Quote pulled from entry thread:
Woods Walker wrote:
Ninja-elbow.
I liked the pot hook and wet wood fire craft skillz. Good to see that Viking and hatchet. The tarp shelter looks good as well. Those found plastic utensils are made by GSI and are worth owning. Oh and nice pot hook. Still can’t get over just how wet those woods look.
Thanks, finally got to practice the "pot hook cut" this winter from Mors' Bushcraft book. Been working on my "try stick" too. Impetus to all this bushcraft was that strange first solo I took in July 2009 where I went nuts with nothing to do in the woods and ended up finding naked hippy chicks. Might as well stay occupied with bushcraft.
I saw the "GSI" on the utensils after I cleaned them up. That's like $10! Good to have those on file.
I decided, though I always have my Mora on my neck, to use that Viking more. I've said it before that I bought it for Viking re-creation stuff in 2000; stuff I don't do anymore. It's a great knife that cries alone when I don't use it. This past weekend it survived all that whittling I did as well as batoning all that wet-ass wood for 4-5 hours straight. There 'aint no shame in that knife. My only con I can think of for it is:
1) It's a laminated blade so it is thicker than a Mora. Sometimes that can be seen as a liability... for me it was batoning that "X" into the wood. It would go no deeper than the bevel. I could have put the Mora all the way through it.
2) I need to learn to sharpen that thing. I can get a good working edge on it obviously but I can't get it shaving sharp like I can other knives with various sharpening tools and techniques. I blame myself and not The Viking.
At the end of the day, having coffee and smoking cigarettes by the dead, pitiful ash pile that was our fire we blew on for 3 hours to get a pot of water hot, I cleaned up The Viking with my Lansky puck and some leather and put a drop of olive oil on it.
Wet Fire Wood: You ever been carving a roast, like it's some holiday party or maybe a nice brisket over some grill on a patio, and after you let it rest a good 15-20 minutes and you make that first cut and juice squirts out of it? You know that feeling of
awe you get?
It was exactly opposite when I chopped that first log of the driest shit we could find. I Pulled up that piece of dead fall, Crystal B was all, "It should be sort of dry." and I wanted to take that arm thick log down to batonable lengths; that first chop with the axe and water squirted out of it. All the rest of the wood was just as wet.
This is why we bring stoves. August is the only month you can rely on finding dry wood in these parts.
Speaking of dry wood, we took that stock of kindling we made, we had a good 2/3s of it left, and set it up under a log with good cover and off the ground in hopes some other backpackers wanting a fire could find it. I also left them some pine knots I found Sunday morning.
I managed a night out in the bush with just a few scrapes to speak of. Once I see if my video is any good and get it edited i'll post that up with the few pics I did manage to take. 
