Month: March 2019

I went down a rabbit hole in the last month as I started to plan a winter camping trip with the kiddos. I think it started at 4 season tarps, continued to canvas tents, then to hot tenting (people put little wood burning stoves inside a canvas tent – mostly Canadians) and went to too making and this obscure corner of YouTube around “bushcraft”, which I never knew existed. From what I can tell, it’s modern men who fantasize about living like neolithic soloist in the “boreal” forests (it’s got to be boreal… the videos always mention that point).

My cursory analysis is that it’s a backlash against technology and being always connected … and scratches an itch about living in a sod hut in the forest hunting small game… or something. I’m not knocking it – it’s making me want to try my hand at subsistence farming in the boreal forest… somewhere.

Here’s a folding bow saw (for cutting firewood? I guess?). It’s hickory and finished with boiled linseed oil. The pieces fit together with a mortise and tenon on the long arm and the blade folds into a saw kerf in the handle.

I know I’m going to feel like a real frontiersman when I pull it out of my pack on a backpacking trip (I don’t even make campfires when I backpack).

Before I rounded it off and cut the curve on the cross brace:

Finished without the cord:

My youngest has been hanging out in the shop with me and we’ve been talking about projects.

She’s been sanding and asking me what kind of wood this is … what kind of wood that is… “smells like walnut”.

So I made her a small box. Maple milled to 1/4″ on the bandsaw, mitered and then keyed with walnut. Top is walnut with a carved finger pull.

I agonized over how to attach the pull. I didn’t want to use anything but wood, but was worried it would break off. So I predrilled and counter sunk 2 tiny screws. There’s a hairline crack on one side of the pull. I may take the screws out and in their place, epoxy a few bundled wooden toothpicks. Or just leave it and repair it if it breaks off.

But there is a spatula. I’ve been hanging out in the shop a lot this winter – making things that fit my fancy.

I cut it out of a block of maple in the scrap pile using the bandsaw. I really like the angle on the handle – feels good in the hand and it’s nicely balanced.