June 28, 2009
Bow Making Workshop, June 2009
Three of our regular members came along to the first Bow making workshop. We had a fantastic day working under the shade of the trees.
After an initial introductory talk covering the history and styles of bows we went off to look for suitable saplings. Finding nothing suitable we returned to base and decided to use the kiln dried staves I had brought along.
Marc decided to continue the bow he had started on a previous day. This was a short longbow made from an Ash sapling.
Here he is with the bow on the tillering stick.
Phil decided to make a tradtional English Longbow from one of my Ash staves. This meant lots of sawing of tapers.
Kim decided that he liked the look of the ancient paddle bow examples I had brought along and decided to make a Mere Heath copy out of the Elm stave. Again lots of sawing was required!.
Once the tapers had been cut Kim moved onto the spokeshave to thin out the paddles.
While Phil was still cutting his tapers!
Meantime Mark was doing final finishing and testing his bow.
A VERY happy man
Unfortunatly time caught up with us as neither Phil or Kim managed completed their bows, but both said they would continue to work on them at home and bring them back for strings and tillering.
To round off the day and have a bit of fun we all made bamboo bows as featured in the Spring ’09 magazine.
June 1, 2009
The Bushcraft Magazine May Meet
The May Meet was a great team effort and thanks to everybody who helped and also to those who came and spent the weekend with us, making it such a special occasion.
Outdoor Cooking Techniques and Game Prep. were both very popular and kept me pretty busy. Here are a few piccies; as we said in our sold out Summer 2006 issue ‘Smoking is Good For You’ especially when it’s done on our old faithful dustbin smoker.
The biscuit tin mini-smoker gets a dose of the old oak shavings.
Mackerel fillets looking good!
Is he a game fellow or a pleasant pheasant-plucker?
A view of the field from the family area.
The Bushcraft Magazine May Meet
I think I can safely declare that The Bushcraft Magazine May Meet was a great success. The feedback has been incredibly positive. It wasn’t just what was laid on, though, it was the friendliness of everyone who came along, as well. Big thanks to our helpers and also the great bunch of people who listened, learned, helped each other and us out, shared knowledge and generally added to the good vibe. We were also blessed by the weather.
The wild forage went well. We found St. George’s Mushroom on the farm; discussed how to fill our bellies on green plants – cattail, nettles, hogweed and ground elder. We didn’t go more than 100 metres off-site to see what a glorious time of year it is for wild food.
Finding is good, cooking and sampling, even better. Cathy had made hogweed quiches; everyone got to try some and it became an instant favourite. Nettle soup was an absolute winner, too.
Bardster turned the place into a hive of industry, inspiring all and sundry with his spoon-carving skills and his knowledge of bows. In between planned activities I witnessed many people finishing their own, often very first, spoons with pride.
For a further taste of the weekend, have a look at Huw’s blog entry.