) branches, and the wedge is chokecherry (Prunus virginiana).

The next time I make one of these I plan on using a much softer wood. The ironwood/hophornbeam was difficult to carve smoothly, and I think I could make something like basswood (Tilia americana) fit more tightly together. Also the ironwood/hophornbeam checked and warped so badly that the pot hook no longer stays together.

This was a really fun project to work on and helped to improve my dexterity with my knife. Let me know if you have tried anything similar to this, or if I motivate you to try something.

For Mungo...

Mungo, of Mungo says Bah fame, recently requested that i take some close up pictures of the bucksaw I made a while back, but I haven't gotten around to it. In the mean time I thought i would post a link I stumbled upon the other day that has a step by step tutorial on making a similar buck saw.

http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/vb/printthread.php?t=187188

I hope you find it helpful…

Wild Plum Adze

DIY Adze

Here is an adze I cobbled together recently. The blade is a copy of an 18th century British Light Infantry tomahawk. The handle is a Wild plum (Prunus americana) branch that I had to trim from over a trail. I lashed the head on using a nylon cord, but rawhide would have worked better. For being an improvised tool I was impressed with how well it worked.

I was inspired by the journals of Lewis & Clark becase they mentioned that they made most of the tool handels they needed on thier journey to the Pacific from Choke cherry (Prunus virginiana) trees that grew along the Missouri River.

Roycroft Packframe

This is Roycroft packframe that I made for a recent class. The frame itself is made from Gray dogwood and is lashed together with jute twine. The shoulder straps are bandanas. (I usually carry at least four bandanas with me because they have so many uses.) I have often used packframes for backpacking, and for hauling trail building materials over the years and I have always been impressed by what a person can carry with a good frame.

Attached to the frame in the pictures is my poncho, a wool blanket, and three pairs of wool socks. The space above the poncho is where I lash my shoulder bag that I use as a day pack.

Buck Saw

This is a bucksaw that I put together recently for a improvised equipment class I taught. I had never mad one before this and it worked REALLY well! I tested it out by felling a 6" diameter Ironwood tree/Eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) and it worked as well as a store bought model.

The uprights and cross braces are made from Gray dogwoods (Cornus racemosa) . The blade is from a local hardware store and it set me back $2.99. The turnbuckle at the top is jute twine wrapped six times before it was twisted.

More Green Woodworking

I was given a Frost spoon knife for Fathers Day. Prior to getting a real spoon knife I had been using a hoof knife usually used to clean horse hooves. The kuksa, bowl, and spoon pictured hear were carved using the hoof knife. The ladel was carved using my new spoon knife.

Kuksa

Spoon

Bowl

Ladel top

Ladel side

I still carry the hoof knife in the field because it packs better than the spoon knife, but the spoon knife make the finishing work much smoother. Stay tuned for some more DIY projects!

Been a while

I haven't posted in while so I have a backlog of things to talk about.

A few weeks back my family and i spent most of our time hunting morel mushrooms. We found about two pounds worth in ther 2-3 weeks that we went looking. We had our best luck in an are the had been burned off last fall. We at most of the with a shrimp scampi, and pesto pasta.












Besides these tasty fungi we aslo found some great spring prairie wildflowers like:

Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens)

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium montanum)

and Prairie Violet (Viola pedatifida)

My daughter and I stumbled upon a good sized Fox snake (Elaphe vulpina) on a ridge near our home. Fox snakes have a nasty habit of vibrating their tails in dry leaves etc. when alarmed. This one did and almost met the wrath of my walking staff. I deal with a snake of the same species a lot in my work and I was able to quickly figure out that it wasn't a rattle snake. (I would never go out of my way to kill a snake, but I thought I was going to step on a rattler while carrying my little girl).







My wife found a Sharp-shinned hawk while of hiking a few days later. It was sitting on a branch near cut-bank that some Northern rough-winged swallows use for nesting.





















A few nights later my wife went into the kitchen and discovered a Little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) flying around the kitchen. It eventually got tired and landed behind our wall clock, so she opened the window and removed the screen and I held the clock outside and off it flew.










This past weekend I taught a mini Bushcraft course at the Loess Hills Praire Seminar. I had a great time, and good attendance. I had a real ego boost when a woman told me I should write a book on the subject, and another asked me if I would come present at a big wetlands festival in north central Iowa.

On Saturday I will be teaching a class on wild edibles for a local community college. I hopefully will remeber my camera and post on the things we find.

Sorry I have been so slow in posting!