Urban Foraging

Posted on 18/06/2013 by Ray-H

I used to think that foraging for wild edibles was a country pastime if you ignore the odd blackberry or nettle growing here and there.

Then by chance I found Forage London online while doing some other stuff and got in contact about arranging a foraging trip together. John Rensten runs walks and courses at a number of parks in London along with some Fungi trips to the New Forest. The walks last about two and a half hours and cover how to safely pick and eat some of the plants that inhabit London’s green spaces. The overall aim being to promote safe and responsible urban foraging.

forage london image

I joined John for a spot of foraging on a sunny but chilly day in Gillespie Park, N5 and this is a selection of what we found. There was more but I got distracted with trying various tasty plants and some items John brought with him that I forgot to take notes. (Note to self: Always take notes)

Wild Garlic

Wild Garlic

Garlic Mustard (Jack by the Hedge)

Garlic Mustard (Jack by the Hedge)

Lesser Celandine

Lesser Celandine

Wood Avens (Herb Bennett)

Wood Avens (Herb Bennett)

John's home-made Fruit Leather

John’s home-made Fruit Leather

I hope to join more Forage London walks in the future, where I will take better notes. You can see the walks on offer by checking out the Forage London website. Please forage sensibly

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Podcast Episode 11

Posted on 14/06/2013 by Ray-H

The Bushcraft Show 2013 Part 1.

For the 11th episode of the Urban Bushcraft we redeemed all our wife points and headed north to the Bushcraft Show 2013. In this episode we eat lunch with the Bear Grylls Survival academy, Horse leather with the Identity store, meet the Hulk at the Bushcraft and Survival skills magazine stand, talk with Jason and Daniel about Woodland Ways and the Oloip Massai dance troop and learn about Bush Botherers with Ray Goodwin. Kufurahia.

Bushcraft_Show_sliders

Links:
The Bushcraft Show
Bear Grylls Survival Academy
The Identity Store
Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine
Woodland Ways
Oloip Maasai dance troop
Ray Goodwin

Download via iTunes OR Via our Feed

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Pocket Tinderbox Pouch – Shark Tinderbox

Posted on 07/06/2013 by Ray-H

With some products you can see the effort that was put into them by the maker when looking at the container, in this case the container is a palm sized leather pouch. The pouch itself is finished to the same high quality you can expect from any leather product made by Shark Tinderbox and is available in a variety of colours. The Sam Browne fastening stud allows for secure one-handed opening and closing, it is also silent.

sharktinderbox-pocket-tinder-pouch

So on to the contents, like the pouch they are well thought out and are of high quality. Each Pocket Tinderbox Pouch contains:

  • A pendant shaped hand forged Steel Striker
  • A sharp piece of Natural Flint
  • Natural Amadou Tinder fungus
  • A tin of Char Cloth
  • 3 pieces of Jute twine

Lighting a fire using flint and steel only takes a few minutes to learn and will work wet or dry as a very reliable method or starting a fire that man has used for hundreds of thousands of years. The tinder’s included are well prepared (If you know Mark he is very passionate about Amadou both as a tinder and as a textile) and once I adapted my technique to the style of striker I was able to get a ember with only a few strikes. I really like the leather pouch as its non intrusive shape and size make it easy to keep on me while outdoors, I have mine in the map pocket of my 5.11 shirt waiting for the next trip I make as a pocket possibles pouch.

These are not yet on the Shark Tinderbox website and I purchased mine from their stand at The Bushcraft Show 2013. They are priced at £26.95 and for more information or to place an order email info@sharkdeisgns.co.uk

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Podcast Episode 10

Posted on 01/05/2013 by Ray-H

Talking knives with Ben Orford.

For the 10th instalment of the Urban Bushcraft we venture out to Malvern to interview Ben Orford and talk about knives, get tips on getting started with making knives and Ben’s first trips into London. We also have a contest to win a Ben Orford t-shirt and the winner will be announced on the next show.

Ben_Orford

Links:
Ben Orford
Ben’s YouTube channel
Step-By-Step Knifemaking: You Can Do It! by David Boye
Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine
The Bushcraft Show

Download via iTunes OR Via our Feed

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Making a Bushcraft Knife – Part 2

Posted on 22/04/2013 by Ray-H

Once I had settled on the design of my knife the next task was to turn it from bar stock into a blank ready for heat treatment, I was given a disc/belt grinder sander combo and was looking for a place I could set it up as I do not have the space at home. Then Mark arranged for us to interview Ben and Lois Orford at their workshop in Herefordshire, so I brought my bit of steel along just in case we had some time to play in the workshop.

ben_orfords_workshop

As it so happened we had some time after lunch and with Ben’s guidance I set about trimming the stock close to shape using a band saw, which after tweaking the design a few times since I first drew it on was a big step as once you take the material off you cannot put it back on. A few minutes later I was holding a crudely shaped version of my knife, next was to refine it using various grits on the radius master grinder.

bushcraft_knife_stage2_bandsaw

This was actually a therapeutic process watching the curves form and blending them together, all the time paying attention to make sure I did not catch my knuckles on the belts whizzing by. This was the first knife blank to be ground out on the grinders in the new extension to Ben’s workshop, perhaps we should have cut a ribbon and declared the extension officially open first?

bushcraft_knife_stage2_grinder

Next up was a mini masterclass on where to drill the holes for fixing the scales and lanyard tube, we also scribed the bevel markings at the same time. I was thinking of tapering the tang to keep the weight down in the handle but after drilling some holes for the epoxy to bond through, I found that the handle was light enough. Which will make things easier in the later stages of creating this knife.

bushcraft_knife_stage2_drill

The final thing of this stage was to grind the bevel, Ben made a few passes to show me the technique then handed the knife to me. I made a few passes and then checked to see how much material was removed, it was a case of trying to maintain the same angle each pass and making sure you work to the scribed lines. I do not think I did a bad job for my first time and Ben kindly tidied up the bevels to give them a smoother finish.

bushcraft_knife_stage2_complete

The next step will be to heat-treat my blade.

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