Friction Fire Class- August 2nd, 2008

If you are in the area of Oregon Ridge Nature Center, you may be interested in a Fire Making Class I am teaching there . It will be from 9-5 on Saturday August 2nd, 2008. Registration is handled through Oregon Ridge Nature Center. Cost for the class is $80.00 per person and the minimum age requirement is 18 years of age. If you're interested in more classes such as this, or this class in particular, you can find more information at www.earth-connection.com or Oregon Ridge Nature Center

Ancestral Knowledge and Living Earth School

Lately I have begun my work with Ancestral Knowledge Inc., based out of Mt Rainier, Maryland. We work mostly with providing summer camps and workshops for home schooled kids, at risk youth, as well as schools and boy scout troops to teach ancient life ways, wilderness awareness, and sustainable living skills. Above all, we like to get the kids out in the woods and streams, learning by doing, and experiencing nature the way their ancestors have for eons. We operate mostly in the Mid-Atlantic area.

I also work for Living Earth School based out of Charlottesville, Virginia. Living Earth runs weeklong overnight and day camps.

Ancestral Knowledge Inc.:
http://www.ancestralknowledge.org

Living Earth School:
http://www.circleofseeds.com/LES.html

Here are some pictures from past events and Camps:

Demonstrating the bow drill with an over-sized set.

Making cordage

Oneof my favorite parts of spending time in the woods is discovering new and interesting places. This is an old Limestone Quarry, potentially over 100 deep.

Eastern Box Turtle

This is a print I am trying to identify. I could only find one. 5 toes, no claws visible. Don't tell me what it is if you know, simply give me a hint in the comment section or email it to me.

Improvised Bow Drill

Yesterday my friend and I were hiking in the nearby woods, and we decided to test her bow drill skills. It seems that everything that could pose a problem, did. First, finding adequate tinder, then her soapstone handhold was too soft, so the spindle had drilled almost all the way through at this point, then we realized the bow (with buckskin string) had been dropped somewhere in our travels. So we had to come up with some solutions to fix these problems and ultimately achieve fire.
First, a string for the bow. While I had a backup bow, we were testing her skills, not mine, as well as her equipment on hand. I was merely an observer in this. So after a moments thought, she produced a fine shoelace from her shoe, which served perfectly.
Next, tinder. We managed to locate a piece of bark with somewhat fibrous inner layer.
After giving the set a go, we found problems with the spindle, and realized the wooden spindle had actually bored deep enough into the stone that it was not spinning as freely as one would like, so we needed to find something to replace it, preferably without too much time needed. We weren't the first to visit this spot, and some others had seen this area as a good place to consume alcohol. As such, there was a few beer cans around, so why not try the bottom of a beer can? This worked rather well, surprisingly.
And so we were able to achieve an ember, and with some coaxing, a flame.

Above you can see the shoelace, beer can, and set used. The green coloured stone is the soapstone handhold.

Bamboo Fire Saw

I recently tried the Bamboo Fire Saw method of producing fire. I have not been instructed in this method, though I have seen pictures, videos, and read about the process.
There is a large stand of Bamboo next to a creek near here, so I made my way there to gather the necessary materials. I wanted to go into this endevour with the assumption that I did not have my bow drill set with me, nor tinder, so I gathered tinder along the way. I did have my stone knife, but I was reluctant to use it, since I was trying to produce and ember without the usual tools I have with me, or with no tools at all.
I hadn't been in this patch of Bamboo in quite awhile, and so I spent a bit of time exploring while I gathered materials I would need. There was a faint smell of skunk, as well as a pile of bird feathers (unsure what kind, they're grey and very common to find around here).

In this photo you can see a dark groove in the bamboo, thats where I was sawing away to produce some dust to form the ember. I did produce some dust, but it didn't collect very well. I did have some help from my friend, but we were unable to sustain the necessary endurance to get an ember.
After this attempt I did some research on the topic, and I found some great information on producing an ember with Bamboo in Russel Cutts' book, Wildfire: Fire Making Art. The method he illustrates is designed so that one person can do it. I plan on demonstrating that in this blog soon.
The method I attempted can be seen here (with success!)

Raccoon Pelt

I finally got around to finishing the raccoon pelt I scavenged in Virginia. I used the method described on braintan.com here. This is my first pelt that I actually brain tanned, as opposed to simply buffing it until its soft.

The bare spots are where the fur pulled out when I was fleshing it. It's not as soft as I would have liked, but it will do the job. Overall, it has a somewhat oily feel to it, I cant figure out if thats because of the brains or the pelt itself. Compared to other pelts I've done, and hides too, this one seems a little more oily than the others.

Here is the underside of the pelt. I still need to trim the edges, and smoke it to protect it from insects.
To apply the brains, I mixed it into a paste, then painted it onto the pelt, then folded it up and left it somewhere out of the sun and where animals couldn't get to it.

Glass-tipped Spear

Spears are some of the oldest weapons used by by humans, both for hunting and warfare. They are also what comes to mind when most people think of when they hear "primitive", "paleo", or "tribal". Though not necessarily the easiest of weapons to use, both on a day to day basis, or in an immediate survival situation, they are nonetheless a very versatile tool in the paleo arsenal.

This is really the meat of it. Without a good point, your lance or spear is just a pole. When is comes to putting the business end on your spear you can go two ways, either a stone/glass point (or some scavenged metal if your knapping skills leave something to be desired), or fire hardened tip. I find fire hardening to be a skill I have no yet mastered, as it takes a certain amount of intuition on my part to tell whether I am indeed fire hardening it, or simply burning it into charcoal. So being halfway decent with a rock and some glass, I settled on using knapped points for my spears. The points above are as follows: (left to right)

-Large glass point, I believe from an old window from an abandoned hospital I visited
-Obsidian point, Idaho, no notching
-Notched Obsidian point, very thin
-Raw Texas Chert point, small enough that it might be better suited for an arrow
-Bottle glass point, I really like this one, I was able to flute it on one side
-Raw Texas Chert point, the overall form of this one is very nice, quite a robust point. I used it as an atlatl dart point for awhile

I used pitch to hold the point in place, then wrapped it with sinew I had soaked in the nearby creek. I finished that off with a strip of rawhide to secure everything and protect the hafting. I used a beech sapling for the shaft.

The finished product. It's not as long as some spears can be, but I feel it's size suits the sometimes dense woodlands of the east coast.

I honour you Storm

Storm of Stoneage Skills has passed on from this world. It's hard to write anything here that can truly honour him to the fullest extent, I feel like the right words simply don't exist.
And so I would like to recognize him in this blog as a great teacher and as a true human.

May there always be good water, dry wood, and good food wherever you are.

You can view his blog here: http://stoneageskills.com/index.html